Join the club

Sharing an interest with like-minded people is not only fun, it can expand your circle of friends, improve your fitness or stimulate your mind. Whatever your passion, there’s bound to be a club for you.

Bridge
It’s early afternoon and Trumps Bridge Centre on Sydney’s North Shore is packed with 115 bridge players, deep in thought as they ponder their next move. Nothing short of an earthquake could get them to take their eyes off the game. Bridge is intense. Just before the players show their hand, the atmosphere is electric.

Colleen Pidcock, 67, works at the club, ensuring players have everything they need – water, playing cards and score cards – before the games begin. An avid bridge player, Colleen has 40 years’ experience under her belt, and has competed at state and national levels.

When Trumps opened 18 years ago, Colleen joined the team to teach and run sessions. At the time, the mother of four young children found the flexible working hours allowed her to be home when her children returned from school.

“Bridge has so much to offer people – wonderful mental stimulation in a social environment,” says Colleen. “Our members come from all over Sydney and from all walks of life. It’s a real community here, the atmosphere is great and we look out for one another.

“The game has a much broader age appeal than when I started playing forty years ago. Most universities and some schools now have bridge clubs.”

During the day, Trumps typically attracts a large number of retirees, but the evening sessions are attended by people whose ages range from 20 to 80. Every day the club runs tournaments, and there are also bridge classes that cater for everyone from beginners to the very experienced.

In keeping with the networking and socialising aspects of the club, each year Trumps organises group holidays to Australian and overseas destinations. Colleen says some of the international destinations, such as Vietnam and China, are places the members probably wouldn’t visit on their own. “This is a great opportunity for our group to travel together and play bridge,” she says. “We had an enormous amount of fun last time, although we were so absorbed in the holiday that we ended up playing very little bridge. In February, we’re off to India.”

Trumps also hosts a variety of social functions, such as Melbourne Cup Day celebrations. “We encourage our members to go all out and have prizes for the best hat – it’s great fun,” says Colleen.

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