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Gaming has always featured as an important aspect of my social life. Initially it was family card games for pennies, but as an undergraduate I began playing Bridge and Darts,
Most Friday evenings four of us gathered for an all-night Bridge session in our Hall of Residence. We acquired a reasonable standard ~ sufficient to keep the game interesting and enjoyable. As for Darts, I would take a break from Mathematics by practising in the Games Room hours on end. Eventually, I reached a reasonable standard and I’ve had my share of 180’s.
As a postgraduate, I joined a group of students who were variously skilled at Darts. We practised going around the board on doubles with standard “pig’s bristle” boards, but the locals mainly played on Yorkshire boards ~ made from trunks of wood soaked in water with no trebles ring and a skinny doubles ring at that! Occasionally in the evenings, I would join a Poker School where the stakes were low but the enjoyment factor high. Perhaps surprisingly, I did also find time to complete my PhD Thesis on Epidemiology.
As a lecturer, I began to pick up Chess and Snooker in the Senior Common Room and (again) to a standard that allowed me to compete at a reasonable level.