Cribbage, anyone?

There's a organization known as the Tidewater 29ers Cribbage Club that has been playing the game for almost 50 years. Although the weekly get-togethers are currently held in Norfolk, there is a strong Portsmouth connection.

When the club was organized, back in the '50s, it started in Cradock.

"We had the original one in Cradock and it was called the Cradock Cribbage Club," recalls Russell Cummings, 82, of Portsmouth. "It was back in the 1950s, easily. We put an ad in the paper and got about 20 people, or more than that."

In those days, the club was made up of folks who simply liked to play cribbage, without much thought given to playing in tournaments.

"It wasn't nationally sanctioned," explains Marvin Lewis, 50, of Chesapeake. "In 1990, we submitted an application (to the American Cribbage Congress) and became sanctioned as Grass Roots Club No. 117 and the name was the Tidewater 29ers."

No one is exactly sure when the name changed but most believe it was sometime around 1980.

"It was the 29ers before we became a Grass Roots Club," recalls Earl Luton, 79, a farmer from Elizabeth City, North Carolina. "I'm sure it's been at least 20 years."

Puzzled by the name? If you're a cribbage player, you wouldn't be.

"The reason for the name," says Tom Jacobs, 66, of Chesapeake, and the club's former director, "is that 29 is the perfect hand in cribbage."

Cribbage is the fastest growing game in America according to the ACC, organized in Raleigh, North Carolina, in 1979. Approximately 100 state, regional, and national one-day and two-day tournaments are held every year.

The local club's grass roots status, however, requires a word or two of explanation.

"With all the sanctioned tournaments going on around the country," says Glenn Gregoire, 60, or Virginia Beach, and the club's current director, "we had large numbers of people working who couldn't go 100 miles to play in a tournament to earn master rating points.

"So the ACC set up a separate system, the Grass Roots Program, for people who can't travel."

Although separate from the point system used at tournaments, players at the grass roots level still earn rating points and, according to Gregoire, are eligible to play in tournaments.

The Tidewater 29ers' weekly sessions are each considered a Grass Roots tournament.

"We're nationally sanctioned," says Lewis. "The number, 117, is assigned by that national organization, the ACC."

There are, according to Jacobs and the ACC, over 250 clubs nationwide, with over 7,000 members.

For awhile, the local club's members played cribbage at two locations, alternating weeks.

"We stayed in Cradock until about seven or eight years ago," says Bob Moore, 62, of Virginia Beach. "We used to play at the Fleet Reserve Association in Ocean View, in Norfolk, every other Wednesday."

"It was the same group that played there," adds Gregoire. "The group at Cradock played every two weeks and some started playing alternate weeks at the Fleet Reserve Association."

"We continued to play biweekly for a long time," says Luton.

In the mid-'90s, the 29ers decided to find a central location to hold all of their weekly meetings. They settled on the Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4809, located on Bartee Street, near Military Circle Shopping Mall, in Norfolk. The post has plenty of space for the weekly games and is the largest VFW post in Virginia, according to Jacobs.

"It was in 1995, that we consolidated here," says Moore, "and we've been players, five will get something back. It's 25 percent. And it's a 100 percent payout of the prize money."

"We have a door prize every night," adds Gregoire. "Through the door prize, donations to charities designated by the VFW are made. We made several donations in the last year."

The game of cribbage was invented in England by Sir John Suckling around 1635. A knight and a poet, he led an interesting life - his biography is available on the ACC's website - and enjoyed a reputation as a gambler and a womanizer.

Apparently a bit of a rake and a roué, he knew a good game of cards when he saw it, however.

Members who turn out to play at the 29ers weekly meetings generally lead more prosaic lives than the game's inventor. Their occupations include "everything you can possibly imagine," says Jacobs.

There are federal and municipal employees, active duty military, teachers, sales and insurance people, construction workers, a farmer, a letter carrier, and a retired pattern maker. Approximately 75 percent are still employed and 25 percent are retired.

"There are a lot of retired Navy people," says Lewis, "because it's a big Navy game."

Members range in age from their mid-20s to their early 80s, with the median age probably around 50, according to Gregoire. Approximately 20 percent of the members are women.

"You'll notice in the book (on cribbage) that the game was conceived for gentlemen," says Cummings, laughing, "but we allow ladies to come in and play.

"I don't think ladies played cards 300 years ago."

"We're looking for more women," says Rosemary Glendon Jr., 39, of Virginia Beach.

The club is governed by a director, a statistician, and a three-member ethics committee. All are appointed for as long as they are willing to serve, at which time other members are asked to take on the responsibilities.

At tournaments, where the majority of players are retired, according to Moore, you'll find a lot of professional people, including doctors and lawyers. At a major tournament in Reno, Nevada, this year, there were 1,092 players. First place prize was $10,000.

"The bigger the tournaments," says Lewis, "the bigger the payout."

"In the big tournaments, members bring their teenage children and grandchildren."

"You ought to see the people," adds Moore, "who come to tournaments with their wheelchairs and oxygen."

Such is the lure of the game.

The club does schedule one social event a year: a picnic in early June.

"We have a summer outing," says Moore, "at a member's home in Virginia Beach. Everybody brings a dish and we have enough food to fee the sixth fleet if they'd attend."

The 29ers also sponsor three cribbage tournaments each year, all held at the Holiday Inn - Olde Towne in Portsmouth. The Portside Open Stan Daniels Memorial Tournament will be held this year on Oct. 6-8. The Holiday Pegging Classic Tournament is scheduled for Dec. 8-10. And the Ed Horigan Memorial Tournament will take place Feb. 16-18, 2001.

Lewis is the club's tournament director.

"All play is non-smoking," points out Moore. "They used to have a smoking room in Reno (at the tournament there) but they stopped it about three or four years ago."

Adds Jacobs: "I don't think any tournaments allow smoking anymore."

What is it about the game that attracts such dedicated players?

"I just love to play cribbage," explains Luton. "It's a good, fast moving game. It only takes 12 to 15 minutes to play a game.

Anybody can just have fun playing. I've been playing about 30 years."

"I started playing when I was eight," says Glendon. "At 24, I told my mother I was sick of playing with her. 'Why don't they have any tournaments?,' I asked. Three weeks later, I went to her house for dinner and she'd cut out an article from the newspaper about a tournament in Portsmouth.

"I called Russell Cummings and said I knew how to play but didn't know if I was good enough for tournaments. Russell came by my office and we played three games. I beat him in all three. He said I was good enough."

The club is open to anyone with an interest in playing cribbage.

This article came from Portsmouth Living, in the Friday, August 18, 2000 issue.