The club started in 1947 (with Agnes Crerar and Natalie Oliver as members) in the Diss Conservative Club premises with about six tables and known as ‘Diss Bridge Club'.  A period of growth meant that there was soon insufficient room and in 1988 the club moved to the newly built Roydon Village Hall, with the plaster still damp and the place echoing until sound insulation was installed.  A girl was contracted to make tea and coffee at break time.

Newcomers joining in the late 1990s have stated that the vast majority of members were most welcoming and helpful, although a few were less accommodating, whether through lack of thought, empathy or interpersonal skills.  One new member was made sufficiently uncomfortable to abandon the game altogether and two others went to another club and played there for many years.  It is perhaps worth remembering most newcomers can find the speed of play formidable.

For a time the club was running 15 tables, so the committee decided to close the membership; newcomers would be invited if a member needed a partner.  At that point the membership dropped and has never quite regained the same level.

Several names have been provided which long-standing members will no doubt recognise.
Mention has been made of Bobby and Dave Dinsdale, who ran beginners’ classes for years.  Other names which may be recalled are Shirley Thrower (chair), preceded by Michael Richards, (who was also a long serving Chief Director).Brian Parkinson (secretary) and Yvonne Mills and Barbara Smith  (committee), who for years bought the goods and washed the tea-cloths for the refreshments.
Joan Watkins and Nellie Wells were cheerful, chatty and pleasant and very canny at the table.  They played together for many years, until they became too fragile to venture out.
William Pickard was a pleasant opponent who always had a bag of sweets and would offer them around.  Another man, younger than most, always wore a hat.  The name is not mentioned, but apparently some members referred to him by the nick-name ‘Paddington Bear’.
A quietly competent partnership was that between Edwin Harris and Peter Aston, a professor of Music at UEA.  Edwin had some considerable standing in the agricultural world.
For several years one charming, but unidentified, couple ran an annual event in aid of the Bury St Edmunds hospice.  The event offered Bridge and lunch in conjunction with Redgrave Hospice fundraising group.  Roydon always provided the puddings and Michael Richards usually directed.
Another memorable couple were Tony and Cathy Lewis; able players but always polite and ready to congratulate opponents who squeezed their way through a tricky contract.  Cathy was a retired head teacher and Tony still worked as an international consultant statistician when in his eighties.
Colin and Marion Street were scorers in the nineties, then around the turn of the millenium Tony and Rita Preston were Chair and Secretary, did the scoring and both directed.
Brian Parkinson has been scorer since 2001, having joined the club in 1994.

In the early days of the club the scoring was done manually, and was a time consuming process. As a consequence, one weeks results were not available until the following week.

In recent years there has been a drive to attract new members.  There used to be a table fee of £1 for members and £2 for visitors.  The chairman at the time, Charles Baskerville, changed this to £1 for all, reasoning, correctly, that visitors were potential members and should not be exploited in this way.

There was a time, apparently, when most members scuttled off at the end of the evening leaving a few heroes to clear the entire hall.  Happily this brutish behaviour has been abandoned.

The club began to use ScoreBridge software to compile results about 2010 and the EBU-supported BridgeWebs website design appplication about 2011, although Brian set up a website before that.The latest improvement was the purchase of a Dealing Machine in 2015.

Any further memories will be received with abject gratitude; change the names to protect the innocent if you must, but more characters and plot will not spoil the narrative. 

Howard Yates

Update

Post pandemic our numbers dropped, some preferred to continue playing online, others were content to play social bridge at home. We were often unable to get the minimum of 3 tables to play. Members preferred to play in the afternoons rather than the evening. Unfortunately Roydon Village Hall was not available in the afternoon, but we managed to get the Salvation Army Community Hall Diss. Reluctantly we played our last evening at Roydon in May 2022 after 34 years there.

Having settled into our new Diss venue , it makes sense to rename the club back to Diss Bridge Club , which is what we were called until 1988

Graham Boutell