Hemel Hempstead Bridge Club

Chairman’s AGM Report 2019-20

From June 2019 until early March 2020 this was a pretty normal year.  We played duplicate bridge every Monday evening;  ran a number of bridge events;  hosted 3 competitions for the Hertfordshire Bridge Association (Eccles cup, Mixed pairs and the Marjorie Lukyn final) and ran our annual Open Swiss Pairs event organised by Derek Peers. Then the Covid-19 virus took over.

We held our last Monday session on the 16th March 2020 and the country went into lockdown on 23rd March.  There has been no normal face to face bridge sessions since.

As we ceased all of our normal competitions in March, we were unable to hold both the Feldenwood and the Carpenter cup.  Also we were unable to complete the Byron cup.  A list of the winners of our other competitions is shown below.

As there didn’t appear to be any prospect of running Monday evenings at the Club for some considerable time, the committee decided we should organise on line duplicate pairs sessions.  I would like to offer a big thank you to Derek Peers for organising and running these events.  He also ran them in such a way that our club members were able to pay in Sterling rather than $BBO.  The “table money” for these sessions will remain at £2.50 up until 1st July when it will reduce to £2.

We have introduced a new form of membership called Associated Member.  The cost for this is £5 and allows members of other local clubs to play in our online sessions,  currently we have six associate members.

I would also like to thank John Pelley and Richard Hannaby for being our ongoing standby pair.

All membership subscriptions will be automatically renewed and no fee will be charged unless we resume normal bridge at the table (and maybe not even then).

Sadly I have to report that Mike Neverton passed away during the year.  He was a nice guy.

I am pleased to report that the Club came second in the Herts inter-club competition. Mike Rawlins and Naomi Gibbs team were runners up in the Humble cup and they were the top qualifiers for the National Pairs final.   Joanne Turner and Vincent Shaw also qualified for this event.  Unfortunately the final  had to be cancelled due to the virus.  Many of our pairs qualified for the Herts pairs final but that was similarly cancelled.  Paul Littlewood’s team is doing well in the EBU online league playing in division 1 against many of the top players in the country.

A big thank you to Margaret Ainsworth,  Derek and Lesley Peers, Anne Short, Pat Henry, Naomi Gibbs and Roger Edmonds for serving on the committee and I believe they will all volunteer to continue.

Also thanks to Cliff Short and Vincent Shaw for running the bridgtabs,  David Blasbalk for running the duplimator,  to all our Directors and Scorers and to Anne Short and Lesley Peers for organising a great Christmas party.  Let’s hope we can run one in 2020.

David Stimson

Competition winners

Club Championship                Maggie Moore & John Wareham

Hobson Bowl                          Tanja & George Summers, Roger Edmonds & David Stimson

Monday Ladder                      Derek Peers

Neal Vase                                Roger Edmonds

Hemmings                               Margaret Ainsworth

Thistle Bowl                           Sue Fleming, Pat Barker, Sue Burton & Pauline Cockman

Smith cup                                Christine Bergh & Doug Beard

Hudson Salver                         Derek & Lesley Peers