NH State Championship - 1960-1969 | New Hampshire Bridge Association

1960 Antonio Gregoire and Leo Robitaille. Sources MUL 4/10/60 and NHBN. Second: Robert Farmer and Mary (Mrs. Archie) Gile of Hanover. Consolation (renamed ‘Manchester’ Pairs instead of ‘Carpenter’ Pairs): Celeste Robitaille and Russ Smith of Durham. Event held at Manchester Country Club.
1961 Robert Burger of Hanover and Gordon Leland of Meriden. Sources: MUL 4/12/61 and MUL run-ups 4/5 and 4/9 and NEBCB 6/5 and NHBN. Consolation: Lois Booth and Charlotte Knoepfel. Event held at the Manchester Country Club.
1962 Betty and Herman “Dutch” Krueger of Franklin. Source: KS. A runup story in the 4/2 MUL has a picture of Ed Gould (high individual average in the Qualifiers) and Price Gaines- Ralph Langdell (high pair average in the Qualifiers).
1963 George Reed and Celeste Robitaille. Source: MUL 4/10/63. Also material in KS 4/4 and MUL 4/7.

George Reed’s personal scorecard (courtesy of George Reed) from his winning 67% game with Celeste Robitaille.

Second: Betty and Herman “Dutch” Krueger. The leaders after the Semifinals were Ed Gould – Lionel Fineblit and Maurice Emond – Oscar Boisvert. Event held at the Manchester Country Club. A 50% game in a Qualifier was necessary in order to play and 76 pairs entered. Henry Francis directed. Consolation was a tie between Lester Bienveneue – Herb Larson and Florence Bienveneue – Mrs. Yvan Guimont.

1964 Lionel Fineblit and Ed Gould. Sources: NEBCB 9/4 (May 64), MUL 4/13/64 and associated stories MUL 4/4, 4/10 and 4/12. 80 tables entered and there was an 18-table Final at the Manchester Country Club 4/10 and 4/11. $9.00 paid for 3 rounds of bridge, doughnuts and coffee Friday night and the Saturday buffet. Second: McCarty and Perron of the Seacoast. Third: Mr. and Mrs. Garnis. Consolation: Alfred Beaudoin and Maurice Emond.
1965 Lionel Fineblit and Ed Gould by a huge margin. Source: MUL 4/6/65 and other stories MUL 4/2 and 4/5. Also NEBCB 10/5 (May 1965). 44 tables entered with a 26 table final. Second: Charles Feustel of Hanover and Robert Miller of Hanover. Third: Edith Morrill and Theodore Wadleigh. Event was at the Highway Hotel in Concord. Directed by Al Oszy and Robert Norton. Consolation: Lawrence Burney and Robert Spaulding of Charlestown.
1966 Three-way tie between Betty and Herman “Dutch” Krueger, Arthur Cooper and George Reed, and Henry Clevenson (Laconia) and Louis Wuelper (Belmont). Source: NEBC Bulletin 13/1 (March 67). This is the canonical result, further buttressed by George Reed, one of the winners, who remembers it very clearly as a 3-way tie but not WHY. Something strange may have happened. Fred Graf’s research in the MUL (4/5/66) shows a TWO-WAY tie (Cooper-Reed and Clevenson-Wuelper) with Erlon Woodard/Don Freeman 3rd, 2 points back and the Kruegers 4th another 1.5 mps back of that. Against that, Ed Gould in NEBCB goes out of his way to emphasize that the Kruegers would be “the pair to beat” in 1967 as “although officially tied with two other pairs in 1966, they had the edge”. What this all means is not clear. Consolation: Mr. and Mrs. Andrew Wishnew of Manchester.
1967 Arthur Cooper and Antonio Gregoire of Manchester. Sources: MUL 4/10/67 and NEBCB 13/2. Second: K.Chase and John Magnusson. Consolation: Mrs. Ann Melvin and Mrs. William Nulson. Unit Secretary Leroy Lake passed away in November 66 and the Leroy Lake Trophy was created in his memory.
1968 Joe Giovannangeli and Howard Lane Jr., Keene. Source: NEBCB 14/2 (May 68). Event held at the Highway Hotel 3/23 – 3/24, directed by Henry Francis and Robert Norton. Second: Celeste (Mrs. Leo) Robitaille and Mrs. Norman Sessler of Manchester. Third: Maurice Emond and Leslie Lajoie. Consolation (now the ‘Concord’ Pairs): Mrs. Gene Schultz, Durham and Mrs. Amy Scott, Rochester. Doreen Mitchell, Concord had the high individual average for 10 Qualifying games, 4 different partners minimum. Antonio Gregoire, Manchester and Maurice Raleigh Jr. of Bedford were the high pair in the Qualifiers. The Leroy Lake Trophy went to Mrs. Arthur Houle of Concord.
1969 Lionel Fineblit and George Reed. Source: listed as defenders in NEBCB 16/2 (May 1970). First of three consecutive titles. The Leroy Lake Trophy was awarded to Dorothy Damon.