Halifax Bridge Club 1932-1961. Looking back over 90 years.
Part 1: The early days
The club recorded its 71 years at its AGM in 2021 and referenced a first set of minutes from 1950. These show that 24 members attended a meeting of the Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association on 26 April 1950 at the Halifax and District Ladies’ Club. Mr D.S. Rayner was in the chair. They agreed to set up a committee to represent Halifax and that a bridge club, to be called the Halifax and District Bridge Association be formed. They also agreed to hold a duplicate once a month at The Plummet Line.
The Plummet Line Hotel
The author believes that quite a few bridge clubs which can trace formal records back to the 1950s actually had an earlier active history, which probably lapsed during the Second World War. The records set out below indicate this, and these are similar to those at Ipswich BC which traces its minuted history to 1957 but was formed in 1934.
George Nelson, Champion Billiard player of Yorkshire from 1906 to 1911, and a formidable bridge player was to found the Yorkshire Contract Bridge Association in 1932. It looks like Halifax was an early member.
Leeds Mercury 18 March 1932
Yorkshire Evening Post 10 December 1932
By 1934 bridge was clearly established in Halifax.
Yorkshire Evening Post 24 February 1934
By 1936 the club was playing regularly at Palace Chambers, Southgate.
Halifax Evening Courier 20 October 1936
By 1937 Halifax appeared to be leading the way in membership numbers with an astonishing 54 pairs from the club entering the Yorkshire Pairs Championship. It is important also to note the roles of Mrs Turner and Mrs Appleyard.
Yorkshire Evening Post 20 March 1937
The hand below was played 27 times, with 9 different contracts. That seemed to tickle George Nelson, but today we could imagine an even greater diversity!
As above
In Autumn 1936 the club had won the Buxton Congress Queen Newspaper Cup for women’s teams of four, captained by Mrs Turner who was to be elected Club President in 1950.
Yorkshire Evening Post 11 September 1937
As above
The club was clearly well established by this time, in its fifth year. As for Mrs Turner, her team were third in the Open Teams of Four at the 3rd Blackpool Congress and third in the Open Pairs with Mrs Appleyard.
We can see her at the first Yorkshire County pairs trial in October 1938:
Yorkshire Post 15 October 1938
She continued her run of form that year in the Yorkshire Open Teams.
Yorkshire Evening Post 10 December 1938
Earlier in 1938 Halifax played an event at the White Swan Hotel, which was the same venue in February for an event with a staggering 36 tables, organised by the redoubtable Mrs Turner.
Yorkshire Evening Post 15 January 1938
Yorkshire Post 19 February 1938
Yorkshire Post and Leeds Intelligencer 24 March 1938
As 1939 opened, Mrs Turner had a tough match on her hands for the Waddington Shield, Yorkshire’s premier Teams of Four competition.
Yorkshire Post 14. January 1939.
After the end of the second world war, there is still evidence that Halifax BC was going strong. One event had moved from The White Swan to The Plummet Line.
Halifax Evening Courier 16 November 1946
The following article is most instructive, showing Mrs Turner’s bidding and the continuation of the club.
Yorkshire Post, 15/01/1947 (i)
As above (ii)
As above (iii)
In the final of the 1950 Nelson Rose Bowl, the Yorkshire Women’s Teams of Four competition, Mrs Turner’s Halifax team lost to Dewsbury by 1,700 points.
So, when the YCBA meeting in April 1950 convened, it is not surprising that Mrs Turner was elected President. One of her regular partners, Mrs Rose N Appleyard had died, aged 71 in February.
Eileen Marvell Turner died unexpectedly aged 65 in July 1959, just a month after her younger son George had been awarded the OBE in the Queen’s birthday honours list. He had been a former playing member of Halifax Rugby Union Club, at which he was vice-president, and he had played for Cambridge, the Army, Yorkshire, and Middlesex.
Part Two: A new star emerges
Halifax Evening Courier 1 December 1959
The club’s first premises at 27 Rhodes Street were opened on 28 November 1959. While the premises were new, the club was not and we have the evidence of Mrs Shoesmith to confirm this.
Halifax Evening Courier 21 December 1959
But before the new premises were opened, on the front page of the Halifax Courier and Guardian of 31 August 1959 was a story of the previous day’s bridge match between Lancashire and Yorkshire at the White Swan Hotel. A Mr. Raymond S Brock, a member of Halifax Bridge Club, and a previous captain of the University of Manchester Bridge team, was on the winning side. He was soon to take up a post as a physics teacher at North Manchester Grammar School for boys.
Halifax Evening Courier 31 August 1959
He had been a pupil at Calder High School where he won two examination prizes in 1953 and a distinction in 1955 before studying at Manchester University.
Halifax Evening Courier 2 December 1953
Halifax Evening Courier 19 August 1955
Raymond Slater Brock was born in October 1936 in Biggleswade Bedfordshire, but presumably his family moved to Mytholmroyd when he was young. His achievements in the bridge world are listed later.
In the year after the Roses battle he was both a bridge correspondent for the local paper and a regular member of the club, while spending time representing England.
Halifax Evening Courier 24 October 1960
A few months later among the club qualifiers for the Portland Cup was Mr D Rayner, the club chairman.
Halifax Evening Courier 2 December 1960
The following month Mr Brock, bridge correspondent was writing about a hand at the club.
Halifax Evening Courier 11 January 1961
In Spring of 1961 we can see a normal club night with Mr Brock playing with Mr Rayner. It is hardly surprising to see them in first position.
He was a member of the Great Britain team that finished second in both the 1987 European Bridge League championship and the 1987 Bermuda Bowl world championship, and fifth in the 1988 World Team Olympiad. This success came during his partnership with Tony Forrester, which lasted from 1982 to 1990. He achieved the rank of World International Master through his performances.
Raymond Brock’s achievements:
Member of Halifax Bridge Club
Camrose Trophy Selections*: 1960 1963 1964 1977 1978 1979 1982 1983 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 and 1990
Gold Cup Winner: 1979 1983 1984 1986 1989 1990 and 1992
Crockfords Winner: 1969 1978 1982 1986 1990 and 2004
Spring Bank Holiday Teams Winner: 1979 1981 1982
National Teams Congress winner: 1985 1987 1989 and 1992
The Hubert Phillips Bowl Winner: 1968 1980 1982 2000 2001 2002 and 2004
National Pairs winner: 1960 and 1961
Tollemache Cup winner: 1965 1968 1977 and 1986
Portland Pairs winner: 1985 1999
Halifax Evening Courier 7 April 1961
Raymond Brock
Simon Westerman
January 2022
The Queen, The Lady’s Newspaper was founded in 1864. It became “Harpers and Queen” in the 1950s and is now Harper’s Bazaar.
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