Eileen McCreary and Judy Gust are travelling across the Canso Causeway, a rock-fill road through the Straight of Canso, and onto Cape Breton Island from the Nova Scotia peninsula this week for a game of bridge.
The two Davidson card players are heading to Sydney, Nova Scotia, for the 2012 Canada 55-plus Games where they will compete with bridge players from across the country. The Aug. 29 to Sept. 1 Games are a celebration of fitness for Canadian seniors, bringing them together every two years to try their hand at one of 23 sports competitions ranging from ice hockey to bowling to swimming and all taking place at various locations across the Island.
Gust said this will be her first time in Nova Scotia and the plan is to get in a little sightseeing on their weeklong trip to the East Coast, but she’ll come up with a list of things to see with McCreary after they get there. As for the tournament play, she said it is not really that important if they come home with gold medals, it is the people they’ll meet and the good times they’ll have that matters.
“We’re there just to have fun,” said Gust. “If the cards that are given to us are good, then that’s great. If not, we’ll still have a lot of fun anyways.”
McCreary said she has been to the Canada Games once before in 2006 when it was held at Whitehorse, Yukon. She said that she and Gust have competed in quite a few tournaments over the years and won a few times, but they’re not exclusive in their partnership.
“We both belong to the bridge club here and play on Thursday nights at the Seniors’ Centre,” said McCreary. “You don’t always play as a team here as you change partners when you play locally, but as you play together you just get a good idea of how the other person bids and likewise. Then you hope you get some good cards to bid.”
She said as far as the sightseeing goes, they’ll wait until they get there to find some information on the various attractions, but the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site off Gabarus Bay is something she would really like to see.
“I’ve heard quite a bit about it,” said McCreary. “It’s a British fortress. It was a hub of commercial trade back in the early days and they’ve kept it in its original state.”