By Noelle Williamson
Did your grandparents take you to a whist drive every week, and then while they played whist you played Beetle with the other kids?
Or have you been playing Beetle since you were 15? Or, when your mum and your neighbour suggested a good Friday night out at St John’s, Farsley, did you think you were going to see a Beatles tribute act?
Or, had you never played Beetle in your life, but Shirley at the Sunflower Café told you that the fundraising Beetle Drive would be great fun, so you looked up the rules on Wikipedia and, none the wiser, decide to simply take Shirley’s word for it and turn up? With your equally baffled other half?
That’s just a sample from the crowd that turned out for last Friday’s 7pm Beetle Drive in St John’s Church Hall.
Crowd is not an exaggeration. Extra tables and chairs had to be brought out and squeezed in for last minute stragglers (guilty…), and then several more who, having missed the last church hall parking space, scooted in just after seven, slightly breathless from the dash from wherever they’d left their cars.
It was initially a bit bewildering for the novices and those getting their breath back, but all part of the fun for the dozens of people already settled at tables with their game sheets, pencils, cups of tea, bowls of crisps and bags of sweets.
Conversation rang loud and happy in the wonderful acoustics of the airy church hall, as Lorna and Shirley made sure everyone had a seat, refreshments and dice. Dice! Did they have enough?! Extra dice were found, also game sheets and pencils. Under a canopy of fairy lights, too. The Sunflower Café team know what they’re about.
If you’ve ever had to sit through someone droning through the rules of a game, without a microphone, I can tell you that Shirley is not that someone!
The packed hall was buzzing, but Shirley (about five-foot-nothing in her socks) settled us down, talked us through the house rules, cheerfully reassured the wide-eyed and sweaty-palmed that it would all become clear once we started, and: Let The Games Begin!
And yes, in case you didn’t know, the aim of the game is to be the first person to Draw A Beetle.
One word: manic. It turns out that a Beetle Drive is the F1 of table top games, assuming stock-car racing has an F1: Six! YES! I’ve got a body! Six again?! Nooooo! Ineedafive.Ineedafive.Letitbeafive! Argh! A three!
The rattle of dice and the clatter of cups! Keep up! Keep up! The cheers and moans, the aching shoulders from grabbing and chucking the dice! The frantic scribbling!
And then, the shrill cry of “BEETLE!!!” from one table, and the echoing gasps and sighs around the room, as people twist and crane to see who’s done it. Shirley checks for an anatomically correct (ish) beetle, gives her verdict – and then we’re off again!
Three games in, and two people from each table have to move anticlockwise to the next. The extra table placed in the middle of the room at the start is a complication, but we all find new seats, introduce ourselves to our new partners, and launch into another three games.
And then a 10-15 minute break for life support and to get better acquainted with the new partners. Bonding over beetles. No, it wouldn’t have crossed my mind either.
First, though, Shirley explained to us about the Sunflower Café, which pops up in St John’s Church Hall on the third Saturday of each month from 10am till 12pm (apart from December), offering space, refreshments and company to anyone affected by dementia. And often live entertainment too.
All the evening’s entry money (£3 a head/£5 a family) and donations for refreshments would be put towards hiring performers for the Sunflower Café.
Back to beetle mania, and five more games interspersed with head-scratching clockwise and anticlockwise table swaps, until the last triumphant “Beetle!”
After we’d totalled up our scores from all 11 games, there was a box of moreish chocolate fancies for the top score, and a booby prize of a pack of loo rolls for the bottom score.
There was also a prize for the person whose beetles showed some real artistry, unlike the swirls and squiggles the rest of us had scrawled across our page!
Our fun fundraiser ended on a cultural high note, with a prize for “Consistently Lovely Beetles’” before we all staggered out into the evening light. And it was still only 8.30pm!
A bit of background
A bit of background: Lorna and Shirley set up the café in 2016, for anyone from the St John’s congregation and the wider community of Farsley, experiencing memory problems or dementia – and for their family, friends and carers.
Lorna, Shirley and the other volunteers have now provided tea, teacakes, quizzes and entertainment every third Saturday from January to November for nine years, except when Covid forced us all to stay home.
While still primarily a ‘memory café’ for Farsley and neighbouring communities, the Sunflower Café’s doors are also open for anyone who wants to drop in for coffee and company, and maybe sing along or get up and dance when there’s an entertainer. A donation of £1-2 would be helpful.
At last Saturday’s Sunflower Café, Bramley’s String of Beads Choir gave a free concert – an unexpected delight, especially given the aforementioned wonderful acoustics.
The lush harmonies flowed around and through us, and almost everyone sang along under their breath to show songs, the Beatles (yes indeed!), traditional ballads and movie hits. All this as we sat around a red-checked tablecloth laid with posies of lavender, under that canopy of fairy lights. As I mentioned earlier, the Sunflower Café team know what they’re about!
If dementia has become part of life for you, your parent, partner or friend, there’s a welcome and good company waiting for you in this safe, cheerful space in Farsley.
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