Basil Carpenter 24th December 1925 - 11th January 2010 An Appreciation When I set out to write this appreciation I wasn’t quite aware of how much Basil had done for the club. I do remember when I joined the club how he came up to Winnie and myself to welcome us. This welcoming behaviour, and his kindness to others is a feature that many club members have mentioned. The club started with Basil. He quite simply was the club. It will never be the same now he has gone. His contribution to the club has been nothing short of immense. But first, something of the man. Basil had many fields of interest. He was a long time member of his beloved Foresters. He did much work for their many charities. He was a member of the Sea Cadets. He was a great traveller. At an already impressive age he took up and mastered IT skills. These he put to good use for the club. He was a founder member of the club and guided it on its sometimes difficult path for over 40 years. The club was originally known as the Rectory Manor Bridge Club. Basil’s notes on the history of the club say that at that time there were 20 members. They must have been an enthusiastic lot as they entered teams in both the West Essex Bridge league and the Tottenham and District Bridge league. Stuart Dunstan is pretty sure Basil was instrumental in starting the latter league. In 1970 the club moved to the Wadham Lodge Sports Ground and renamed itself the Wadham Lodge Bridge Club. There are still members today who say they are from ‘Wadham’. That they do this as a slip of the tongue, or because in their hearts they still see themselves as Wadham lodge members is hard to tell. Old habits die hard I guess. I remember well the 1987 AGM when a change of name was discussed yet again. Basil as secretary ran that AGM. He was always very polite when speaking to members even when views were being freely expressed. However Basil was not one to be distracted from the agenda. The meeting proved highly emotional. A past Chairperson spoke passionately about identification. He wanted to retain the Wadham name. But the proposal was there to be discussed and Basil helped the meeting to look at another aspect of identification important in bridge, that of potential visitors and potential members knowing exactly where the club was. The discussion changed. Falling membership required us to find a more appropriate geographical name and ‘Waltham Forest’ arrived. In 1980 Basil got our first newsletter going. These days we place interesting hands and general news on the web-site. This wasn’t available then so attempts would break out from time to time to produce a bridge type magazine. I see in one old copy there are contributions form ‘Oldman’ Bloomfield ,from E Blum and Gareth Dykes, members I can just remember from way back. Another reference mentions Nicola Elliot, Colin’s mother. Together they came 4th in the Regional Heat of the National pairs. Another attempt at bringing out a bridge quarterly came 10 years or so later, ‘The Titanic’ but unfortunately this did not last very long. However it is in the Titantic that we first hear of how the club was formed. Originally Basil attended lessons at the Lea Valley Social Club. A small social bridge group grew out of these lessons (much as happened with the Woodberry Bridge Club many years later). When this group failed to last Basil set about forming his own club, the one that eventually became Rectory Manor. By the 1970s Basils’s efforts were bringing high rewards. In 1974 the club won the Essex Club trophy for the first time. There were now four teams in the West Essex League and by 1978 membership had reached over 80. The club inaugurated the Wadham Lodge Swiss Teams at the Foresters Hall (where else?). The 70s and 80s were probably the hey day of the club. Membership numbers were high. Nevertheless the 90s saw an impressive number of very good players represent the club. In 1990 the club won the Fletcher Trophy for the first time (current members who played in that event include Andy Dodds, and Winnie Godber) The Fletcher was won again in 1992 (Winnie, Phil and Keith Mattacks and Andy , again, being involved). The Helliar has been captured three times, an impressive record for such a small club. Throughout all this success Basil must have felt very proud. He was not without success himself. He was part of the victorious West Essex Champions team more than once. I played with Basil for a short while; we won the Tony Kelvin Trophy (I can’t quite remember the year), playing with Winnie Godber and Robin Cookson. Just looking at the results at Waltham Forest and Woodberry I see that in the last four months he won twice at both clubs. Not bad for someone in their eighties! If there is one characteristic that I would choose regarding Basil it would be, as already mentioned, his kindness. He was always welcoming to whoever came to the club. I have written a fair bit about the history of the club so it is only fair to mention what some of the newest members have said. Eileen Bart on hearing of Basil’s death said simply, ‘such a nice man, he always encouraged me from the start’. Janet Spendlow, another new member, said of him that he never failed to offer advice, “always pleasantly so”. Adam is full of praise for his generosity and for the advice and kindness Basil offered him over the last few months. Esther Lack who played with Basil at Woodberry for 15 years was another who mentioned just what a good, and forgiving partner , he was. Peter Richardson, who has recently resurfaced at the club after some years away, says that Basil's welcome of his return was as warm as he remembers when he first joined. For me, all I can say is that since taking over the position of Secretary from Basil he was nothing but helpful, and understanding. I cannot hope to be anything like the success he was but at least I was lucky enough to have his support for a short period. Basil, you will always be remembered, always missed. The club will not be the same now you have gone. John Stimson, March 2010 |