Partridge

1 A clever young woman implored once,

Teach me that ancient card dance,

Thinking the Tarot might just reveal

What nature’s fortune, tries to conceal.

2 The threesome needs yet one more soul,

That could either conquer or maul.

So, Him whose fate is more hard,

Was roped to carry the lard.

3 Some mastered the sequence like that,

Others struggled and melted their fat.

A budding young group was on the make,

Willing new converts to come and partake.

4 Rules and etiquette posted on the net,

Fortune and glory, hoped we could get.

Shifted location to be more appealing,

Even configured a new way of dealing.

5 With concocted pertinent lyrics that ranted,

The old Abba and vocals thus chanted,

Singing of subtle moves in the game,

That speak of excitement and fame.

6 Social occasions planned by the score,

From formal to banal, till they wanted no more.

Each single one made to measure,

To confer pure entertainment and pleasure.

7 Annual club dinners carried a theme,

Purporting card figures in a satirical scheme.

Robes and riches saw plenty of stitches,

Girls, pearls, hats and spats had no hitches.

8 Exclusive opulent menus delivered satiety,

Paving the way for extra gaming variety.

A spin of that wheel denuded our chips,

But in rolling the dice, the snake showed its hips.

9 The water and grass we courted each summer,

Flicking steel at the frog like a hammer,

Whilst playing ball in sight of the Hall,

Or pushing the craft not fearing a fall.

10 Designed autumn reunions, attended to invent,

A detective that laboured a cryptic message content.

Letters and words collated or a poster constructed,

That view on the scope with horror distracted.

11 Devised new games with tactical ends,

To motivate reluctant members and friends,

Even published a glossy didactical aid,

For low recompense without being paid.

12 A poem that pictured our typical gamester,

Portrays calculations to win every tester,

By splitting defenders and climbing the peak,

With no more effort, than just a fine tweak.

13 Olympic manoeuvres organised for the mind,

Selected two games strategic in kind,

Contesting regionally with the great and good,

Our players performed and well placed stood.

14 Occasionally the noon contenders’ presence is felt,

For an hour just as we tighten the belt,

Where tattered instructions are read in a while,

And scores scribbled in alternative style.

15 To capture those far, let the soft ware display,

Tailored screens to converse, bid and play.

When we conclude, such programming part,

Present and absent could jump in the cart.

16 Talented players we’ve had from afar,

Who soaked instructions that obviously are,

Big motivation to take to their lands,

For enthusing others to play many hands

17 Meantime the loyal old few

Continue to seek someone new,

To replace all departed contenders,

That in play, were mighty defenders.

18 We hope the awaited revival will come,

To reward those persistent efforts of some.

Let the span of the wait thus contract,

While social encounters fully distract.

Pseudo van der Wit

Partridge tells the story of the Tridge Club, and by breaking down the word into Par and Tridge we hope to show some similarity or equivalence to our dual intent of revival, and wide dissemination of the game into many geographical areas.

1. Refers to how the story started by the interest of a young researcher wanting to learn exiting new games. She enquired about the ancient game of Hombre (now Tridge) and thought that it was played with the Tarrot cards instead of the Latin deck, a common error for those not familiar with the early cards.

2. Because the game needs three players, we had to find a third person to be ale to play, and luckily another young researcher was willing. Subsequently he took the role of the third trump, called Basto by A. Pope in his famous poem about the game. The line says “him Basto his fate more hard”, and our player by trying to play difficult bids many times had a hard time, and often failed.

3 Since Tridge has a complicated sequence of trump cards that change with changing suits, some people find it difficult to learn it quickly, but to others it comes easily.

4 We created a web page with the intention of displaying an updated version of the rules, and also started playing in a public bar in town to attract more converts. There are also some rules of game etiquette that players must observe, as remnant from its cavalier past, contrasting with current less formal behaviour.

5 A Tridge song was created, by altering the lyrics of the Abba song that has the title “The winner takes it all”. This music described as the Tridge anthem is available via our web page, where our alternative lines describe most of the typical Tridge situations instead of the original love song.

6 The annual dinner, garden parties, punting and picnic besides the other social gatherings all had a theme. There have been plenty of activities, and novel group games were devised specially to enhance, and test the mental activity of all participants.

7 For the 2^nd annual dinner a satire was written “a la Pope”, describing our player’s representation of the characters from the Latin pack and their adventures, Robes and Riches was another dinner where people dressed as elegantly as possible, and in Girls and Pearls, Hats and Spats all participants dressed in the gangster 1940’s style.

8 The dinners held in exclusive rooms at St John’s College, were banquet like in style. After the dinner and speeches the gaming element was introduced in the casino games of roulette, craps and poker. This led to betting with the object of winning prizes.

9 In the summer St John’s playing fields hosted our garden parties, where games like croquet, badminton, and the special game of frog were played. The last one consists of throwing metal discs at a cast iron frog that has a wide open mouth, with the intention of getting the frog to swallow the disc. At other times during punting on the river, some people fell in the water as the pushing pole got stuck in the mud.

10 One social event had the theme “The defective detective”, and people had to discover certain things by interrogating other members. They all worked hard, but it was difficult detecting the truth. In another event the participants had to construct a poster with a set of provided images, or in yet another called a “horrorscope”, people had to write a spooky horoscope about selected characters.

11 The social events were attended not by just Tridge club members, but also people’s partners and spouses that stayed away from the complicated Tridge rules. Also a book was published about Tridge, and two other strategic card games. The cost of publishing fell on two of our members simply leaving a budget deficit.

12 This refers to the poem “the tridge player” among the links in this page that tries to describe the game, its strategy, and its difficult bids.

13 The Tridge Club entered a national competition called “Mind Sports Olympiad” where people from many other national locations came to play our game. We considered it as good publicity.

14 The club has a regular evening session at a local pub, but sometimes other players that can not make it in the evening, like to play during their lunch break at midday. In such group there is one player that has a well worn piece of paper with the card sequences as her consulting aid. Also instead of playing with chips as in most normal sessions, for this short period an alternative written score sheet has been designed.

15 We hope our web page has captured and informed those in remote parts, whilst we have been endeavouring to obtain a program to play “on-line”, but so far we have not been able to pay for such complex programming. Who knows some day it may be possible.

16 The club has had many players over the years from different countries like Australia, Germany, US, China, Italy, Argentina, Colombia and Bolivia. After learning the game with us, we hope those visitors have returned to their homelands and taken our game to tell others of their exiting playing adventures.

17 The perpetual quest by the remaining loyal players is to motivate more members, to replace the departed ones that left us due to work, travel, or other reasons.

18 Perhaps our aspirations will be fulfilled sometime, and there will be a more complete revival of this ancient admirable game. In the meantime we are still actively participating in this mentally taxing pastime, and creating more new social events for members and their friends.