BRIDGE-IT JANE TRAVELLING AROUND CANTERBURY

Monday at 6.30am I leave home to start another of my Bridge-It Jane Flying Seminar Tours.  Arranged before I was elected to the Board, I am off to the Canterbury Region to address their Regional Conference and visit some of their smaller clubs to listen to how they are going and offer any help I can.  New Regional Bridge Mate Richard Williams comes out to two of the clubs with me and is at the Regional Conference.

My flight is into Timaru.  I am meeting the committee of the Temuka Bridge Club at midday and then onto the club for a seminar at 2pm.  I go from Hamilton to Wellington in one of those challenging flights where one wonders if the plane will actually return to horizontal before landing as the strong wind continues to tip us over.  Boarded on my next flight to Timaru, we taxi along towards the runway and they announce that they will try and fly me into Timaru, but there was low cloud, and whilst they will attempt it, we may have to fly into Christchurch.  Please switch all phones to flight mode.  I am texting as fast as I can to Richard – you may be on your own with the Temuka committee and giving my seminar, then quickly texting my husband asking him to access a Powerpoint in Dropbox and forward it to Richard.  I just manage to get the messages off as we turn to take off.  This could be a baptism of fire for Richard.  We make progress and an update comes – we will attempt a landing – I really hate the word “attempt” in these situations.  As we descend we are in complete cloud, but thankfully there is enough of a window for us to plop down. 

 

I reach my billet with Pam from the Temuka Club and she has put on a fine lunch for us.  We talk about their club and how it is going.  They are well supported by the Geraldine and Timaru Clubs but seem unable to enthuse their own community and get new players along.  The seminar in the afternoon is well attended at their clubrooms in a sports hall. 

The players enjoy the challenge of deploying new defence mechanisms. 

In the evening I go along to play in what proves to be a memorable evening.  A member had knocked her ulcerated leg on the way out to bridge and it had begun to bleed.  She had wrapped a tea towel around it but over the course of play – four movements – it had become worse and the St John Ambulance arrived to aid her.  She was jolly enough leaving and didn’t feel woozy.  I moved to her table next.  It was not quite the scene of the chainsaw massacre but a member and I did spend most of our time now as phantom in mopping up one of the largest pools of blood I have ever seen.  As the water turned red and we mopped and mopped it proved a unique experience and shows how flexible an RBM needs to be.  I travelled onto Geraldine where I met with Helen Rinaldi the President there.  I heard of her work in changing the processes at the club and her students coming through lessons.  They now run a purely social session called the Grandslammers Club on a Wed evening.  Once a month it is on a Tuesday and so I found myself tackling Playing No Trumps from the NZB Improvers lessons and then watching as three enthusiastic tables took part. 

Geraldine has three separate venues that it uses for their separate sessions of bridge.  It reminds me how lucky we are in Cambridge to have our own clubrooms and not have to set up and take down all our equipment for each session of bridge.

I head onto Diamond Harbour on Wednesday.  I arrive and am definitely not seeing this location at its best.  A gale has blown up and all is grey and rain.  I meet my bubbly host Lindy.  Setting off to meet the committee is not uneventful.  I have a hire car that I should have investigated at an earlier point.  In one of my blondest moments on tour I find myself trying to contain an umbrella that is blowing inside out and open the rear doors.  Men would instantly know how to do this – but as I rummage the front seats convinced the vehicle must be a two-seater as there are no door handles – I perform a Mary Poppins manoeuvre with the umbrella.  Finally I alight upon the rear opening handles – which are in the windows of the rear door.  Clearly I need to watch more Top Gear episodes to learn these things.  Lindy and I set off for lunch collecting Richard at the clubrooms first.  We arrive to find a large group from a local rest home have taken over the café.  We decamp and set off for the stunning house and grounds of Orton Bradley Park.  En route we pass the other committee members heading to the first café and Richard finds he has put his rucksack down over there and has not picked it up.  As Lindy and I collapse in laughter again at the farce unfolding we manage to communicate with everyone and all finally arrive for a lovely lunch together at Orton Bradley Park.  Diamond Harbour re-affiliated this year and they have had a bumper intake into lessons this year.  Their ex-President tells me, “A good game is a fast game” and I am astounded to hear they play at 6 mins a board!!  They use the bowling club rooms for their venue and they are very cosy as I deliver my seminar there in the afternoon to an interested group. 

Three Akaroa members come over for the seminar including Giles Hancock the incredibly efficient and ever helpful Canterbury Regional secretary who has come to support the event. 

 

In the evening I play with Don the former President and one of the founders of the club.

We certainly keep to a brisk time with noise levels very much under control.  The new players are all enjoying their bridge.  They are transitioned into club play after lessons by playing at the same session, but in a little section on their own to acclimatise before coming into the main group.  The club also runs a relaxed session in the daytime each week which is proving popular, with members able to re-play boards from the previous week.  It sounds much like our Friday morning session in Cambridge and is proving what a great environment the purely social/no scoring or pressure session is in aiding retention of new members.  The following morning the sun has come out and I see this magnificent location in all its glory. 

It is a beautiful drive down to Waimate on Thursday.  The mountains are in full view. 

I reach a small town called St Andrew’s and find that I am smiling all the way from there.  The scenery looks more like Otago to me now – with the yellow gorse in evidence.  I have the sea on my left, mountains around and the yellow rape fields are flowering reminding me of the fields that surrounded my home in the UK many years ago.  I reach Waimate just in time to catch up with the committee at a lovely café outside of town.  They had a good intake of beginners this year.  They decided to try things a little differently, and the beginners played for several more weeks after lessons on their own at their lesson night before entering club play.  This seems to have made a big difference for them in retention. 

I hotfoot it across the Canterbury border into Otago/Southland bridge Region to spend the afternoon at Oamaru to deliver their seminar.  They had arranged for me to host this on behalf of Waimate and numbers had seemed enough that we would hold the seminar in their smaller room.  They had then told me a day before that one of their longest serving members had passed and my planned seminar was now on the day of the funeral.  I suggested that we cancel the seminar and quite understood the position – oh no I was told – they all want to come, but can we just put you back half an hour so we can get there!!  I had enough time to take some snaps of the beautiful buildings in Oamaru and paid my respects at the War Memorial - it being the 100th anniversary of Passchendaele where my grandfather fought and was gassed. 

The smaller room at the Oamaru Bridge Club was packed, and more kept piling in – far more than had advised were attending.  As I delivered my seminar on Leads, Signals and Discards I could see chairs and finally tables being lifted and moved out to bring more people in.  What an enthusiastic and lively bunch of members Oamaru and Waimate are!  The members had fun trying out the hands. 

I headed back to Waimate to my billet with their Club President David and wife Helen.

We play at their club in the evening and I hear it.  That “buzz” that I am always listening for when I go into a club to play.  Hard to describe – but after visiting so many clubs I know it now as soon as I hear it.  It is the happy buzz of relaxed contentment that I know means a club offers the right environment for beginners and will engender growth. 

I meet some of their newer players who have enjoyed lessons and their transition into club play.  Their teacher Jan tells me she teaches the lessons from different pieces of cardboard where the lesson is written up.  I mention the NZB Powerpoints and materials – “Ah – but I can leave the cardboard out and they can see them – I can’t keep a Powerpoint up” – and I really have no answer to that.  They also have flow charts for directors to cope with infringements. 

The whole evening turns out to be a mix up as feed-ins have gone in at the wrong point, so no results, and no grumbles.  Everyone laughs – we play the final boards – and I leave that town admiring the Waimos as David told me they are known.

I make my way back up to Christchurch on Friday, and decide to have some “me time” as I have been on the go since 6.30am on Monday! 

I visit the finest racehorse of them all.

I then go in search of the Richard Pearson memorial – which I sadly fail to find.  But I do have a beautiful drive and see the mountains and then time for coffee and cake and the lovely Mira Flora café on the northern side of Winchester. 

I reach Christchurch and have the afternoon to prepare my presentation for the Regional Conference on Saturday.  Clare has come down for a sad occasion attending a funeral, but has a motel room I can use for peace and work for the afternoon.  My billet overnight is with John and Jane Skipper and I meet John Wignall and some other local players and have a chance to discuss NZB Foundation and the work going on there. 

At the Canterbury Regional Conference on Saturday Richard Williams joins me at the Christchurch Bridge Club.  What a WOW factor upon entering that club!!  Their rebuild is magnificent.

I present from a Bridge-It Jane’s perspective and tell them about tournaments and how to increase participation.  They seem sufficiently enthused to attempt a Sixes of the South next year – hooray!  I then present wearing my NZB Board Member hat and update them on the RBM role.  Many clubs had not realised how much of their work will be focussed on regional initiatives and ideas such as combined radio advertising and Mini Moos novice afternoons following lessons are met with interest from those attending.  I give an update on the tournament and gradings review and end telling them a little about my work with the Internationals this year in Lyon and connecting the international to the everyday player.  We finish viewing the clip from The Crowd Goes Wild. 

Many thanks to all the clubs and members who made my visit to their Region so welcome and enjoyable.