Bridge Players Trumped by Loss of Home
(07/16/2009) Bridge players in East Hampton were dismayed to learn that they will be ousted from their meeting place at the East Hampton
 Caren Nederlander |
Presbyterian Church at the height of their busiest season.
The Monday evening bridge games, draw as many as 60 people (with more on a waiting list) in July and August, according to Duke Morell, who organizes them. He said the club recently received a letter from the church explaining that the players would have to find a new spot by Aug. 1.
“It’s rather devastating, because we thought we were going to move into the new quarters,” he said, referring to the renovated Session House, which is to be dedicated on Sunday.
According to the letter, the church plans to use the space for its own activities — “which is their right,” Mr. Morell said. Neither his group nor the Thursday night bridge club led by Rose DeLeonardis, which is also being displaced, has a lease with the church.
“Our relationship with the bridge clubs was, it must be noted, meant to be a temporary arrangement from the very beginning,” the Rev. Tom Schacher said in an e-mail message. The groups had previously played at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, which has been undergoing renovations for an even longer time than the Presbyterian Church.
Mr. Morell said the club lost the St. Luke’s space three years ago. He is optimistic, he said, that it will be invited back when that renovation is completed.
For now, however, both clubs are scrambling to find a reasonably priced gathering place. “Of course this has been very upsetting for everybody,” said Caren Nederlander, who stopped by The Star on Tuesday to report the situation. “It’s really provided a lot of people a good social life. Last night there were about 14 tables of four, and it’s like that every week.”
“The bridge players are crazy, but they’re beautiful crazy,” Mr. Morell said. “It’s basically not a young crowd; it’s about 80 percent women. They go because it sharpens their minds — it’s competitive, and believe me when I say it’s competitive. I tell husbands and wives they should not play together.”
Players pay $7, which Mr. Duke donates to charity and which Ms. DeLeonardis keeps, making bridge an affordable activity for people on fixed incomes.
“What do you do at night? There’s only one movie theater in town,” Ms. Nederlander said.
Mr. Duke said he has tried to find a new home, but that other churches, the Jewish Center of the Hamptons, and the American Legion Hall are either already booked or else they charge more than the club can afford to pay.
Complicating the situation are the facts that it is bad bridge etiquette to change meeting days and also to encroach on other clubs’ territory. Games are played in Montauk and Southampton on other days, but Ms. Nederlander said that the Monday and Thursday games at the Presbyterian Church are the only night games in town.
“Either it’s a fee or they don’t have Mondays available, and we have to keep Monday, it’s kind of an unwritten law that, between here and Southampton, we don’t step on anybody’s toes,” Mr. Morell said.
He said he was concerned that the organizations his club supports, including food pantries, fire departments, and Project MOST, will share the pain.
In the summer, “the snowbirds come up and fill our tables and pay our fees,” which sustains a rather smaller club during the winter, Mr. Morell said.
While he hopes to find a new space soon, he said, it might not be so simple. “It takes a while. You can’t just say here we are, give us a kiss, you have to go door to door,” he said.
“We are now without a home,” he said. “Is there anybody out there with room on a Monday night who would take care of us?”