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McKinney bridge club doubles membership in 3 months
Chris Beattie/Staff photo - (From left) McKinney Duplicate Bridge Club members Bill Lancaster, Kay Lantrip and John Harrelson play the early stages of their bridge game Thursday morning at The Salvation Army in McKinney. The club, which started in September 2012, has nearly doubled its membership.
By Chris Beattie, cbeattie@starlocalnews.com
It's a thinking person's game. It's challenging. And it's quickly converging on McKinney.
McKinney Duplicate Bridge Club (MDBC), which started Sept. 13, 2012 with 60 members, has since nearly doubled to 112 members. As many as 60 players - good for 15 bridge tables - have turned up for a single session.
"We have 112 members, but there are probably twice as many people in McKinney who play regularly and just haven't joined yet," said club member John Harrelson. "There's a pen of demand in the people who play competitive games who used to have to go as far away as Plano and Richardson. Now, with a center point in McKinney, it can draw from all over."
McKinney's club is part of Unit 16 - the Dallas area - and meets every Thursday for almost four hours at The Salvation Army off Wilson Creek Parkway. The facility's gym is their arena, sided by a kitchen for coffee and refreshments.
Dorsey Shaw-Hensel, longtime bridge instructor and owner of Dorsey's Bridge Studio in Richardson, is their director and constant teacher. She handles table disputes - "sometimes bridge players can get a little bit serious," says MDBC President Melba Lancaster. And she ensures a smooth flow of table interchanges.
"Being director is a very complex job," Harrelson said. "Very few people can do it."
Fortunately for MDBC members, it's done gracefully. Shaw-Hensel, who's owned several bridge studios over the years and has other weekly visits to Dallas and Mesquite clubs, doesn't put up with intimidation.
"It's a real friendly group," Lancaster said. "We've had some of the nicest compliments because people want to come in and learn, and they've got a wonderful group to do that with."
Members come from McKinney, Allen, Frisco, Plano and Fairview, the latter home to the second-biggest draw. They compete in duplicate bridge, a popular variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play during which the same deal (a specific arrangement of 52 cards into four hands) is played at each table.
Competitive games are played weekly in Plano and almost daily in Dallas, Richardson and Denton, members said. Northern Collin County players no longer have to commute. They come to McKinney for a sanctioned game at a low cost. While most clubs charge $10, some $12, for games, MDBC charges $6.
The charge is $7 one Thursday each month, but the extra money goes toward a charity. The ACBL lets the club choose its charity some months, and picks it other months. And at charity games, players can earn double master points - highly coveted in the bridge world.
Several members volunteer their extra time with Salvation Army programs, and members bring canned foods for the ministry every week. "It's a symbiotic relationship," Harrelson said.
Shaw-Hensel also teaches weekly, two-hour lessons that focus on bridge conventions and are designated by skill level.
The average age of club members is around 70 years old - not uncommon for what's sometimes deemed an old-timers' game - but young people aren't lost on its benefits or on the club. Students learning bridge at Austin College sometimes play with the MDBC.
Shaw-Hensel puts on bridge summer camps for players 9 to 15 years old, and said a world-renowned bridge player is in his mid-20s. But she admitted bridge is "losing young people to electronic games."
The ACBL reported that its members' average age is 67, evidenced at the McKinney club. Most important, Shaw-Hensel says, is simply exposing young people to bridge.
"We find that the students who need more mental stimulation will take on bridge," she said. "Not too many dumb people play bridge very long."
Regardless of age, more people every week are playing in McKinney, where games expand and friendships develop.
Contentment and fellowship is masked only by the game's swift silence. By the thinking person.
"Once you play bridge, everything else pales by comparison," Shaw-Hensel said. "There is strategy, there's interaction with people and you change opponents. You're constantly being challenged."
For more information on the club, visit mckinneyduplicatebridge.net.
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