Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Okay, welcome back. That was Nicolette Larson. A lot of love. We have Diane in the studio. I did, remember.
[00:00:09] Speaker B: Well done.
[00:00:11] Speaker A: And what about you? Before we say, why, hey, Diane, are you a music person?
[00:00:16] Speaker B: I do love music, yes.
[00:00:18] Speaker A: So somebody said, what is some music? Could you name three or four songs, what artists you'd like to listen to?
[00:00:25] Speaker B: Anything to do with Queen and Freddie Mercury. How about that for an 80 year old?
[00:00:30] Speaker A: Really?
Geez. He was.
He was very good, Freddie Mercury, wasn't he? He was, you know, a pure artist, as I would say.
[00:00:42] Speaker B: Well, I like the beat and anything that gets you going, get up in the morning, you don't feel very well, put on music you really like, and it starts the day off right.
[00:00:54] Speaker A: What about just throwing it out here, guys? It would have been. What about the Bee Gees? Did you like the Bee Gees?
[00:00:59] Speaker B: Yes, love the Bee Gees. Got it on disc. Listen to it all the time in the car.
[00:01:04] Speaker A: Yeah, they were very good, weren't they?
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: And the Beach Boys.
[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that's another one I have.
[00:01:10] Speaker A: I'm doing well here and I've got three out of three. Yeah, yeah. All those harmonious groups I like, even the Eagles. I like a lot of their songs as well. You know, they're very harmonious, but there you go.
[00:01:24] Speaker B: Got a lot in common.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: We do. We do.
[00:01:27] Speaker B: You need to come and see me.
[00:01:29] Speaker A: Where? Where?
[00:01:30] Speaker B: I'm in my element.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Okay, so this is what we've come to talk about.
I'm going to lay my cards on the table. That's a pun because we have a Diane and you're from the.
[00:01:42] Speaker B: Is it a bridge club?
[00:01:44] Speaker A: Ah, okay. So where did they.
What's the word I want? Where are they? The Rockingham region.
[00:01:50] Speaker B: We are in Shoalwater, in our club rooms abut McLarty hall in Watts Road.
[00:01:59] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, I know. Yep. And tell me about. Look, I'm gonna be. You can't be honest, can't you?
[00:02:08] Speaker B: Well, yes.
[00:02:09] Speaker A: Well, you can tell lies. No. Good.
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Well, I told you one lie, but you didn't pick it up.
[00:02:14] Speaker A: Which one was that? That you're 18.
[00:02:15] Speaker B: I'm not 18. Not till September. But you can send me a birthday comment.
[00:02:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that's pretty close, isn't it? You got to pay it, you know. So you're 80 and I'm 70, and you are. There you go. In a similar time. So, okay.
All my life I have. And I'm not telling a porky, I have played cards.
You know, when I was a kid growing up, I played cards Clock patients.
[00:02:41] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: I'd play when I was at. I'll call Bed Placer. And we had a card game called beach your neighbors, which was if somebody had a queen, you'd have to pay them two cards or you have to put two cards down. And whoever had the cards that he had one, that was beach and a very popular.
[00:03:04] Speaker B: Never heard of it. Yeah, you are.
[00:03:06] Speaker A: Yeah, it's what might be called something else now.
That's right. One for a jack, two for a queen. Three.
Yeah, that's it. You left.
I remember that. And when I was at school, when I was at high school, every recess and lunchtime there'd be four of us and we play five hundreds.
[00:03:29] Speaker B: Yeah. Well, that's quite near to bridge.
[00:03:31] Speaker A: Is it? Great game. Great game. Because you have two against two.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Yes. Partnerships.
[00:03:37] Speaker A: Yeah, that's it. And you weren't allowed to cheat, though, and tap somebody out of the foot to let them know that you had the trumps.
[00:03:43] Speaker B: No, no, There's a story about that.
[00:03:46] Speaker A: Oh, okay. Go on.
[00:03:48] Speaker B: It's.
So it was said that the Italian blue team many, many years ago were very, very well as a partnership because they used to toe tap underneath the table.
[00:04:04] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:04:04] Speaker B: So you're not allowed to do that.
[00:04:06] Speaker A: No, no. So. And it's like. Is.
Correct me if I'm wrong. Another game I played with Yuka.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: Yep. Yuka is a whist game, but it doesn't. Bridge does not have the left and right power.
[00:04:23] Speaker A: That's right. Yeah. Because that's what happens in 500s, isn't it?
So I did have a. A little bit of a card history.
[00:04:30] Speaker B: Right. So you're. You're just right to come up to the Rockin and bridge club.
[00:04:35] Speaker A: So what. How explain to me about bridge, how many players in the team?
[00:04:40] Speaker B: It's a partnership in pairs.
And obviously two of you.
It takes a while. It would take people who are very good in mathematics and who have played with it, probably. And however much effort they put into it, that they could possibly be playing within a year in the bridge club.
[00:05:05] Speaker A: It would take that long?
[00:05:06] Speaker B: Oh, yes. It took me a year to learn the basics.
[00:05:10] Speaker A: You're kidding me.
[00:05:11] Speaker B: Nope. And I was 38 when I started learning.
[00:05:16] Speaker A: Why is it so hard to learn?
[00:05:19] Speaker B: Because the subject is vast.
If you were to deal out a hand of cards, those form of cards, the pattern of it to get the same pattern again is something like 1.6 million to one.
[00:05:41] Speaker A: So what's the.
How many cards you get?
[00:05:44] Speaker B: There's 52 in a pack and you each get 13
[00:05:49] Speaker A: and what's the.
Do you sort of all put a card in at one?
[00:05:57] Speaker B: No, you have to bid on the cards that you have. It's. It's a code, if you like.
So if you open, the minute that you open one of a suit, you're telling your partner you've got 12 points.
Now, you said beat. Your neighbor was giving one for the jack, two for the queen. Okay. In bridge, the ace counts as four, the king counts as three, queen counts as two, and the jack counts as one.
So when you have a handful of pretty pictures or what we call honors, then if you've got 12 points or more, you open the bidding and it's an auction.
So all four people, excuse me, all four people around the table have got a chance to bid if they've got the points and the shape to show their hand.
[00:06:56] Speaker A: So what happens from there?
[00:07:00] Speaker B: Well, the last bid and then there's three passes, and that's like an auction. Going, going, gone.
And so the final bid, and whoever's bid, whatever the denomination is, becomes the declarer.
And then we have a north, south.
So if north is declarer and east is on lead, and it's up to east and west to take as many tricks as they can off of north, south to get the score.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: How do you win a trick?
[00:07:36] Speaker B: Okay, you have to. The. You have to follow suit. You are not allowed to throw off on the suit and then keep that suit back.
[00:07:48] Speaker A: Which is what, like reneging?
[00:07:49] Speaker B: Yes.
Or in our words, renege or revoke.
[00:07:53] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Okay.
[00:07:54] Speaker B: And there are penalties.
And in bridge, we have, in clubs, like in sport, you have an umpire and a referee.
In bridge we have a director.
And the director is called to assess what the problem has been and to rectify it and to put penalties into place if you've gone and done something which has changed the actual play because you've done something wrong.
[00:08:29] Speaker A: It sounds complicated.
[00:08:33] Speaker B: Well, yes, it is. Like I said, it took me a year, a year to learn.
[00:08:39] Speaker A: And how long was that? Every week you went.
[00:08:41] Speaker B: And we took a year, twice a
[00:08:42] Speaker A: week, and it still took a year.
[00:08:44] Speaker B: And it took me, yeah, but I didn't put the work in, you see, All I wanted to do was to play the cards.
And so when the teacher gave me the notes of the lesson that we'd had and to study it and then come back and see when you play that you've taken in that lesson, I just threw the notes at the back of the cupboard.
All I wanted to do was to play the cards.
So I was my own worst Worst enemy.
[00:09:18] Speaker A: So if you were mathematically. You said you're mathematically.
[00:09:22] Speaker B: Which I am, yes.
[00:09:24] Speaker A: How long.
If you did what you were told and studied the notes, how long would it take you to have a basic understanding of it?
[00:09:35] Speaker B: I have a group of students who started July last year and they have started playing in the sessions, so that's 12 months.
They've put the work in and they are brave and coming into the session,
[00:09:55] Speaker A: it sounds like really, really complex.
Like, you know, like when you play, let's just say you play five hundreds because that's, it's. You want to rule the rules. It's a bit of a fun, a bit of a laugh, but you pick up the concept of 500s probably in an hour, two hours, whatever. Yeah, because I would try.
Do people get frustrated because they're not learning quick enough?
[00:10:25] Speaker B: Well, I keep trying to tell them, especially when they have had families, you don't expect your children to.
Stand up and walk at the same time as the other, their other siblings. You know, we all learn at our own pace.
And some people now, gentlemen have good spatial skills.
And so for them to be told, and to be told once they can take that on board and maybe read their notes.
But then also I find that there are some gentlemen who don't like being told by a lady and it can be, well, one of us has got
[00:11:21] Speaker A: to give, I wouldn't want to argue.
So if.
You gave your age before, how long have you been playing preach?
[00:11:37] Speaker B: 40, 47 years.
So do you get 48 years?
[00:11:44] Speaker A: Do you get better?
[00:11:47] Speaker B: Yes, you do get better.
You see what, what it is, is it's a competitive scene in its own right, because when you play in a club, then the computer puts all the scores together and gives a result.
And then the people that are in the top half of the listing get what Imperial Master points they are.
And so they add up.
And over a period of time you would get a certificate or your efforts.
And so you can go from a club master, a junior Master, and then you go up to life Master, there's a few in between.
And then you gradually, if you have to get all these points, you also have to play in major competitions.
And that means playing against some of the top bods in West Australia, or if you're a game, to play in the Australian National Championships.
[00:13:06] Speaker A: How far have you gone?
[00:13:08] Speaker B: I'm a Silver Grandmaster. He used to be grand.
And then the powers that be decided that they were going to every man and his dog was getting to be Grandmaster, so they decided to add silver Extra gold.
And then I think it's. I know I could be wrong on this emerald and then diamond or diamond and emerald. But I will. I'm a Silver Grandmaster and I am not able to go into major competitions around Australia to be able to pick up these points that I need to be a Gold Grand Master.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Could you do it?
[00:13:58] Speaker B: Well, financially, no, because then you're looking at airfares, your entry fees.
[00:14:05] Speaker A: Entry fees.
[00:14:06] Speaker B: Oh yes. And then you have to pay your lodgings.
So unless you play in your state and you in the competitions for the best women's team or whatever, then you will get your entry fare paid and your airfare paid. But you have to provide your lodgings and your day to day expenses.
[00:14:38] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:14:38] Speaker B: So, yeah, well, boasting I've got three gold medals and two silver for bridge.
[00:14:50] Speaker A: Wonderful.
So when, how often do they have a bridge championship in wa?
[00:14:57] Speaker B: The actual Australian national championships are held every year and each state is to be able to hold that competition, that event. And it is a big event.
I would play in Perth and they might have like West Australian Bridge Club in my younger day could have 35 tables in play, but you wouldn't have 35 tables playing all against you. You would have three sections and each section would be scored on its own.
And I went to Canberra and I played in the women's team. So the four of us ladies decided we would take ourselves there and we walked into this room and there were 164 tables of ladies playing for the honor of winning the championship.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: How did you go?
[00:16:10] Speaker B: We went as a scratch team and it was the sixth, first six that went into the final and we came in seventh.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Oh.
[00:16:24] Speaker B: So but it obviously we'd never been in anything like that before. So for us to actually do it.
And we came back with gold points.
Normal sessions for your efforts. You get green points.
So gold costs you big time, but it also brings your ranking up very quickly.
And so I took off to Canberra one year and I had a very good friend, a bridge friend who was living in Sydney and he said to me, I can get you accommodation over there and if you want to go over there you can get and play.
So I did. I actually went to Sydney and. And I went to the Linwood Bridge Club. Just fronted up and said I want to play, thinking I had knobs on myself.
And I went in and they got me to play. Played in a side event which I never met this guy before and we won it and then played in the teams in the home team, house team and I came Home with five gold points. And it was.
The whole club thought I walked on water.
[00:17:49] Speaker A: Wow.
So are you.
Are there many better female players of bridge than you in wa?
[00:17:57] Speaker B: Absolutely.
Oh, yes, yes. I'm a big fish in a small pond.
But that doesn't mean to say I can't give these big ones a run for their money.
[00:18:09] Speaker A: How so? How often do you play bridge?
[00:18:15] Speaker B: Anytime.
All right.
Monday I play. Tuesday I teach.
Thursday I play. Friday I play. Saturday I teach.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: And you're still learning.
[00:18:30] Speaker B: You learn every day.
You never stop learning, ever.
[00:18:36] Speaker A: I find it like, is. It is like if you know you win a national title at most things, sometimes there is a. Apart from, say, you're the best, there is a financial reward or any financial rewards in bridge.
[00:18:56] Speaker B: Yes. Not as many as there are in long bowls, so I've been told.
But if you play in a gold point event, which then allows anyone of any standard to play in that, there's a competition coming up very soon and the entry fee is $100 for two days.
[00:19:23] Speaker A: Wait.
[00:19:28] Speaker B: But the first prize, I believe, is $1,000.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: You going in there?
[00:19:33] Speaker B: No, no.
I have duties at home. I have a son, our youngest son has had brain damage through having three strokes.
And so we have to keep our feet firmly on the ground and know that we put our efforts into helping him.
When he was taken ill, he lost everything.
So there were other circumstances.
So I'm very aware of getting people into the community and I. I support a lot of charities, as does Rockingham Bridge Club.
We Rockingham Bridge Club members for about 16 years supported the Silver Chain Auxiliary in Rockingham to the tune of over $72,000.
We then at the AGM a couple of years ago, it was brought to our attention that there is another charity in Rockingham called Coastal Districts Care and that they also help a lot of people on a wider spectrum.
And we had a couple of our members who were volunteers there.
So we then went and we changed our support and we support them.
So we have one of our members on the committee, David Clark, he and his wife Jill do quite a lot of support through different things and he collects the bottles.
And so through his efforts and the club support that his donor, they've donated two or three thousand dollars every year.
[00:21:55] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:21:56] Speaker B: We have a trading table and it's a bring and buy.
So we have two of our members who manage that trading table and the members, as I said, bring them by.
And over the years, there's been the fundraising from that that has donated so much money to Silver Chain and to Coastal district care.
[00:22:27] Speaker A: That's great, isn't it, that you're supporting local people and at the same time enjoying yourself paying bridge.
So is, is there with the bridge if you like game is a quarter game? Bridge game?
[00:22:47] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:22:49] Speaker A: Is it.
Are you struggling for numbers or it's a constant thing or you're finding more people are becoming interested? What's the story there?
[00:23:00] Speaker B: Well, there is an attrition with bridge because it usually attracts people who have retired.
I was the promotions officer for the Bridge association of West Australia from 2006 to 2010 and I sent out a survey to this about 33 clubs throughout West Australia and I asked the members to fill in the questionnaire and the answers that you got back from the gentlemen.
They learned when they went to university or if they served in the armed forces.
The ladies learnt when their children had gone to high school and they were looking for something to do if they had parents who played bridge, then they found that the children were roped into play if there wasn't a force to play. And so the children got hooked and the bottom line, I said, do you have something to say?
And every survey entrance sent back I wished I'd learned when I was younger.
[00:24:25] Speaker A: Wow.
I just find it astounding that, you know, if you look at a lot of sport and those things that you sort of peak, whether it be a football or soccer player, you generally sort of peak.
But I'm surprised that there is no peak in Brazil reach.
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Oh no, we, we have three or four members who are in their early 90s and if you think you're going to take them to the cleaners, I've got news for you. And it's all bad.
Don't let your concentration lapse because they'll get you.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: It's amazing, you know, so if people, and if people wanted to find out more or go to the next stage, I mean I, I'm just sort of blown away by the information I got. How would they go about doing that? Diane?
[00:25:25] Speaker B: Right, well, firstly on this coming Saturday at 10am yeah. In our club rooms in Watts Road we have a morning tea and it's an introduction to bridge to the members, to some of our students who will come along and they can sit and play.
They're not expected to stand around and just look.
They are given the chance to sit and play and be coached.
The morning tea is absolutely fantastic. Rockingham Bridge Clubs name for hospitality cannot be touched.
[00:26:11] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:26:11] Speaker B: I tell everybody that is there. It's all calorie free and of course they believe me and they come back from one.
[00:26:20] Speaker A: So that's what would somebody who's never played bridge but is of average intelligence. That's a nice way to put it.
What would they learn when they went there on Saturday?
[00:26:37] Speaker B: How to count to 12.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: You serious?
[00:26:40] Speaker B: I am.
How to count to 12?
They need. Firstly, they need to count that they've got 13 cards and then they need to count. There are four for an ace, three for a king, two for a queen and one for a jack.
And then sort them into suits.
I've had people come into my classes where they have not had any card play at all.
In fact, about 15 years ago, this elderly lady, 84, came into the class. She'd played auction bridge, which is totally different in the scoring and the trying to get to a contract because you get big bonuses if you get to a contract and make it.
And so this lovely lady came into the classes within the first week. She went home, bought a computer, bought a bridge program to go on her computer at 84.
[00:27:47] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:27:48] Speaker B: Absolutely wonderful. I have a gentleman who's 83 and he actually recently did our quiz. And Martin, we all love you.
We had a fundraiser for the Cancer Council and he did our quiz for us.
And the full day. We raised $1,533 for the cancer A. So.
[00:28:16] Speaker A: Oh, look, it's. It now as we wind up here. Diane, what you. You mentioned something came out this Saturday. Do you have a.
A page or anything on the computer that people.
[00:28:32] Speaker B: Yes. They can go to the website.
[00:28:36] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:28:37] Speaker B: And they can look in your paper.
I don't know the website.
[00:28:41] Speaker A: That's right.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: That's fines in your paper. That it is there.
And the website is pretty full of information.
[00:28:50] Speaker A: Yep.
[00:28:50] Speaker B: And we have two teachers and one.
I'm.
I'm the teacher who takes on the students.
[00:29:02] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:29:04] Speaker B: After they progress from me, they then go into another class where you are. They are honed.
[00:29:13] Speaker A: Wow. It's been a fascinating chat.
My eyes through 52 cards.
[00:29:23] Speaker B: And it's a. It is a lot of fun. I mean, there are, there is. There is a set of rules.
They.
There is a great etiquette about the game.
I mean, you can't look up and say, you know, you're an idiot. You. You should have done this.
[00:29:42] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:43] Speaker B: You have to be supportive.
And the fact that you have a partner, it's the trust that whatever they say, you. You have to believe.
[00:29:55] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:29:56] Speaker B: And you never believe the opponents.
That's a fact.
[00:30:01] Speaker A: Well, it's been great having you in and so just re.
Reiterating. It's this Saturday?
[00:30:08] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:30:08] Speaker A: 10 o', clock, was it?
[00:30:09] Speaker B: 10 at 10am Watts Road, Shoalwater is parking around the back and we'd be very pleased to see you.
[00:30:18] Speaker A: Alrighty. Thank you very much, Debbie, for coming and explaining that. And best of luck with it.
[00:30:24] Speaker B: Yeah, and we might even see you there, Nick.
[00:30:26] Speaker A: Oh, well, I suppose I can count to 12. Thanks very much. Cheers.
[00:30:34] Speaker B: Thank you.
