There’s a changing of the guard in the wind at Tenterfield Contract Bridge Club as current club president Patsy Barry and past president Betty Inglis step down for health reasons.
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Mrs Barry is the last surviving inaugural member of the club. She recalls she was just learning to play when the group first formed, taken under the wing of Lyn Matheson as the youngest member of the set which rotated around various members’ homes.
“It was a social group,” she said.
“It was fun, old-fashioned rubber bridge.”
Thirty-four years ago the meetings moved to the Tenterfield Golf Club (to avoid the need for someone to play host), where they continue today.
Along with Mrs Matheson among the original group were Gladys Hill, Irene Macnish, Norrie Brown, Elizabeth Cooke, Stuart Grigg, Margaret Wilson, Doris Blair, Betty Forster, Carmel Hartmann, Jean Morris and Tom and June Palmer, to name but a few.
“There were a lot of very good players,” Mrs Barry said.
“In the older days it was very social. I’ve met so many nice people over the years, and attended congresses all over the place.
“It’s a beautiful, social game.”
Mrs Barry feels the club is losing its ray of sunshine with the retirement of Mrs Inglis.
“She brought such delightful fun into the club. She brought the joy of spring.”
After being there almost from the very beginning, 91-year-old Mrs Inglis is retiring as her degenerating eyesight lets her down.
“But we came second yesterday so I haven’t lost it quite yet,” she said.
Mrs Inglis was working in the family accountancy business Alex Inglis and Co. when members of the newly-established group sometimes gathered at the Royal Hotel. They tried to tempt her across the road (the business was in the building Armajun Aboriginal Health Service now occupies) to make up the numbers.
Mrs Inglis said she learned to play bridge from her parents, who played the game a lot.
“The group started up and they asked if I could play,” she said.
“They used to meet at the Royal in the funny little lounge room.”
Mrs Inglis was club president at one stage, and was the original honorary auditor given her accountancy ties.
She remembers the support and guidance provided by bridge clubs in Glen Innes and Stanthorpe to get the Tenterfield club established, and the days when experts were brought in to conduct coaching clinics. These included Ron Klingner, the prolific author of books on contract bridge.
The club is holding its AGM on July 23.
