As originally envisioned, a separate beginner's game would allow newcomers to become familiar with the mechanics of Duplicate Bridge, without the stress of strict rules and director calls interfering with their learning. But now it seems to have become a separate club and is destroying the parent.

Originally, the newcomer masterpoint limit was just 0-20, and the Open game had strats of 0-300, 300-1000, and 1000+ or thereabout. But when the newcomer limit was raised to 299, many former Open pairs began playing in the newcomer game, even though they were not newcomers.

An effort was made to balance the strats after several pairs in the 300+ range no longer played because they often had an insufficient number of pairs to quality. Plus pairs with 200 points could earn MPs far easier (in the 299er game) than players with 400 could in the Open game.

I suggest the newcomers game be restricted to 0-20, and the Open game be restratified to give everybody a fair deal. Otherwise, the decline being seen in the Wednesday Open game will continue, and will spread to Tuesday, then Friday (apparently) and Monday.