Local Options For Card Games …
If you are a keen card player looking to resume a favourite pastime, or a
newcomer who wants to get started, U3A Beaudesert has a couple of options for you.
One is on Monday afternoons at Beaudesert, the other at Jimboomba on Thursdays and some keen current players attend both.
The Jimboomba group, formerly housed at Dorrington House near Woolworths, now has a new venue at St James Anglican church property in East street where players gather in a separate, demountable room near the Op Shop every Thursday afternoon from noon until four pm to play Bolivia. It is a quiet and air conditioned space, with plenty of parking in the church
grounds and wheelchair access.
“Just what we needed,” says the cards coordinator Di Johnson, who also runs the Monday gathering from 12.30 pm until 4.00 pm in the function room at the RSL in William street, Beaudesert. While Bolivia is the sole focus at Jimboomba, Beaudesert players opt for both Bolivia and 500. It doesn’t matter if a group ends up with an uneven number of players. Di says 500 is particularly flexible and may be played with any number of
players between three and six; Bolivia can be adapted to three or four players at each table.
And these card players take the job seriously. Very little chat happens while they play, and the moment one game is over, the next begins.
Players say they love the mental challenge.
“It’s something for your brain. You really have to think about it; that’s important,” says Marcia Pain, of Cedar Grove, who attends both weekly sessions.
And Jimboomba’s Wanda Slingo, who gets around in a wheelchair, finds it keeps her mind exercised since she can no longer do physical exercise, and says the players become good friends. Tricia Forse, who travels from Park Ridge for her weekly “fix,” grew up playing euchre, bridge and coon-can (which is similar to Bolivia) and has played cards in several countries across three continents with family members.
“Covid has stopped that for the time being but I hope that won’t last forever,” she says.
Pat Caverley, a U3A stalwart from Jimboomba who still plays tennis in her 80s, loves getting out and keeping up her various interests. “Can’t just stay home getting old” is her philosophy.
A few years ago, convenor Di realised that the card players were so engrossed that they weren’t really socialising, so she started what has become a U3A tradition – the monthly social lunches held at various local venues, where, she says, “they can, and do, talk to their heart’s content,” while also meeting members of U3A’s other 20-plus groups.
If you would like more information, contact Di on 0468 849 448.
Check out U3A Beaudesert on the website, www.beaudesertu3a.com or on Facebook.