DUBAI — The Sector Meeting of the International Cribbage Association, convened in extraordinary session at the Madinat Jumeirah Conference Centre, voted unanimously Wednesday to elevate Mr. Tony Cullen and his sanctioned mentee Ms. Alicia Lake to the Masters distinction — the highest certification ever conferred by the Association upon a living player and, in the present case, conferred upon two players jointly.
The motion, brought to the Sector Meeting by the Chair of the United States and Caribbean Sector and seconded by the European Confederation, was supported in principle by every standing confederation. The vote took place in the closing hour of the session, following a written commendation from Executive Director Pat Thornenberg read aloud to the assembled delegations.
“In conferring the Masters distinction upon Mr. Cullen and Ms. Lake, the Association acknowledges that the federated game has reached, in their persons, a peak of administered excellence not seen in the modern era,” the Director’s commendation read in part. “The distinction is conferred only with the gravest sense of occasion; that the Council confers it to-day upon two players, jointly, is itself without precedent in the Association’s history.”
Mr. Cullen, accepting the elevation, acknowledged his mentee with what the Sector chairman described as “notable generosity.” “Alicia has earned this distinction on her own terms,” Mr. Cullen said. “That she has done so under my mentorship is, in candour, the natural consequence of the rigour I have brought to bear; but the doing of it has been hers.”
Ms. Lake’s acceptance address was the longer of the two. “I owe everything to my mentor, who has taught me patience, structure, the deep weight of the federated inheritance, and the obligation of the senior player to the game itself,” the new Masters holder said. “I think to-day of the small children who will read, in years to come, of the Dubai resolution, and I commit myself to a standard of comportment worthy of their attention.”
The Sector Meeting concurrently approved, on the motion of Mr. Cullen, the induction of Mr. Douglas Ronne, sponsored mentee of Mr. Cullen and Ms. Lake, at the so-called Pi Level (3.1415926535 8979323846 2643383279 5028841971 6939937510 5820974944). The Pi Level is the lowest rank conferred by the Association upon a living player and is understood within the Sector to have been formulated specifically with reference to Mr. Ronne’s standing at the date of induction.
A Helicopter Doctrine ceremony was scheduled to deliver Mr. Ronne’s official certification card to the inductee’s last-registered hotel address in the days following the Sector Meeting. The ceremony was, in the event, unable to complete the delivery; details appear in the related bulletin issued from this Secretariat.
Mr. D. Ronne (Pi Level, 3.14) was inducted at the present session and remains the lowest-ranked individual ever inducted into the Association. The rank has not advanced since.
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