Tap into the NAP
Arthur Moore can still remember the scene at
the Scope Convention Center in Norfolk VA in
March of 1979. Going into the final session of the
inaugural Grand National Pairs, Bart Bramley
approached Moore and his partner, Eric Robinson.
“You’re in position,” said Bramley, a fellow New
Englander who was also playing in the event. “Go
for it!”
Go for it they did, and the two emerged as the
first winners of what now is the North American
Pairs.
“We weren’t leading until the end,” Moore
recalls.
At the time of their victory, Moore and
Robinson lived in the Boston area. Now they are on
opposite sides of the continent - Robinson in
Scarsdale NY and Moore in Arcadia CA in the Los
Angeles area.
They haven’t played bridge together
in more than 20 years.
That does not lessen the exhilaration they both
remember from their first major victory —and it all
began at the club level.
New and improved
Twenty-five years later, the national event - which
has evolved into the NAP with three separate
flights is still a major attraction to grassroots
players.
Qualifying games for the new, improved
NAP are scheduled for your local club in June, July
and August this year.
To increase participation in the NAP, the ACBL
has reduced sanction fees to encourage clubs to
have more games and is allowing clubs to conduct
two NAP qualifying games per sanctioned session,
per flight.
That means more chances to qualify and
more opportunities to win masterpoints. Also, in the
unit final, any players who qualify may play with
any other qualified player in any unit in the district.
First-place district winners in each flight
receive three nights’ lodging and airfare subsidies
to the 2005 Spring NABC in Pittsburgh.
Second-place
pairs in the districts receive airfare subsidies.
Grass roots appeal
Back in 1978, Moore, 27, and Robinson, 22,
took their first steps by qualifying at a club in
Cambridge MA in District 25.
They survived the
unit and district finals, and by the time they and 103
other pairs sat down to play in the two-day GNP
final in Norfolk, more than 71,000 ACBL members
had competed for those coveted spots.
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Robinson, then studying government at Harvard University, was somewhat of a bridge prodigy, starting serious play at the age of 11. He had a few regional victories under his belt.
“In my high school and college years,”
Robinson recalls, “I played quite a bit.”
Moore, already a practicing attorney, won a national event before he won a regional, although he did have a couple of seconds.
Both players liked the idea of the grassroots format. “It was much more egalitarian,” says Moore, now a patent attorney. “It gave us the chance to win a national event - it wasn’t like trying
to win the Spingold.” Ironically, Moore came close to winning the Spingold, making it to the semifinal round at the 1990 Summer NABC in Boston, losing to the eventual winners.
Robinson remembers the excitement of vying for one of District 25’s six spots in the GNP final in 1979. “All the top pairs in New England were competing,” he says.
In the national final, the star-studded field would have intimidated many players. The finalists included luminaries such as Lou Bluhm, Mark Molson, Boris Baran, Sidney Lazard, Jim Jacoby, Bob Hamman, Charles Coon, Steve Becker, Chip Martel, Lew Stansby and a host of others.
Moore remembers approaching the national final with trepidation. After the first qualifying session, however, they realized they could compete with the stars. “It took a bit of getting over the jitters,” he says.
After the second final session, players weremilling about and waiting for the scores. Moore recalls thinking that a pair from District 12 had won. When he and Robinson were announced as the winners (by 4 matchpoints on a 25 top), Moore recalls, “We were in heaven.”
Robinson says the thrill of winning is still hard to describe. “It was more than masterpoints and glory,” he says.
Neither Moore nor Robinson plays a lot these days.
Both are busy with their careers. After he graduated from Harvard, Robinson earned an MBA and law degree from Yale University, and he now works for a New York City law firm.
Each heartily endorses the grassroots format and would recommend the NAP to anyone.
12 teams enter Junior
Collegiate tournament
So far 12 teams have entered the eighth annual
Junior Collegiate Team Championship that will be
played on OKbridge on April 3 and 4.
The event is
co-sponsored by ACBL, OKbridge and the Fifth
Chair Foundation.
The American teams entered are Harvard,
Princeton, Georgia Tech, Dartmouth, UCLA and
Michigan. The remainder of the field includes two teams
from Ankara, Turkey (Middle East Technical University
I and Middle East Technical University II; two teams
from Istanbul, Turkey (ITC anbd Bogazici), and two
teams from Singapore (NTU and NUS).
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Attendance still high
Total attendance to date is 6386 tables. Yesterday there were 1659 tables in play – 305 in the morning, 750 in the afternoon and 604 in the evening
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Attendees at Sunday’s ACBL Education Workshop included ACBL’s Director of Education Julie Greenberg, Dick Ellis of Kokomo IN, ACBL’s Education Field Coordinator Donna Compton, Leslie Pettie of Edmonton AB, and Den Motoyoshi of Spokane WA.
More than two dozen members gathered to hear ideas about membership recruitment and retention.
300 Teams
At some North American Championships there is an occasional session where fewer than 300 tables are in play.
Yesterday afternoon there were 300 tables in play – but that was just in the knock-outs! There were 32 teams in the Bracketed, 48 in the Seniors and 220 (!) in the Compact. |
Bridge caddies help make the game so much
nicer, but many players inadvertently make a
caddy’s job more difficult than it needs to be. Here
are some tips on how to be caddy-friendly:
• In pair games, make your completed score tickets
easily accessible. Many caddies prefer to
have the score tickets placed in the corner of
the table, while others like it left in the center
of the table sticking out partially from under-neath
the table card. Even better is simply to
ask your caddy where he or she would like you
to place the tickets In either case, however, it’s
much easier for the caddy to pick up the ticket
if you turn up a corner. Additionally, it’s helpful to be consistent in where you place the
completed tickets.
• In pair games, leave the caddy enough room to
walk down the row of tables. Players who sit
far back from the table make it difficult for the
caddy to negotiate a path through your section.
• In team games, it’s common for players to place
boards not currently in play on the floor.
However, at the end of the match (especially
the final match of the session), please return
the boards to the table. Don’t make the caddies
stoop over to pick up all the boards.
• Be respectful to the caddies, regardless of their
age. “Please” and “thank you” go a long way. |
