Minutes of AGM held on 6th March 2025

The meeting opened at 6.45 with 16 members present.

1 Apologies for Absence: John Gray

2 Approval of Minutes of AGM 2024: These had been circulated and were approved as a true and accurate record. P Clive Nichols  S Ian Mordue

3 Matters Arising: There were none

4 Treasurer’s Report and Approval of Accounts: Accounts were circulated and approved. Peter reported that whereas the previous year there had been a surplus, this year there was a deficit owing to the increase in the rent for the use of the Golf Club but that for the immediate future, there was no need to consider an increase in fees, but unless attendances increase we may have to do so in future.

5 Other Officers’ Reports:  Were circulated in advance and can be seen below. As Chair Allan thanked Brian Myers, Denise Barham Hall and John Little who were all stepping down from their various roles after many years of service. The Reports were approved by the meeting, P Audrey Bainbridge  S Peter Lisle

6 Election of Officers for 2024/25: 

The following nominations had been received for Officers and Committee Members.

• Chair - Allan Blackett - prop Peter Whitton; sec Audrey Bainbridge
• Secretary - Malcolm Dawson - prop Allan Blackett; sec Denise Barham Hall
• Treasurer - Peter Whitton - prop Malcolm Dawson; sec Allan Blackett
• Match Captain - Audrey Bainbridge - prop Claudette Whitton; sec Denise Barham Hall
• Official Scorer - John Portwood - prop Malcolm Dawson; sec Allan Blackett

7 Nominations for and election of Ordinary Committee Members (non-officer)

• Denise Barham Hall; Claudette Whitton - prop Brian Myers; sec Malcolm Dawson

As no other nominations had been received it was proposed that they be accepted en bloc. P Brian Myers  S Clive Nicholls and were approved by the meeting.

8 A.O.B. There being none the meeting closed at 6.55 pm.

Chairman's Report

My first year as chairman has gone quickly and without any major problems mainly due to the excellent support of the committee whom I would like to thank for all their hard work keeping the club functioning.

Special thanks go to Secretary and Web Master Malcolm for reminding me about upcoming events and keeping the club running smoothly. He has also promoted the club by writing articles for the local free magazine.

Thank you also to Treasurer Peter for looking after the club finances and preparing the detailed reports.

Club Scorer and Director John has done an excellent job in directing and scoring. He has been extremely patient in explaining the scoring system to me.

Thank you to retiring Team Captain Denise, for her many years work in always managing to pull a team together which has sometimes been difficult with reducing membership numbers.

Finally, a special thanks to Brian who is now stepping down from his post on the committee after many years, having served as the Chairman and Secretary in the past. His help and advice at meetings will be sorely missed.

Allan Blackett

Secretary’s Report:

In common with many Bridge Clubs across the country, an ageing membership and few younger people taking up the game has impacted our regular attendances and we are only averaging four to four and a half tables each week. Mobility problems, issues with driving in the evening and the unfortunate passing of elderly members means that regular attendances are only 50% of the levels they were only a decade ago. However as long as the current attendance figures continue we will continue to be sustainable although it would be nice to see more members each week.

Sadly we lost David Wilkinson this year after a long illness. David served on the committee in many different roles over the years and started a Bridge group for the Tees/Wear u3a which is still meeting regularly. David was a very calm individual and a delight to play with and against. He is a sad loss.

I have submitted several articles to the local South West Durham Press which are available on line and I believe in hard copy to residents of Bishop Auckland. The General Election caused a hiatus in their publication and although I am not over confident this will attract new members but is at least one way of letting the local community know of our existence.

We have entered several EBU Sims Pairs events over the last year and it is always interesting to compare results in the club, with a limited number of tables, with the nationally adjusted figures when results are compared with many more.

This year we departed from our traditional Presentation Night Dinner and instead invited members along to choose from the menu that is on offer at the Golf Club. Eighteen members were in attendance and we were pleased that John Little our President was able to be there to present the prizes. The committee agreed at a meeting in February that we would do the same again for the Spring Dinner and Presentation Evening in 2025.

Congratulations to all those who were successful in our various competitions over the past twelve months:

Allan Blackett and Malcolm Dawson - Latner Trophy;

Denise Barham Hall and John Portwood - Carpenter Cup;

Pauline Short and Beryl Thompson - Anniversary Trophy

Audrey Bainbridge - Master Points Trophy.

Thanks to all who attended the Christmas Party at Kirk Merrington and for all your contributions to the excellent buffet.

Many thanks to everyone who has served on the committee this year, especially Peter for looking after the finances, Denise for liaising with NEBA and dealing with all aspects of competing in the Inter Club, but especially to John Portwood who has found himself having to act as Director almost exclusively as well as setting up the movement and taking control of the scoring each week.

And finally many thanks to those of you who come along regularly. We wouldn’t exist without you.

Malcolm Dawson

Treasurer’s Report:

The accounts were examined by Mr. R.A. Barham-Hall and passed as being an accurate reflection of our finances (see below).

We averaged 4.1 tables over 51 sessions played.

(4.3 tables in 2023, 4.42 tables in 2022 and 7.4 pre-covid).

We have paid £50 per session rent to the Golf Club since April 2024 (previously £40 for a 6 month period and £30 prior to that).

We had an award of £200 from the EBU in 2024 (as last year).

This year the Presentation Dinner was paid for individually by those who attended and is not reflected in the accounts so the comparison with last year is not applicable.

The bottom line shows that over the past year we spent £266 more than we received whereas in 2023 we had a surplus of £702 but this was largely because of the increase in table money before the rent to the Golf Club was increased. We can support this for a few more years at current levels of attendance and table money

Peter Whitton

Examination of Accounts for Year 2024/25

At the request of Mr Peter Whitton I have examined the financial accounts for the year 2024 with sight of the previous year's reports. I would commend Peter for the way in which the records were presented to me for examination and also to acknowledge the meticulous manner in which they are maintained and the value of the spreadsheet used for recording and cross checking balances etc. Whilst there are one or two additions to be made in readiness for completion of the Annual Report, I have no hesitation in confirming the accuracy of the records and subsequent considerations as a result.

Robert Barham Hall

Team Captain's Report

The team played well throughout the year only losing to Brunton B.. Our strength seems to be that we have a stable group and if one or two people are missing folk are always willing to play in different partnerships. We were happy to add David Blackett to our number and as ever Peter and Claudette continued to support by being available if necessary. The team members are Malcolm, Allan, Brian, Audrey, Roger,  Alison , John Dobson, John Gray, John Bernard, David and myself.

Our success this season means that we head Division B by 20 victory points and will be promoted to Div A next season. I relinquish the captaincy at the AGM and wish the team under the new captain Audrey all the best for the 2025/26 season.

My thanks to everyone for your support.

Denise Barham-Hall

Scorer’s/Director’s Report:

This year all has gone pretty smoothly and some of the other club members have shown an interest in setting up and running the equipment. The computer is showing its age taking time to start up and update, but is still adequate for the tasks involved. 

From a Director's perspective, there is nothing unusual to report. A reminder that those who are ready in the wings should make a conscious effort to remain acquainted with the Laws so, should they be needed, the appropriate law can be found and implemented (and a reminder not to "guess" the Law). If anyone is interested, I can run an informal coaching course covering the most common situations (Leads and calls out of turn, insufficient bids, revokes, claims and how to handle simple MI,UI and EI situations (Law 16)). Players are reminded that it is the Director's (not the players’) responsibility to handle any situation and that the Director has lots of powers to ensure an equitable result is reached - but cannot implement them unless he becomes aware of them! Calling the TD (politely) is not an unfriendly act - and the TD welcomes an early call since it often means the problem can be sorted out more easily.

John B Portwood