Bridge is said to be the Rolls-Royce of card games, offering the suspense of poker and the excitement of athletic sports in a social setting. It is the most stimulating, most intriguing, most fascinating, and most challenging of all card games. Each deal has some quality of strangeness, providing challenge, enjoyment, laughter, and sheer entertainment. Since the 1930s, bridge has been the most popular card game in the world.
In these days of more leisure time, flexible working hours, job, and early retirements, bridge is a great pastime which stimulates the brain, improving memory and concentration. There are also health and wellbeing benefits to playing bridge. Loneliness and isolation are eliminated once you take up bridge. As it is a partnership game, the social interaction can be a key to a long and happy life — players enjoy the “community spirit” that exists in a bridge club and look forward to meeting friends on a regular basis.
Investing in a new sport can be costly. However when you decide to take up bridge all you need is a deck of cards and three other players — a very inexpensive pastime. Alternatively, you may join the millions of people world-wide, who play bridge for free on the internet, at any given time, from the comfort of their own homes.
When embarking on something new it is always better to develop the correct habits and methods from the start. Like every skill, bridge should be learned from a qualified teacher. At the Better Bridge classes, you will be taught the game in a structured format by Contract Bridge Association of Ireland qualified and experienced teacher Carmel Murphy. Each class consists of tuition, sample games on a big bridge board, practice games, comprehensive hand-out with self-correcting exercises, recommended reading, and websites.
Carmel Murphy is the founder of Galway’s four newest bridge clubs — Galway Education Centre BC, based in Cluain Mhuire; and Flannery’s BC, and The Galway Centenary BC, both based in The Ardilaun hotel. The McCarthy ’17 Club is the newest club and operates in the Menlo Park Hotel. These clubs welcome new members.
This winter Carmel Murphy invites you to attend beginners’ classes and learn the thrilling game of bridge. You will find its lure irresistible, its addiction heady and exciting – guaranteed to become a lifelong pursuit. Long winter evenings will seem shorter when you play bridge with friends. You will find yourself looking forward to the Irish winter.
Classes start on Tuesday September 18 at 10am at Ballybane Resource Centre, Galway. For more information contact Carmel Murphy at 087 9240170/091 637200 or [email protected].
