Hemel Hempstead Bridge Club

Chairman’s AGM Report 2014-15

During the past year we have continued to run Duplicate Bridge nights on Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although we try to organise Bridge on Bank Holiday Mondays, this year we had to cancel Bridge on “May Day” as no Director was available. We also had to cancel Spring Bank Holiday week while the premises were rewired.  All evenings use duplimated boards and I would again like to thank David Blasebalk for running the Duplimate machine. We do not use Bridgemates although they are under regular review by your committee.

The club’s membership is in line with last year and the average number of tables per week has risen slightly due to a  rise on Monday evenings. We did experiment with a standby system on Thursdays, and I would like to thank Pat Hogger, Jane Farndon, Clive Walters, and Peter Thomas for volunteering to be a standby. It wasn’t used much however, and we have reverted to “find a partner” by contacting myself if you want to play on either a Monday or Thursday. Derek Gowlett is still the main contact for Tuesdays.

We ran a Swiss pairs event on Sunday 22nd February and with a lareger entry than in previous years.   Those playing enjoyed the day and therefore we will be running the event again in Februay 2016. Thanks to Derek Peers for organising the event.

My thanks to  Susie for organising the Christmas Party ably assisted by Pat Henry. They both put in a tremendous about of hard work to make the event a success.

The committee feel that there isn’t suffucient fun in the Bridge element and to this end we will be introducing one or two more fun items this year. We would also like to know members views as to whether we should change the food. We did attach a short qustionaire to the last newsletter, but if you  missed it, we would still welcome your views.

We are not planning any significant changes to the calendar or competition rules, and we will continue with our local rule (as per the noticeboard), which has helped to speed up play.

The Club won the Herts Eccles cup for the first time in many years. Congratultions to Lesley Peers, Naomi Gibbs, Derek Gowlett, Patrick McIntrye, Jonathon Harris, Barry Moule and Paula and Graham Morton. We also came second in the Desmond Flockhart trophy, having won the trophy in the previous year.

I have to report the sad loss of Stanley Hartland who passed away last year. Stanley  played on Thursdays and occassionally on Mondays.

Finally a big thank you to all those who have served on the Committee;  Cliff Short,  Paula Morton, Lesley Peers,  Susie Bond, David Blasebalk, Pat Jacobs, Jean Walters and Naomi Gibbs.

Susie, Pat and Jean are all retiring after many years of dedicated service. If anyone would care to join the committee it would be much appreciated.

I would also like to thank  Derek Gowlett for organising  Tuesday’s bridge;  all our Directors;  Roger Edmonds for the web site;  Anne Short as our membership secretary and  Cynthia Wheatley for acquiring our provisions. The Club couldn’t function without their help.

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David Stimson