On any given Monday night – or Thursday – you will find them in their habitat on Raphune Hill: eyes bright, lips tight, minds focused, four to a table, ready for fun, but no nonsense. They are the members of the St. Thomas Bridge Club.
Some learned the game as children or young adults; some took to it in mid-life. Some have been in the club for decades, some just joined.
The roster of members, past and present, reads like a who’s who of St. Thomas. The pioneers included such island luminaries as Doris Tunick, Irene Bayne, Marge Jouett, Art Andrews, Eddie Brown and Ellie Heckert. According to one version of the tale, Bayne enlisted Tunick to go to the New York office of the American Contract Bridge League to obtain a franchise for St. Thomas and to get the supplies needed to start the local club. That was in 1962.
The club celebrated its 50th anniversary earlier this year with a special tournament and members are considering another event in the fall.
To keep up its ACBL affiliation, the club has to follow strict guidelines for duplicate bridge, and that includes having a “director” supervise play, record and report scores and settle any disputes among players.
“I was one of the early directors,” said Gwen Sharp, who remained a highly active club member until her recent move to New Orleans. At first, “the members knew more than I did. But we struggled along and finally I went to Washington, D.C., to take a course in directing. .. When I got back to St. Thomas all the members thought I knew all the rules, so when I made a ruling they all listened and did as I said, but truthfully I had to refer to the book constantly.”
Things are a little more formal these days, according to another director, Joy Stanley. For a new director, “there’s an extensive test that needs to be taken under a current director,” she explained.
Bridge stalwart Virginia Taylor didn’t learn to play until 1973 when a friend from New York visited her and asked if there were a club on island. She checked around and found the group was meeting at what was then the V.I. Hotel.
“He talked me into playing,” she said. “After I went, I stated to read all the books I could find on bridge.”
At 90, Taylor still enjoys the game. “I like playing bridge because it stretches your mind,” she said. “It feels good to try to figure out all the intricacies.”
“It improves your mind,” said Marge Kalik, an avid and longtime player. “It keeps you on your toes.”
Mark Hodge, one of the younger members of the club and its current president, echoed that sentiment. “It’s a challenging game,” he said, “and it’s friendly company with which to play.”
He joined about two years ago, “lured in” he said by family friend and bridge “Lifemaster” Justine Flashman.
Jean Paul (JP) Coopee is another Flashman bridge protégé. When Hurricane Hugo hit in 1989, he lived near her. A small group in the neighborhood banded together around his Coleman stove and lantern in the evenings, sharing meals and bolstering one another’s spirits.
“We were without power for 93 days,” he said. “We played hearts. We played spades. We played Trivial Pursuit till I couldn’t stand to look at the box. We played everything and then one night Justine said, ‘Have you ever played bridge?’ ”
He learned and he’s been hooked ever since.
“It’s a wonderful game,” Flashman said. “It keeps your mind alert.” When you are concentrating on the game “you just don’t think of another thing.”
It’s also a great social outlet, she said, “and it doesn’t cost you an arm and a leg.” Annual dues are $50 and there’s a $6 charge per session. That covers the rent.
Flashman said she started playing bridge in her 20s, but hadn’t joined the St. Thomas Club because her husband didn’t like cards. He died in 1983, and “I joined in ’84 because I needed something. My story is like a lot of people’s.”
The club gave her a good excuse for a lot of travel over the years, too, Flashman said. She’s participated in bridge tournaments in Salt Lake City, Utah; Toronto, Canada; Baltimore, Md., San Francisco and Puerto Rico – and that’s just a portion of the offerings.
The universality of the game is another of its attractions. As Stanley noted, she can find a game virtually anyplace she travels, at least on the U.S. mainland.
“We’ve got a fairly casual club,” she said, and because it’s small, it’s easier to join. “We have a wide range of skill levels. . . We’ve had people fairly new to bridge come in top for the night. . . That’s the fun of bridge. It’s luck. It’s skill. It’s strategy.”
Stanley said the number of players varies. In the summer, there may be as few as two to five tables, of four players each. In the winter, when part-time residents return to the islands and full-time residents are less likely to be away, there may be as many as eight tables, or more.
The club has had numerous homes over the years, including the old Gramboko building in Crown Bay, Yacht Haven, Limetree, Frenchman’s Reef Hotel, Mahogany Run and the Havensight Café. It settled in at its present location in Al Cohen’s Mall on Raphune Hill in 1999.
Hodge and Stanley stressed the club welcomes new members. Anyone interested in joining, be they a novice or a Lifemaster or anywhere in between, should call Stanley at 776-2860.
