ACC Internet Cribbage

Van Dyke still in the lead

	The Top Ten	IRPs	Ts
1.	Mark Van Dyke	524	64
2.	Donald Olney	453	47
3.	Scott Buhrow	416	40
4.	John Schafer	408	52
5.	Charles Rodgers	396	52
6.	Tom Lewis	390	48
7.	Kelly Ann Burgar	373	56
8.	Mike Fetchel	363	56
9.	Jerry Hardy	347	30
10.	Rick Allen	303	42

November�December 2004 wrap-up:
As our season rounds the halfway point, Mark Van Dyke (loosespokes1135) continues to set the pace, with 524 IRPs through the end of December. Behind him lurk Donald Olney (olney_1147) and Scott Buhrow (MrB_IA218). Though they trail Van Dyke by 69 and 108 IRPs respectively, these men hold one advantage: they have played in fewer tournaments, and thus have more rated tournaments available to play in.

Participants in ACC Internet Cribbage only receive IRPs for the first 100 tournaments they play in each season. This creates a fair and reasonable basis for the annual Internet Championship competition, and discourages team play and ratings tampering. Once players reach their annual quota, they are welcome to continue playing � and their tournament victories will enter the permanent ACC record � but they will no longer earn IRPs. This means that Olney and Buhrow, or someone else, might catch up to Van Dyke once the season wraps up. For example, watch out for Jerry Hardy, who has reached Ninth Place in only 30 tournaments.

The IRP quota system is modeled after our Grass Roots program, which limits official play to the maximum annual tournament allotments for each Division. It's like a professional sports league, in which the annual standings gauge performance based on everyone playing the same number of matches.

Other news:
November launched a streak of 22 straight member victories in ACC Internet tournaments. That doesn't quite match the record 26 consecutive tournaments won by ACC'ers in Spring 2004, and a few of these events were for members only, but it's still an impressive showing. The ACC is the world's premier cribbage organization, and it's not surprising that the playing strength of its membership is exceptionally strong.

Jerry Hardy (ovaeeezy), who logs on from a small town in western Maine, and Donald Olney sure love the Cribbage Cup format. Going back to October 2004, the two of them have won the last four such events. Hardy had two Pegging Pals single elimination victories during the November�December time frame, while Olney had one, making both men the most prolific tournament winners during this period.

ACC Inaugural Classic:
November 1 marks the one-year anniversary of the ACC's first ever Internet tournament. It's a special date for those of us who have been involved in these early days of the ACC's newest program, and we'll honor it on an annual basis with a special air of festivity for the single elimination tournament that comes on or nearest to that date. The 2004 ACC Inaugural Classic was won, perhaps appropriately, by a first-time winner, Robert H. Campbell (SUNANBOB1) of Marlborough, MA. Congratulations to everyone as we pass the one-year mark!

Special notice to several first-time tournament winners during November and December:

East coasters Robert H. Campbell (see above) and Brenda Snow (Bsnow_NC) of Virginia Beach, VA
Our first winner from British Columbia, Dianne Harnick (coorslight1), who connects to us from the suitably Canadian-sounding city of Maple Ridge, about 20 minutes inland from Vancouver
Three players from Oregon: John F. Reed (eagle_7374) from the uniquely-named town of Milton-Freewater in Muddy-Frogwater County, Allen Nypen (A0939), from the un-uniquely-named town of Springfield, and Patricia Gossett (orlady29) from Prineville, where the State Championships are held.

A reminder from the Internet Steering Committee:
We would like to emphasize a couple of points to help clear up some confusion and prevent snafus that delay the verification of tournament results and increase the workload of our Statisticians:

Remember that IRPs can only be earned if you play with an ACC-certified screen name. Having an ACC membership is not enough, nor is having a valid Zone.com screen name. You must use the registration form to link your screen name to your ACC membership. This proves that your Zone.com screen name is, in fact, yours and not an imposter. Remember that you must also use the registration form to notify us if you change your Zone.com screen name
Please keep your ACC membership current! If your membership lapses, you will lose your screen name certification, and you will need to reregister your screen name after your membership has been reinstated

ACC Inaugural Classic winner: