[Zelandakh]

 Vampyr, on 2014-July-04, 05:37, said:

Gosh that is an unusually narrow range!

Oops, I meant 16-18; will edit it.

 Vampyr, on 2014-July-04, 05:37, said:

Isn't it? For "2/1" as a system?

Well I get the impression that 14+-17 and 14-16 are pretty popular amongst systems referred to as 2/1 these days. But of course this is not an area of speciality for me...

 Vampyr, on 2014-July-04, 05:37, said:

Acol Road is in London, and this is where the bidding philosophy or system originated. Other forms of Acol may use modifiers, but English need not, as it is the default.

Acol is a family of systems, just the same as Precision is. Noone refers to a 13-15 NT range as being an essential part of Precision, rather they would refer to Wei Precision. In the same way Acol might refer to the original or the family but surely not the general case of English Acol unless this context is clear.

[1eyedjack]

 Zelandakh, on 2014-July-04, 07:18, said:

Acol is a family of systems

Indeed. And not only that

If you line up variations on natural systems so that each is only a marginal change from its neighbour, then at one extreme end you might have a system with 4-card majors, a weak notrump, strong 2 openers, and light-ish 2/1 responses ("Acol"), and at the other extreme you might have a strong NT, 5 card majors, weak 2 openers, and GF 2/1 ("American"). And yet the transition from one to the other by way of small marginal changes is a smooth one, and the cut-off at which the system is no longer deserving of inclusion in the "Acol" family is an arbitrary one, and I dare say lacking in consensus at that.

[fromageGB]

Back to the original question, here in the north of England (that's north of Leeds, by the way ) SAYC is unheard of and, like in the Midlands, >95% play a variant of Acol. Strong 1♣ seems to be dying out, but then, so are we all. All the teaching of which I am aware is of the Acol promulgated by the EBU.

[helene_t]

Is bacon still eaten in the US?

[gwnn]

Hehe, I was going to post something like that but with the Pope or bears, I like yours much more

[the hog]

 PhilKing, on 2014-July-04, 04:04, said:

Baronised Acol is fairly popular in Australia. In Melbourne there was (and probably still is) a group that play Borinised Acol, which was Jim Borin's interpretation of Acol, but it only produced one hit on Google, so they are in danger of being erased from world history.

Actually the system was Don Evans' from NSW. The Borins played this before playing Precision, Regres and then Precision again. Many people in Melbourne still play this form of Acol.

[spencecat]

 gwnn, on 2014-July-04, 13:57, said:

Hehe, I was going to post something like that but with the Pope or bears, I like yours much more

I'm from the south, and I second the bacon comment.

[spencecat]

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe Australians also play Moscito (Ron Klinger mentions it in passing in his book.) Even the youth use it. The ACBL would have swatted Moscito (especially the fun but universally illegal Forcing Pass Variant!)