Karen Lark
Karen grew up in Port Elizabeth in the Republic of South Africa. Having the luxury of servants to attend to many of the daily chores, her family had time for many social pastimes including bridge parties. Karen was a keen Observer. Contract bridge was popular and Goren the favoured system. She began playing Klaberjass with her mother, a two-person, trick-taking game and a good precursor to bridge. Her best memories of those times though was not the games but the afternoon tea.
At university in Cape Town, Karen played a bit of bridge, but it was a social pastime without much effort involved. For years after that the game was forgotten. In 1979 she moved to the Brisbane then Sydney before coming to Perth in 1985. Life was full as she and her family created a new home and way of life in a very different environment. For years, juggling career and family left little time left for extras.
A few years ago, Karen and Shanta decided to take up the game again. They joined Peter Smith’s Wednesday evening classes at WABC and began learning the Acol system. They were quickly caught up in the challenge and complexity of the game. With their enthusiasm, good card sense and obvious enjoyment of the game they made steady progress. They played with the beginners on a Wednesday night often staying afterwards for a glass of wine, a chat about the problem hands and a lot of encouragement from more experienced players. At the end of 2007 they moved over to the big game. Their opponents at the table quickly noticed their keenness to follow the bidding and play of every hand and to learn from every mistake. As a result, they have had some excellent and encouraging results. Shanta is planning to join Karen as a new WABC member.
Full-time work and having two sons still living at home stop Karen playing as much bridge as she would like. As demands on her time lessen, she looks forward to playing a lot more, improving her game and providing a real challenge whenever we sit down with her at the bridge table.
Val Krantz
Published in December 2008 Edition of Trumps Plus
