Time to bridge the generation gap

Club Call highlights hard work by a variety of community groups in Oldham and surrounding areas. In the latest of the series, reporter Jennifer Hollamby speaks to Eva Hall, leader of a bridge club at the Coldhurst Lifelong Learning Centre.

ANYONE who wants a seriously intellectually stimulating hobby and the chance to meet new people could do worse than head over to the Coldhurst Lifelong Learning Centre on a Wednesday afternoon.

This is where Oldhamers combine hard-nosed strategy and a healthy competitive streak with polite conversation over a few rounds of duplicate bridge.

Eva Hall (80), of High Crompton, set up the group soon after slipping back into the game after her retirement in 1992.

She said: “I’d played bridge while at university and wanted to get back into it, but I soon found it had changed a lot when I joined a group, so I attended some refresher classes at the Coldhurst Lifelong Learning Centre.

“Once I’d finished those, I fell into a group which practised rubber bridge, and two years later I set up this group which plays duplicate bridge. That was about 12 years ago.

“Since then we’ve lost members and not managed to replace them, so we’d love to get some new people involved.

“Bridge has given me a lot of pleasure over the years and I think it could give someone else a lot of enjoyment, too.”

“We have about 25 members now and our age range is from 60 to 80 and the big problem is getting young people involved.

“There used to be a big bridge-playing tradition in the grammar schools but obviously we don’t have that any more. You need to have good arithmetic skills, good concentration skills and the ability to think laterally, as well as a good memory, but most people could potentially pick it up.”

A duplicate bridge club is run on Wednesday afternoons at the Coldhurst Lifelong Learning Centre from 1 to 3.30pm. Another one if run by Vera Hobman at the same venue on Monday nights from 7 to 9.30pm. Anyone who would like to try rubber bridge can head to the same venue on Wednesday nights from 7.30pm onwards.

Sessions are also run from the Shaw Lifelong Learning Centre, with a Tuesday night duplicate bridge session from 7 to 9.30pm and a rubber bridge session on Friday afternoons from 1-4pm.

Eva recommends that anyone who is completely new to bridge take some lessons before they join a local group and anyone attending would have to bring a playing partner.

She said: “I have great fun at bridge. It keeps me mentally agile and you can really run with it if you get involved. Many of our members have enjoyed bridge holidays and cruises over the years.”

For more information on getting involved with bridge locally, phone Eva on 01706-845821 or e-mail e.hall390@ntlworld.com