Tuesday, July 28, 2009

The Ages of Bridge

As I remarked when this article came out, bridge has an image as an old person's game -- and a pretty well-deserved image it is, too. I'm considered a whippersnapper at the National Bridge Championships currently going on in Washington DC -- most of the players are in their 60s or older.

That's why it was so specially delightful to play against two young brothers in yesterday's game, and when I say young, it turns out they were nine and twelve. They were so cute! They played very fast and liked to help pass the boards from one table to the next.

And guess what -- in the first session of play, they had an excellent game. They finished at nearly 62% (non-bridge players, take my word for it, that's a very good score) and were tied for second in the overall event (out of 104 pairs participating). Hot stuff for anyone, especially for kids that age! They didn't do so well in the second session, but this pair is obviously going to go places in the world of bridge real soon.

Maybe there's hope for bridge after all -- I've been worried that the game will die out for lack of new players, but there are at least some younger folks still getting started.

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