Graham Cheater - Life Member

by Miriam Lewin

The walls of Graham’s hilltop home are adorned with artworks by his wife and daughters as well as travel photos he has taken of such wonders as the marine iguana. While a tui forages for nectar outside, the view from the window expands to encompass Kapiti Island, most of Waikanae and on a clear day, Mt Taranaki to the north. A bare precipitous paddock when they acquired it 20 years ago, it is now well planted, mostly with natives. His only regret regarding the property is that his mother never saw it when it had been developed; she visited when the house was just built and the grounds not much different from the sheep playground it was when Graham and wife Anne first discovered it.

Born in 1950 in Chelmsford, Essex to clerical worker parents, the young Graham played mostly board games at home with his family, occasionally dabbling in card games such as whist and euchre. He always did well at Maths and it was his secondary school Maths teacher who first taught him and a group of friends the rudiments of bridge. He took to it immediately and has always been interested in the statistical analysis of the game, which those of us who have been to his ‘Improver’s Lessons’ can attest to! Graham continued to play bridge extensively at Bradford Bridge Club, whilst studying at university; he won multiple awards in teams and pairs events, some of which still sit on an almost forgotten shelf upstairs in his home alongside a little plaque he won for being ‘Best Cyclist’ at his junior school. He also represented Yorkshire in county matches and played in the Gold Cup National teams event, making it to the quarter finals. Bradford Bridge Club was a large and serious club of 250-300 members, with a caterer and, naturally, a bar which was diligently attended throughout the playing sessions.

Perhaps Graham’s greatest love after family is travel. After completing his Pharmacy degree he embarked on the start of what would be a lifetime of travel which has seen him visit eighty countries, with more on his bucket list. His first major trip saw him travel overland from London to Sydney. This trip really opened up the world for Graham, and don’t worry, I know some consider him a (bridge) god, but he didn’t actually walk on water, he crossed the wet parts by boat. This epic journey was soon followed by his first experience of New Zealand. He travelled from the top of the North to the bottom of the South and was suitably impressed. Returning to England he soon itched for something different and took up a position with the International Red Cross in Thailand in 1980, where there was an unprecedented humanitarian crisis involving 600,000 Cambodian refugees.

In Thailand Graham oversaw pharmaceutical supplies and trained the locals to cope with typical scenarios using basic medications which they could realistically obtain. He had to find a way to deal with completely useless donations from America, describing his time with Red Cross as not dissimilar to the TV programme MASH. It was here that he met a Kiwi nurse named Anne. They returned together to England and married in Yorkshire in 1982.

Living later in Zambia, Graham again worked managing pharmaceutical supplies. He remembers a pretty lavish and social lifestyle in Zambia, with servants and no drink driving laws. Anne worked as a nurse and gave birth to their second daughter there. The bridge playing continued in Zambia and Graham also joined the Round Table service organisation, thus getting to know local professional Zambians. Taking advantage of the location the family took holidays to nearby South Africa, Mauritius and Zimbabwe.

Eventually a business opportunity brought the Cheaters to settle in Waikanae in 1985 with their three daughters. Here Graham was first a partner, then the sole owner of Waikanae pharmacy. At Waikanae Bridge Club Graham remembers playing with such greats as John Mautner, Celia Bowker and Wilf Buckley, and it was in the 1990’s that he heard mention that “a good player is coming down from Tauranga”. That player was Jeanne Wardill; they struck up not just a playing partnership but also a great friendship that endures to this day.

As their girls grew Anne and Graham continued to travel. Highlights include the Greek Islands, Macchu Picchu in Peru, a houseboat in Kashmir, sunrise over the Ganges river and the Moreno Glacier in Patagonia. By his own admission Graham is no adrenaline junkie, preferring a hot air balloon ride over the Serengeti to the bungy jumping favoured by his daughters. He and Anne continue to keep active, with albeit shorter tramps, and certainly no letup in their rigorous travel schedule. They have recently returned from the Galapagos Islands and are planning a walking tour in Scotland next year and visits to family and friends. As well, Graham has a couple of regular volunteering gigs, which keep him in touch with the local community where he was a well known figure for so many years.

Graham and Jeanne recently played in an inter provincial trial and won the Babich National pairs competition a few years ago. As a very capable President in 2015 -16, Graham instigated a robust process to maintain the integrity of our club at the highest level. He currently serves on the Wellington Regional Committee and is the regional Rubber Bridge co-ordinator.

Vicky Young - Life Member