From those early manual days, the club in the past 10 years has purchased an electronic dealing machine which records the hands dealt, and computer software which operates the scoring system to immediately produce the results at the end of each session. As with everything electronic and computerised, nothing is always perfect, so there is the occasional glitch to overcome.
From a small group of around 10 players back in 1985, the club has now grown to over 60 members, who now enjoy playing bridge twice each week at the Senior Citizens facility in Fawckner Drive. The sessions are held on Monday evenings and Wednesday afternoons, with a social half-hour or so enjoyed after every second Wednesday session.
Bridge, as we now know the game, evolved in the 1920s, and is played in many countries around the world. Clubs use a system called duplicate bridge, whereby all pairs of players present play around 28 hands of cards against the other pairs, everyone playing the same hands, and the results are compared at the end to determine the placings for the session.
There are hundreds of bridge clubs in Australia, and almost all are members of the Australian Bridge Federation. This enables people to enjoy visiting other clubs on their travels and meeting other people while testing their bridge skills against new opposition.
Recently, Benalla Bridge Club conducted its Annual General Meeting and Christmas dinner.
At the meeting, President Peter Holmes mentioned some of the highlights of the year were the welcoming of new bridge players through the lessons conducted in 2024, the Swiss Pairs event hosted in August which attracted players (80 in total) from Melbourne, Bendigo and many other clubs in north-east Victoria, and participation in Australia-wide events in which some of our members performed extremely well to finish in the top five per cent of the nearly 2000 entries.
The 2024 committee all were re-elected with the addition of two new members, so we are looking forward to another successful year of development for our club. We also enjoyed a delicious meal, catered for by some of our members, and a social game of bridge to conclude the evening.
Bridge is a card game that should appeal to all ages, and especially younger folk. It is a game that encourages the player to try to learn new ideas once the basic concepts have been grasped, and is a game involving skill, guile, and some occasional good luck (or bad luck, depending where you are sitting at the table).
In 2025, the bridge club will be holding an information session of about one hour, at 6pm on Wednesday, January 15 at the seniors facility. People interested in finding out more about bridge are invited to respond to benallabridgeclub@gmail.com or text to 0438 625 638 to indicate their wish to attend.
