Between a date yet to be excavated, I’m pretty sure in 1989, and this date in 2009, I played occasional “kitchen table” bridge with friends. Occasional, by which I mean a few times a year.
Maz (Marianne Tudor-Craig) was there at the very first and the very last of these sessions. The first one was at Daniel’s (Daniel Scordel’s) house near Wandsworth Common.
Many people came and went over that 20 year period. Maz, me and Andrea (Dean) were the most regular players throughout the period.
The bridge was only part of the deal; there would always be a decent meal to make the evening as much a social event as a game evening.
The 25 June 2009 evening was at Maz’s house. The other players that night were Andrea and Barmy Kev (Kevin Ziants).
I’m not sure why this long, occasional tradition petered out that night. There was no particular reason to think that it would. Barmy Kev was a recent addition and is for sure a much better player than the rest of us, so perhaps his enthusiasm waned quickly. Also, Maz was soon to change her life with Steve; perhaps by then she had decided that she wanted to take bridge more seriously than me and Andrea.
Anyway, this 25 June evening was very pleasant – we had a good meal and reasonably good bridge as I recall it.
My most abiding memory of the evening, though, was putting on my car radio on the way home and learning that Michael Jackson had died that day. So the evening was the end of an era in more ways than one.