ON SPORTS: Bridge leagues thrive in county

What comes to mind when you hear the word "bridge?"

For many from Carlton County and northern Minnesota, it may bring visions of the beautiful Aerial Lift Bridge welcoming boats and ships to the Duluth harbor. Travelers perhaps dream of London Bridge or the Golden Gate Bridge. Old-time movie buffs recall actor and Academy Award winner Sir Alec Guinness in the classic "The Bridge on the River Kwai."

But for a select group of local individuals, it means already planning for getting back to competition and their next strategic move in a "bridge" card game.

To find out the local bridge news, I interviewed Cloquet resident and avid bridge player Warren Nelson.

Nelson learned how to play bridge from his dad, while relaxing as a teenager at Pelican Lake in Orr, Minn. in the 1950s. He continued to play in his fraternity while attending the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, and at his first job at the Gerber foods company. Later, Nelson was hired by the Potlatch paper mill in Cloquet as a chemical engineer, and continued his bridge growth by joining the Duluth Bridge Club.

Today, he still serves as president of that club and plays in Duluth a few days a week. He's bought and donated many books on the game to the Duluth club library and still subscribes to two bridge magazine publications. Nelson is ranked 57th out of 1,500 players ranked in the state of Minnesota.

"There is only one player in the state ranked higher than me north of St. Cloud," Warren said. He achieved status as a bridge Life Master in 1983.

Prior to digging into the history of the game, I pretty much pictured a card game played by aristocrats in England with the men wearing monocles and the women donning wigs and long fluffy gowns with matching gloves protecting their soft hands.

It is true that it was a game played by the privileged in Great Britain in the 17th century. It was originally called Whist. The game, as we know it today, was invented by American Harold Vanderbilt in 1925. It is a game played with a standard deck of 52 cards. Typically, it is played with partners with four at a table, with a player's partner directly across from them, and each dealt 13 cards.

There are, per Nelson, several informal bridge clubs in the Cloquet area playing in homes, as well as weekly games at the Cloquet Senior Center, which is attached to the hockey shelter. He suggested Pine Knot readers look at the Senior Center schedule for further details if interested.

Warren also said there are bridge tournaments across Minnesota and the nation that attract thousands of players seeking points toward their Life Master rank. He was playing at a three-day tourney sponsored by the Duluth club at Black Bear Casino Resort in Carlton Sept. 5-7, shortly after our interview.

I asked Warren about competitive bridge demeanor and he said that, unlike some other sports, there are some givens such as "no extraneous chatter, no disrespectful language, and no excessive cheering."

Since its inception in the 1920s, the game continues to be popular with countless newspapers (including the Duluth News Tribune) still offering daily bridge hands for their readers with suggested plays or options. In the "old days," folks even dressed up for tourneys.

I also questioned Nelson on the average age of players in the region and he guessed it to be about 70, but he said Ben Kristensen of Duluth, who is 21, won an international event. (Ben is a prodigy.)

There are players who find sponsors and make bridge their full-time career. Holland teaches bridge in its public schools. Iceland, a country of 300,000, has won the world championship. Other hotbeds for the game include Poland, France, Germany, Brazil, Turkey, Israel, Norway, and now China ... it is definitely a world game.

Warren said that as with golf or any other sport, some individuals are just lucky, with an innate, natural, or born ability. A person can develop, read, and practice their interest in a sport and improve, but some levels (gold, platinum, or emerald Life Masters) may just be unattainable. But we must try.

Per the Bicycle playing card company: Bridge combines elements of mental stimulation, luck, and socializing that are hard to find in other games so cheap and easy to play.