St. Armands Key Lutheran Church starts bridge group

St. Armands Key Lutheran Church is hoping to bridge the gap between experienced card players and amateurs with their new bridge group, led by member and certified director Peter Cleaves. 

The group of a dozen players met for the first time on Aug. 19 and after Cleaves took the time to explain the rules of the more formal version of the game, he stood back and let his players go to work. Of course, he was always nearby just in case of confusion. 

“They always say about bridge, the more you learn, the more you realize how little you know,” Cleaves said. 

Cleaves was in charge of three tables on Aug. 19, a far cry from the times he commanded a room of 20 or 30 tables. Throughout his years as a bridge director, he’s led games on cruise ships and at the Bird Key Yacht Club during the winter. When church leaders approached him about starting a group at SAKLC, he accepted gladly. 

“This is our first stab at it, so I’m trying to do everything I can to get organized play rolling,” Cleaves said. 

The players gathered at the first game were largely amateurs, though a couple more experienced players came in the forms of Jim Freeman and Roberta Shander. Another table had a group of players playing the more formal version of the game for the first time. 

“We’re party bridge people,” Kathy Rylander said. “This is new because we’re not used to the contract bridge experience.”