Guy left after the game of Russian Railroads but the rest of us had time for a quick game so I dug out Clubs, a very simple climbing card game, along the lines of the Great Dalmuti or Tichu. The first player leads a meld which can be either "X of a kind" or a "Sequence of X cards". Players can then follow with a higher value of the same meld or pass. If all other players pass, the player of the last set of cards takes all the cards played to that "trick" into their score pile and leads with a new meld. Players get bonus points for the order in which they run out of cards but the last player with cards scores no points at all for the round, while everyone else scores points for the cards they took in the Clubs suit. The game ends when someone reaches 50 points, highest score wins.

I had rubbish cards! Well at least I did for the first four rounds as I hadn't scored a single point by then. Meanwhile Julia and Mark K had got themselves up to 48 and 44 points respectively. Fortunately, I did get a decent hand fifth time around but it was too late as Mark K shot over the 50 point threshold for the win.