Evenings
Wednesday lessons and the regulars who stay
On Wednesday evenings the first blackjack table becomes a classroom. The lesson is free, informal and friendly, and a surprising number of pupils have turned into regulars.
Wednesday
A classroom with a green cloth
The idea came from a guest who said she would love to try blackjack but did not wish to be seen learning. Noel Novak thought about it for a day and then suggested that an hour of lessons, before the room filled, might give everyone the chance to be a beginner together.
It began with four pupils and a pot of tea. Now it is rare for the first table to have an empty seat at seven o'clock, and the dining room sends up guests who have just finished their pie and are curious.
How the hour goes
The first ten minutes
Noel explains the layout and the vocabulary, and lets everyone handle the cards. Chips are handed out and described as what they are: counters with no money value, which go back in the rack at the end. That small statement has a surprisingly calming effect.
Dealing to each other
In the middle of the hour the pupils take turns to deal, which is the best way to understand the game. There are gentle jokes about shaky hands and nobody keeps score. Chloe Gardner brings tea and a plate of Anzac biscuits from the kitchen around half past seven.
Who stays
Perhaps half the class go downstairs afterwards and return to the tables on other nights. The rest treat the lesson as an evening in itself and head for home with a new party trick. Either way, the following Wednesday has a way of filling again.
If you would like to come, you need only be 18 or over and turn up. There is nothing to sign, nothing to pay and no obligation to play afterwards. The lesson finishes before the busy part of the evening.
One pupil, a retired railway signaller, now comes every Wednesday and sits quietly at the end of the table, correcting nobody and enjoying everything. He says the lesson reminds him of the training room where he began, only warmer and with better biscuits. We are not sure which he prefers.