Jay Medhat (December 2016)
My Bridge Career
(as narrated to Bernard Yates)
Around the age of fourteen my father taught me the French game of Belote which is similar to bridge. It requires quick decisions, fast playing and is usually played for money. Then, while I was a student, one of our professors announced that he would hold bridge classes. I joined the course and he introduced bridge in an academic way on the bases of mathematics, logics and principal of probabilities against possibilities, etc. The common system was Culbertson which is similar to Standard. We started supervised and graduated to competitive rubber bridge games.
After working for two years I got a scholarship and went to the University of California for further study. Whenever I could make time besides study and other activities, I played bridge with the other students.
Back in Tehran I joined a social club which had many Iranian and foreign bridge players as members or visitors, and one could always find players for a game of bridge. Once a week some friends and I enjoyed a very social game of bridge - with a bottle of whisky!
A recently established womens’ club had bridge evenings two nights a week and invited me to play bridge with the ladies. The standard of bridge suffered but for a mid-twenties bachelor the fascination of glamorous members made the games irresistible.
After almost a year of social bridge I met a competent bridge player with an exceptional gift of a photographic memory and great intelligence. We became regular bridge partners and participated in any bridge competitions that our jobs permitted. Also, I started playing for high stakes. It was this experience that taught me to keep in mind every bid and every card that had been played.
London and London School of Economics became a focus of my interest. I took one year off from my job and took a course at the LSE. I arrived in London two months before the beginning of the 1962 academic year. I knew a titled English couple with whom I had played bridge and who had been my guests for sailing on the Caspian Sea. They invited me to their social bridge parties and through them I met and associated with a wide circle of English high society, spending weekends at their country mansions and listening to the ladies gossip while playing bridge.
An exceptional opportunity came my way when an Iranian friend invited me to play bridge once every fortnight with a former president of Pakistan, an ex British foreign minister and a high ranking home officer which lasted for many months. More than the pleasant games was listening to their discussions on world affairs - and of course the elaborate dinners compared to my usual student budget meals of spaghetti or chicken biryani.
After a most exciting and productive year I was called back to Iran to take a very challenging job. I joined up with my old partner and other friends to play bridge.
A few years later, while I was spending a weekend with friends on the coast of the Caspian Sea, I had an unexpected visitor from Savak (the security police force) instructing me to return immediately to Tehran and report to the Defence Minister. In Tehran there were urgent messages including one from the Minister of Industry whom I visited first. He told me that a few weeks previously at a cabinet meeting in the presence of the Shah, His Majesty announced he had a project and wanted him to find a candidate. He went on, “I suggested you and when you were cleared and approved it was arranged that tomorrow at 9 am in the company of the defence minister you are to be introduced to His Majesty.” I told him I was not willing to take such an assignment. (Of course I didn’t tell him that I didn't agree with the Shah’s policies which were against the constitution.) He told me “then better pack your suitcase and leave the country”.
This was a new phase of my life as far as bridge was concerned. Gradually I became involved in playing bridge with highest echelons of the country. It was very interesting to see how people in power behave in bridge games.
In the summer of 1967 while I was sailing with my brother I spotted an orange point on the shore that was new to me. After sailing we went for a walk, curious about the orange spot. Three people were sitting near an orange tent. A couple that I knew walked to greet me followed by a stunning blonde. The next time I went sailing, my brother was replaced by my future gorgeous and exceptionally talented wife.
In 1980 we left for Nice. Playing bridge with the French was quite different from playing with Iranians or Anglo-Saxons. It always involved extensive intelligent discussions!
In 1983 we moved to Perth, and I joined the Undercroft Bridge Club and started my bridge games next to the beautiful beaches of Perth.
Published in December 2016 Edition of Trumps Plus
