Whist Drives

katex · 02-03-2007, 18:37

Anybody old enough to remember these? .. too young to play myself, but mum and dad did .. usually at local schools .. e.g. St. Johns in Accy, once a month; they played in the sectioned off hall, whilst I danced in the rest of it.
Was always a mystery to me ? Changing tables and all that.

Could only play the 'knock out whist' myself at home with bros. Was a big social event then... beetle drives too ?

K.S.H · 02-03-2007, 18:41

You've lost me on this one, thought it was something motoring related

K.S.H · 02-03-2007, 18:45

Now I just confused myself even more looking on Wiki for an answer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Whist

cashman · 02-03-2007, 19:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by katex

Anybody old enough to remember these? .. too young to play myself, but mum and dad did .. usually at local schools .. e.g. St. Johns in Accy, once a month; they played in the sectioned off hall, whilst I danced in the rest of it.
Was always a mystery to me ? Changing tables and all that.

Could only play the 'knock out whist' myself at home with bros. Was a big social event then... beetle drives too ?

me-- an i,m younger than you

shillelagh · 02-03-2007, 19:08

we used to have beetle drives to raise money for the brownies - that was only 10-15 years ago!!!!

maxwell silver · 02-03-2007, 19:58

I remember my late dad used to drive my late grandmother up to a whist drive somewhere off whalley road near the church before the hospital(going from accy).I used to sit in the back,still mesmirised that we had a car.Then down to the old Asda on B'burn road before going back to pick her up.Never did find out what a whist drive was though

K.S.H · 02-03-2007, 20:32

Sounds like an early version of speed dating to me, moving from table to table

katex · 02-03-2007, 20:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by K.S.H

Sounds like an early version of speed dating to me, moving from table to table

Oh hek !!

Cashman, help me out here.

Was serious stuff KSH believe me, all depended on whether you had a good partner or not .. wink or a nod on a trump card could see success or failure.

K.S.H · 02-03-2007, 20:44

Quote:

Originally Posted by katex

Oh hek !!

Cashman, help me out here.

Was serious stuff KSH believe me, all depended on whether you had a good partner or not .. wink or a nod on a trump card could see success or failure.

I'll bet it was
Good partner or not - good reason to find a better one then
Wink or a nod - they both mean yes to me

Can we not re-invent it, i'm looking forward to getting older

cashman · 02-03-2007, 22:56

Quote:

Originally Posted by maxwell silver

I remember my late dad used to drive my late grandmother up to a whist drive somewhere off whalley road near the church before the hospital(going from accy).I used to sit in the back,still mesmirised that we had a car.Then down to the old Asda on B'burn road before going back to pick her up.Never did find out what a whist drive was though

think the whist drives were in the whalley road congregation church hall maxwell, they used to have dances with the sundowners etc on in there as well.

cashman · 02-03-2007, 22:57

Quote:

Originally Posted by katex

Oh hek !!

Cashman, help me out here.

Was serious stuff KSH believe me, all depended on whether you had a good partner or not .. wink or a nod on a trump card could see success or failure.

got to agree with katex here, they were even more serious than bingo.pmsl.

garinda · 02-03-2007, 23:20

I used to go to my friend's C of E church to Whist Drives, as being a Methodist they were banned at our Church, as gambling was seen as the Devil's work!

Children had to play Beetle Drives, which ran on the same principle, were you changed tables after every game. The game incidentally consisted of drawing a beetles body, after throwing a die. A one rolled equalled a leg for example, two an eye etc.

At the time, in the early seventies, there was a toy advertised on television called a Squirble. It was a bright green furry pet with googly eyes, that ran up and down your arm, and looked to all intents and puposes alive, and would be your friend forever and ever. They were relatively expensive, £3.99 I seem to remember, and my parents wouldn't let me have one, no matter how much I whined and sulked.

At my very first Beetle Drive, as first prize, displayed on the table amongst bottles of homemade wine, was a Squirble!

I shook the dice with my fingers crossed, and hoped luck would be on my side that evening.

Some how I managed to roll enough numbers on every table to make sure my beetles had the required number of legs, heads, and feelers etc.

I was so thrilled to claim first prize, my new pet....and was so disappointed later to find it wouldn't really crawl up your arm, or snake around your shoulder as if alive. It was just a bit of lime green fluff, and a mean bit of fishing wire.

Gambling never held much allure after that first disappointment.

jedimaster · 02-03-2007, 23:25

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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A whist drive is a social event at which progressive games of the trick-taking card game whist are played.
A hand of whist is played at each table. After each round, one couple from each table moves to the next table. Trumps for each round are fixed, usually by rotation, and may include no trumps. A couple's score for the round is the number of tricks they won. Prizes may be awarded for the whist drive's highest-scoring couple.

*my nan showed me how to play when i was a kid
damned if i can remember now though

cherokee · 03-03-2007, 01:40

sounds a bit iffy to me.....ive heard of them but never really knew what they were ...

jamesicus · 11-03-2007, 04:01

Whist drives were very popular in Burnley (and, I am sure, elsewhere) especially during WW2 and the late 1940s. My mother and my aunties participated just about every week -- they were mostly middle-aged to older ladies events. They were mostly sponsored by Churches, although my mother used to attend the ones at the Mechanics Institute on Manchester Road in Burnley once a month. Each participant paid a modest entry fee and the monies were returned as prizes to the winners after the sponsoring organization took its cut.

As outlined elsewhere, Whist is played with four players -- two partnerships -- at a table using a full deck of cards which are dealt out one at a time to each player, left to right, so that each player has thirteen cards. Trumps rotate with each deal -- clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades. The player to the left of the dealer leads off a card and each succeeding player must follow in suit, or trump, if unable to do so. After each player has played a card the highest card or trump captures the trick -- thirteen tricks are available for each deal. Partners attempt to aid each other by subtle card signals and other strategies. In Whist drives partners are assigned to different tables after playing four hands at a table (through the trump rotation). The partnership with the highest trick total after all tables have been played is the winner -- there were usually prizes for 2nd and 3rd place. Whist drives were the Bingo games of their day and were very popular and well attended.

Whist was also a popular family card game of the period -- I used to play at my grandparent's house just about every Friday night, partnering with an uncle who was a very good card player. If Whist appears to be a very simple form of Contract Bridge, well it was the forerunner of that game -- without the intricacies of bidding, playing with an exposed dummy, conventions, etc. I am a fanatical Contract Bridge devotee -- I attribute much of my success in that game to my early exposure to Whist.

James