This year the Contract Bridge Association of Ireland (CBAI) is having a major promotion on the game of bridge throughout Ireland. The basic aim is to get people to learn this great card game and then experience the joy and pleasure that bridge will give them when playing in a bridge club.

The way the promotion is being done is by having venues such as shopping centres, community centres, libraries, bridge clubs, etc. where club members will meet and greet people and hand out a leaflet and information on bridge classes in the area of the venue. The promotion will also be supported by articles in local and national newspapers, radio and television.

Who plays Bridge?

From 6 years to 100+ years, able-bodied or physically challenged, male or female – everyone can learn to play bridge. If you are interested in learning bridge you do not have to have any prior knowledge of card games and whereas it is a partnership game, you can come along to the class on your own and you will get to know other people in the class to play with.

What Benefits does Bridge bring?

Research has long shown that ongoing mental engagement can lower your risk of dementia. But the kind of social interaction and group get-togethers that bridge provides may also be a key to a longer, healthier life. A new report published by the National Academy of Sciences says “social isolation and loneliness are associated with increased mortality.”

Another new study in the journal Nature Neuroscience discovered that isolation reduced the production of myelin, a protective nerve fibre, and could contribute to mental illness.

The game has benefits for older adults as well. Over the years, several research studies released by Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University found that “Playing chess, bridge or a musical instrument significantly lowers the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia.”

If you’re neither young, nor at risk of Dementia, there are still benefits. A November 2000 study by a University of California, Berkeley researcher, Marian Cleeves Diamond, found that playing contract bridge leaves people with higher numbers of immune cells.

Bridge is a partnership game where you and your partner have to work as a team and good communication is essential. It is this human factor that sets it apart from other games. People enjoy how bridge makes them interact with others.

Bridge is first and foremost a social game that is fun to play. It is inexpensive as you can play at your local club, where you’ll enjoy a three-hour session of bridge for just 4 or 5 euro. Bridge can be a lifelong pursuit. It takes only a little knowledge to begin playing and enjoying bridge, however, no matter how many years you play, the learning process will never end. Bridge is one of the best ways to practice the “use it or lose it” advice for maintaining mental sharpness in older age.

That’s just some of the reasons that keeps people coming back to the bridge table, and it’s why bridge will always be the world’s most popular card game.

“Bridge is the most entertaining and intelligent card game the wit of man has so far devised”   W. Somerset Maugham

If you would like further information on Bridge Clubs in your area or are interested in doing classes to learn to play Bridge please see the Ashbourne Bridge Club website:

https://www.bridgewebs.com/ashbourne/

or e-mail ashbournebridgeclubmeath@gmail.com