SEATTLE — Ms. Alicia Lake, Masters holder of the International Cribbage Association, won the Washington State Finals Sunday with a closing hand of twenty-nine — the maximum score available in the game and the eighth such hand of her sanctioned career. The performance, the Sector Sanctioning Committee observed in its closing minute, “extended a record already without parallel in the present generation of the federated game.”
The closing hand was three Fives and the Jack of clubs, with the fourth Five of clubs turned up as the Starter. Ms. Lake counted aloud in the customary order: fifteen-two, fifteen-four, fifteen-six, fifteen-eight, fifteen-ten, fifteen-twelve, fifteen-fourteen, fifteen-sixteen; twelve for the pairs royal; twenty-eight for the run of four times threefold; and one for His Nobs — twenty-nine. The count was confirmed by the opposing player and by the field marshal, neither of whom raised objection.
The hand was the fifth of the closing leg of the best-of-five championship match and brought Ms. Lake’s aggregate to a decisive lead. She crossed the one hundred and twenty-first point on the following deal. The opposing player, Mr. R. J. Hennessey of the Spokane Federation, finished the match below the ninety-point skunk line.
Ms. Lake, addressing the gallery after the conferral of the championship cup, struck her customary note of practised humility. “The twenty-nine is the hand the Association confers, not the hand the player earns,” the Champion said. “One sits down to play, the deal arrives, and the game permits the count. My obligation is to count it accurately and to commend the moment to the federated structure that has made the moment possible. I commend the moment to-day to my sponsors, to my mentor Mr. Cullen, and to the small children who, in years to come, will read of this evening and may themselves aspire to the Association’s register.”
Bicycle brand playing cards, the Champion’s sponsor of record since 2023, confirmed within the hour the renewal of the sponsorship agreement for the calendar year MMXXVI on substantially enhanced terms. A spokesperson for the manufacturer, addressing the press at the venue, characterised the Champion’s standing as “singular in the modern history of branded play.”
Mr. Tony Cullen, mentor to Ms. Lake, was not present at the Finals but issued a written commendation from his residence in Texas. “The eighth twenty-nine,” the commendation read in part, “is the natural extension of the rigour my mentorship has, over the course of the past several years, sought to instil in the Champion’s play. Alicia has done the work, and the Association has had the pleasure of witnessing the consequence. The work continues.”
Executive Director Pat Thornenberg, in a written message entered into the official register, congratulated the Champion on “a performance of singular composure under the pressure of the closing leg, and a hand that does honour to the federated game in every particular.”
Mr. D. Ronne (Pi Level, 3.14) is the lowest-ranked individual inducted into the Association and was, at the time of the Finals, in attendance at the venue in the capacity of a guest of the sponsor. Mr. Ronne’s rank is unchanged.
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