Wish there were more young female players
dallying
like there's a large absence of young female bridge players. I'm the
only female younger than 30 where I play. Everyone's nice but it gets
frustrating sometimes because of the lack of people to play with. Most
people have established partners or don't want to play with me becaue
I'm fairly new. It gets discouraging.
When the club does get new members, they're usually young men from the
university who prefer to play with other guys. Maybe they just like to
play with someone from their own gender, but I can't help feeling bad.
I'd hate to think that they don't play with me because I'm female.
Hopefully that's not the case. While I'm a novice, I don't think I play
any worse than any other novice.
I'd like to know if the situation is prevalent in other parts of the
country.
Gerben Dirksen
> like there's a large absence of young female bridge players.
Also of young male players.
> I'm the
> only female younger than 30 where I play. Everyone's nice but it gets
> frustrating sometimes because of the lack of people to play with. Most
> people have established partners or don't want to play with me becaue
> I'm fairly new. It gets discouraging.
>
> When the club does get new members, they're usually young men from the
> university who prefer to play with other guys. Maybe they just like to
> play with someone from their own gender, but I can't help feeling bad.
> I'd hate to think that they don't play with me because I'm female.
> Hopefully that's not the case. While I'm a novice, I don't think I play
> any worse than any other novice.
I hope that's not the case, if so you should be glad you are not
playing with them. I
know I for one like to play with players of my age (26 at the moment),
male or female.
> I'd like to know if the situation is prevalent in other parts of the
> country.
Where are you? This seems to be the case in most places, except the
Netherlands where there is a special training program for this group of
players.
Gerben
Mark
play at in Toronto (Hart House) has many people under 30 (around 15),
including 4 women.
- Mark
jrw
this, when a young women enters a bridge club, she is usually booked
out for months. This is London, so things might be slightly different
here. I have played bridge in the states, and to be honest I do not
think I have ever seen a women under 30 playing.
Frances
dallying wrote:
Weird. Are all the men gay?
Sadly I'm not longer under 30 but when I was at university and there
were both men and women around, all the women had plenty of partners.
In fact, with one exception, all the women ended up attached to male
bridge players (not all of them permanently, but there were quite a few
bridge marriages of which I am one example).
Mephistopheles Jones
just turned thirty, and we are usually the youngest players. However,
we put an ad on Craigslist (Activity Partners section) and got
responses from two women who we statrted to play with socially. If you
have a tolerance for beginners, and you live in a big city, you might
try Craigslist.
Tamuel
"jrw" <jrwi...@gmail.com> skrev i meddelandet
news:1144362547....@i39g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> In my experience, and I feel quite a few players here will confirm
> this, when a young women enters a bridge club, she is usually booked
> out for months. This is London, so things might be slightly different
> here. I have played bridge in the states, and to be honest I do not
> think I have ever seen a women under 30 playing.
In Sweden we've had a number of highly successful young women. Quite
recently, the national Champion (in mixed pairs) was a 14-year-old girl.
dallying
Frances wrote:
> Weird. Are all the men gay?
> Sadly I'm not longer under 30 but when I was at university and there
> were both men and women around, all the women had plenty of partners.
> In fact, with one exception, all the women ended up attached to male
> bridge players (not all of them permanently, but there were quite a few
> bridge marriages of which I am one example).
>
> >
> > I'd like to know if the situation is prevalent in other parts of the
> > country.
They're not all gay. I'm just worried that some of the guys harbor the
opinion that men play better bridge than women. Or perhaps I'm reading
too much into this.
Brian Baresch
>like there's a large absence of young female bridge players.
Heck, I'm a bit over 40 and I don't see many female bridge players my
age.
>I'm the
>only female younger than 30 where I play. Everyone's nice but it gets
>frustrating sometimes because of the lack of people to play with. Most
>people have established partners or don't want to play with me becaue
>I'm fairly new. It gets discouraging.
I understand that!
>When the club does get new members, they're usually young men from the
>university who prefer to play with other guys.
They can see that men and women approach competitive endeavors
differently (in general -- there are always exceptions). The guys
probably prefer to play with someone whose level of competitiveness
approaches their own, or who they're comfortable with, or just with
someone they already know from the dorm or frat. A bit more maturity
will make it easier for them to adjust to playing with young women as
well, but college-age people are very much works in progress.
At least that's my guess.
Perhaps you could approach them, or chat when you're at their table,
and mention offhandedly that there don't seem to be many young
partners available for you. One of them will likely get the hint.
--
Brian P. Baresch
Fort Worth, Texas, USA
Professional editing and proofreading
If you're going through hell, keep going. --Winston Churchill
Peter Leighton
"dallying" <dall...@msn.com> wrote in message
news:1144304446.6...@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Not sure how it is in other bridge clubs around the U.S., but it seems
> like there's a large absence of young female bridge players. I'm the
> only female younger than 30 where I play.
There aren't any players younger than 30 where I play ftf.
I think what younger players there are play online.
Peter
Carl F. Prenner
> like there's a large absence of young female bridge players. I'm the
> only female younger than 30 where I play. Everyone's nice but it gets
> frustrating sometimes because of the lack of people to play with. Most
> people have established partners or don't want to play with me becaue
> I'm fairly new. It gets discouraging.
> country.
>
games are scheduled during work-week days and not at night. Thus, only
retired persons (or those independently wealthy, is there a difference?) can
"get away" for the day games. The young folks are in school or at work. Ugh!
That still leaves weeknights and weekends for the younger set, but they have
homework and other interests that tug harder at their leisure hours. As a
senior citizen bridge novice, I would welcome the chance to play, partner
with, and learn with a 20 or 30's person (male or female).
For some reason (I've never broached our club manager on the subject), our
local clubs do not have an active match-up program for unattached players.
We are on our own to find partners, especially those on a long term basis
where you can establish a finesse in understanding each other's bids and
play. As a TD, I probably would also try to stay out of the matching
programs, and keep my headaches down to some manageable level.
I equate bridge and dancing when it comes to partners. You look and perform
better with the same partner time after time; however, it is many times more
stimulating and challenging to have a different face and persona across from
you and test your real level of competence. And you become a more "compleat"
player and dancer.
Harold Simon
My experience in your category of interest :-) is in the USA and from years
ago. The young female players were almost always in the beginner/novice
section of local sectionals. One could befriend such a lady and, of course,
propose a bridge date realizing that if an experienced player "plays down"
with the novices, any masterpoints earned would not be credited to you.
The play was always excruciatingly slow as these beginners suffered over what
to do. Hmm, sounds just like the experts. Socially, though, the people were
very friendly. I recall once pulling off a gambit (sacrificing one trick to
gain two later) and the other three players had no idea this was happening.
In college, there were also young people playing bridge but I was too busy
working and studying and found my dates in other venues. In the parts of the
USA where I lived as a young man, there were no bridge clubs which provided
"in-house" activities-only duplicate sessions under the auspices of the ACBL.
As players became experienced and competitive, they would participate in these
but, of course, by then they were older.
Good luck in your journey.
Hal
jsher
put you in touch with some bridge playing young women from your area (I
don't know many novices, but my friends might)...
Josh
ewleo...@hotmail.com
Older female players are just fine.
Eric Leong
ste...@aol.com
players." When I played actively (while I was in high school), I was
almost always the youngest player in the club or tournament. I then
took a 30-year break from the game. I'm back playing a bit now, and
I'm STILL the youngest player when I play in the local clubs (in Los
Angeles). It's really sad to think back to when I was playing
regularly, and the tournaments were 6 to 10 times the size that they
are today (Open Pairs events with 15 to 20 full sections, compared to 2
or 3 sections today), and players of college- and just-past-college-age
everywhere you looked. This game is going to die in the U.S. if the
ACBL doesn't do something to generate more interest.
Keith Sheppard
>>like there's a large absence of young female bridge players.
"female" from the above sentence. I am seriously worried about the lack of
young players of any description and wonder if there will be local bridge
clubs and a local league in ten years time.
The youngest player in my club is 45 (I was surprised to learn - he looks
much younger). I myself, at 55, am one of the youngest. The majority are
retired. This recruitment problem is not confined to bridge. My wife's
badminton club is suffering similar problems. The local bridge league has
shrunk from six or seven divisions a decade ago to just four this season and
it's still shrinking. The local tennis and badminton leagues are moving in
the same direction.
I think bridge comes off worse because it is still perceived as being a game
for middle class, middle aged fogeys by many unfamiliar with the game. I
still recall a line from a past series of the UK TV series "Teachers" - one
of the said teachers is sitting in the pub drowning her sorrows at having
achieved the ripe old age of 30. "God!" she remarks to her colleagues,
"Thirty. Is that it? Next thing you know, I shall start wearing slippers
and playing bridge." Cheap laugh, or accurate representation of the public
perception of bridge?
My take is that young people are not interested in organised club activities
of any description. Their lives are much too busy and what little leisure
time they do have seems to revolve around clubs of the flashing lights and
loud music variety, rather than those devoted to sports or games.
I have two (allegedly) grown up children, neither of whom have ever shown
the slightest interest in any form of organised sport or recreation.
Regards
Keith
Jennifer Lin
>players."
>My take is that young people are not interested in organised club
>activities of any description.
I am a 23 year old female bridge player in the ACBL, the youth
representative on the Board for the Northern Virginia Bridge Association,
and on the Youth and Education Committee for District 6.
I always hear comments about how great it would be to have more young
people playing bridge. However, their words are not reflected in their
actions.
The US Junior programs are very underfunded. Bridge is an expensive hobby.
Rather than fund the current juniors who are already addicted and will go
to tournaments no matter how much debt they go into, I am a constant
lobbier to get new young players funded.
The ACBL College tournament is a great vehicle for getting new young
people into tournament bridge. This is an online tournament run by the
ACBL. The prize for the top two teams in each region to win this
tournament, is an expense paid trip to the summer NABC that year. For many
juniors, this is their first NABC. Without the expense paid trip, they
would've never gone. After going once, they learn how fun it is and it's
not their last NABC either. However, being able to give out expense paid
trips is costly and cannot be done without your support.
Junior Bridge Camp is another great event for hooking juniors into the
game. However, the USBF has really been struggling with donations to the
junior program to fund US juniors to participate in this event. Bridge
Camp is opened to juniors of all levels from the multiple time world
champions to the extreme novice who only just learned how to count high
card points. At bridge camp, juniors are not allowed to play with regular
partners and are forced to mingle and learn from each other. It also
provides a fun atmosphere where young players can see that there are
other young players out there which is a big motivation. Unfortunately,
camp this year is in Slovakia, making it very expensive to get out there.
The USBF is funding the camp fees which includes entry fees, lodging, and
food, however juniors have to provide for their own plane tickets.
Certain districts have offered to help their juniors with this. I
encourage all districts to do this, and further encourage individuals to
sponsor one junior who has never been to camp before.
All donations to the USBF and ACBL are tax deductible. Many districts have
an Educational Foundation which donations to are also tax deductible.
Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in contributing to
spreading the game to more young people. I have information on how to
donate, or if you would rather sponsoring an individual junior, I can also
give you profiles on possible juniors who you may want to sponsor.
Thank you and see you at the tables.
Jenny Lin
E-mail: dyl...@cmu.edu
BridgeBase ID: dylena
PS - Do not use the e-mail address this post was posted from. E-mails will
bounce from that address.
Andrew
Rather than look for young female players, you might instead look for a
commodity that is plentiful supply in the bridge world, namely,
middle-aged, balding, over-weight guys with glasses and a distinct lack
of fashion flair. What's that you say? That wasn't what you were
looking for??? ;->
Andrew
Andrew
While it may be fashionable to blame the ACBL for the woeful lack of
young people in American Bridge, I think we should put the blame
squarely where it really belongs: on the 2 young woman under 30
currently playing bridge in the United States.
Some may find my point of view curious, so let me explain. The ACBL has
a plethora of middle-aged men with all the corresponding personality
and hygiene quirks who salivate at the sight of any woman under 50 at a
bridge tournament (or for that matter within 10 miles of the playing
site). These men waste no chance to glom onto any unfortunate female
who seems to be alone for a microsecond, driving most of them to the
safety of their hotel room or to seek solace in a bar. This sad state
of affairs greatly discourages novice players and drives young women
from the game we love.
So why is this fault of these 2 young woman? Well if they would do
their part and play bridge with some of the aforementioned gross
middle-aged guys, that would mean two less letches cruising the playing
sites. What is more, they might be able to demand certain minor
behavior changes (regular showers, haircuts, shirts that extend over
bellies, etc.) which could reduce the grossness factor to a degree. As
you see, it is upto these ladies to do their part to making our game a
more hospitable place for young women.
When this change occurs, more young woman will naturally be drawn to
the game and they will in turn attract a large supply of young men.
Thus by the simple expedient of neutralizing male grossness, we can
begin a gross roots movement to save our game.
So I appeal to you ladies to get to work. You are not doing it for
yourselves, or even for your gross male partners, but think of the
other women who will be able to breathe without experiencing malodorous
breathe and grimy spectacles impinging into their personal space
accompanied by a grimy paw and a booming voice saying, "Hi, I am Sol,
what are you doing after the session?"
When you think about it, its not just the bridge world that will be
improved its the entire society.
Andrew (with his tongue planted firmly in cheek)
Mike Bell
> Junior Bridge Camp is another great event for hooking juniors into the
> game. However, the USBF has really been struggling with donations to the
> junior program to fund US juniors to participate in this event. Bridge
> Camp is opened to juniors of all levels from the multiple time world
> champions to the extreme novice who only just learned how to count high
> card points. At bridge camp, juniors are not allowed to play with regular
> partners and are forced to mingle and learn from each other. It also
> provides a fun atmosphere where young players can see that there are
> other young players out there which is a big motivation. Unfortunately,
> camp this year is in Slovakia, making it very expensive to get out there.
> The USBF is funding the camp fees which includes entry fees, lodging, and
> food, however juniors have to provide for their own plane tickets.
> Certain districts have offered to help their juniors with this. I
> encourage all districts to do this, and further encourage individuals to
> sponsor one junior who has never been to camp before.
Yes, I've been told by many that the junior camps are fantastic, but I
don't think I can get any funding at all - it would cost $750 just for
the entry fees and accommodation for the pairs and camp. I can't really
complain though, because in every other respect the EBU has been very
good at providing funding.
Adam Lea
"Keith Sheppard" <keith.s...@tesco.net> wrote in message
news:SdO_f.17731$ic1....@newsfe5-win.ntli.net...
As a 28 yr old playing in SE England I can give you my situation. I've been
playing for about seven years now and hope to move into the higher echelons
of the game. I try and collect the green points in the various congresses.
The problem for me is that I have reached a certain stage and I don't feel I
am getting any better. I can't seem to get games with the better players
because they are all busy with their other top partners so wouldn't give me
the time of day. To add to this there is the problem of not being able to
get a strong game of bridge without having to travel large distances. It is
very frustrating to play at local clubs and end up in a good slam going off
when the room is playing in game or having to defend 4CX, taking it one off
and finding the room has played in 2S my way. Sometimes I wonder if I should
just forget it and just play socially, but I keep plugging away. There is
simply nothing available to help me get up to an expert standard. I don't
know how many others are in my situation.
Adam
Keith Sheppard
>>The US Junior programs are very underfunded. Bridge is an expensive hobby.
I don't dispute this last statement but I am constantly mystified as to why
it should be so. It really ought to be one of the cheapest. You don't need
a lot of equipment, just a large room, some tables and chairs and a supply
of boards with playing cards. A computer for scoring is nice but not
essential.
The club on whose committee I serve actually lives up to this. Our annual
membership fee is around a fiver with one pound fifty table money for each
session. For the American audience, I guess that translates into around
seven dollars annually plus a couple of dollars to play. It's hardly going
to break the bank.
I am also on the local league committee. We organise an annual pairs
tournament for league players. Admittedly my company lends out the playing
venue free of charge but we manage to cover all our overheads (including
paid TD and light refreshments) out of two pounds per head table money.
Even if you factor in the cost of a local hall, it's not going to do more
than, say, double it to four pounds.
I am therefore constantly surprised by the cost of other local EBU
competitions. These are normally in the range of ten to twenty pounds a
head, sometimes more. Why? Where does all that money go?
Even the local badminton seem to be able to organise competitions much more
cheaply than the bridge lot - yet you would have thought their overheads
were higher. They have to hire a sports hall for a start. The only extra
you get in a bridge tournament is (usually) some sort of refreshments but I
would happily dispense with that. It's rarely much to write home about.
The only significant difference I can see between bridge and badminton
tournaments is that the badminton organisers seem to be able to get
volunteers to do the scoring, umpiring etc. Non playing bridge tournament
directors seem to expect to be paid. I wonder how much responsibility that
must bear for the high cost.
OK, I tried hard to resist it but I'll have one last dig. Perhaps the
reason bridge TDs want to be paid is that they need to recoup the huge cost
of getting an EBU TD qualification. If you take all the courses, it's well
over a hundred quid. Last time I investigated, there didn't seem to be much
scope for those of us who have learned "on the job" to be allowed to skip
the training and just take the exam.
EBU membership is also more expensive. I think my renewall this year was
just over twenty pounds compared with less than fifteen for individual
membership of the Badminton Association of England. I know neither sum is
huge, but why does the bridge governing body have to charge a third more? I
do sometimes wonder if it's that upper/middle class reputation the game has
in this country. Perhaps the EBU simply expects its members to be more
wealthy.
Keith
Chris Ryall
>And you become a more "compleat" player and dancer.
Keep collecting the points and you'll eventually make it to Compleat
Dancing Master
ref: J Walsh The Compleat Country Dancing Master (London, 1718 :))
--
Chris Ryall Wirral UK <cjr...@my.domain>
Phil
dallying wrote:
> . . .it seems
> like there's a large absence of young female bridge players. I'm the
> only female younger than 30 where I play.
The genetic abnormality responsible for bridge playing is normally
passed down along the Y chromosome, except in rare cases due to
misrecombinance of the IH-1 {A,2} secondary protonucleon stream, such
as in your case. sorry. :(
ewleo...@hotmail.com
A
young
female player
is hardly
noticable
bridge-wise
unless
of course,
she doubles
you.
Eric Leong
David Stevenson
That's simple: some do, some don't. I know that's not helpful, but
it's a fact. You may find some men who will not play with you because
they think men are better, but there should also be plenty of men who
will play with you because they like women and/or they think women play
as well as them and/or it's a social game and/or whatever.
In most of England/Wales the problem is that there are very few young
people in clubs, men or women. I am playing tonight in a North Wales
teams where I partner each of the other team-mates in turn. One of them
has to be female, and I could not believe my ears when our captain told
us he had found a young lady to play with us - my guess at her age would
be 28 or so - but not because she is female: I know of *no* other bridge
player in North Wales who is younger than 38 or so!
Incidentally, one of her claims to fame is she has played in the
Australian Open Pairs [I think it was] with Kieran Dyke! My only claim
to fame where the Australian Open Pairs is concerned is that I have
directed it!
--
David Stevenson Bridge RTFLB Cats Railways /\ /\
Liverpool, England, UK Fax: +44 870 055 7697 @ @
<bri...@blakjak.com> ICQ 20039682 bluejak on OKB =( + )=
Bridgepage: http://blakjak.com/brg_menu.htm ~
David Stevenson
> In most of England/Wales the problem is that there are very few young
>people in clubs, men or women. I am playing tonight in a North Wales
>teams where I partner each of the other team-mates in turn. One of
>them has to be female, and I could not believe my ears when our captain
>told us he had found a young lady to play with us - my guess at her age
>would be 28 or so - but not because she is female: I know of *no* other
>bridge player in North Wales who is younger than 38 or so!
920 down after 12 boards, 980 down after 24, 450 up after 36!
Woo-hoo, another national final!!
Barry Rigal
"David Stevenson" <bri...@nospam.demon.co.uk> wrote in message
news:$65gcLSY...@post.demon.co.uk...
> David Stevenson wrote
> > In most of England/Wales the problem is that there are very few young
> >people in clubs, men or women. I am playing tonight in a North Wales
> >teams where I partner each of the other team-mates in turn. One of
> >them has to be female, and I could not believe my ears when our captain
> >told us he had found a young lady to play with us - my guess at her age
> >would be 28 or so - but not because she is female: I know of *no* other
> >bridge player in North Wales who is younger than 38 or so!
>
> 920 down after 12 boards, 980 down after 24, 450 up after 36!
> Woo-hoo, another national final!!
Have you thought of setting up an Anglesey or Isle of Man event --that might
get you to some more National Finals (or Rockall I suppose -- if you are
really looking for independent states?) :)
Barry
Chris Ryall
>Have you thought of setting up an Anglesey or Isle of Man event --that
>might get you to some more National Finals (or Rockall I suppose -- if
>you are really looking for independent states?) :)
> Barry
I hear Tristan da Cunha is advertising for a chief TD.
They even use Orange book regs!