Ladies and Gentlemen, fellow members.

Many thanks for coming today for our AGM. Apologies for the lateness of the meeting, but as most of you are aware I have been away, and I wanted to carry out the chairman’s duty personally,

I will try to keep this as short as possible so we can get on and play some bridge.

Firstly, I would like to thank all of the committee and non- committee divisions (David, Martin, Jenny & Mike, Sue, Jenny, Doreen, Mervyn) for their devotion towards the smooth running of the club and for their generous help in keeping me sane in, what can only be described, as a maelstrom position, especially on the emergence from covid.

There is a staggering amount of work that goes on behind the scenes and only due to their hard work does the club prosper. Some of you are already aware that we don’t have a dedicated treasurer anymore, but instead we have Doreen as leader of our finance section with Mervyn giving assistance and formulating the financial report, that you will see soon. In addition to this, there is Brian as leader of our I.T. and webmaster, then Jenny and Mike leading the card dealing section (and currently doing all of the dealing). These are areas of great importance and I’m sure they would all benefit from additional assistance (many hands make light work), so if you can offer help, or suggest other areas where external divisions might make running the club easier don’t hesitate to contact me or a member of the committee.

I would also like to personally thank all the directors, scorers and keyholders for their time and efforts, whether Face to Face or online to which without, we wouldn’t be playing bridge.

Overall, it’s been a strange year, but I feel we, The Club, are emerging from the pandemic different but still functioning and hopefully starting to build numbers and strength.

I thank the membership for their support with changes being made, especially with the cashless payment system, which has vastly simplified our accounting process and eases the workload undertaken by Doreen.

Also, to point out that training has restarted, many thanks to Mervyn, both for new beginners and advancing training for established players. If anyone feels they could improve with tuition in particular areas, please contact me and we will see if we can organise something. Tuition also includes Director and Scorer training, which Mike is currently undertaking (thanks Mike) and if anyone feels the urge to follow him, I’m sure we can assist next year. At this moment, costs for tuition to members will be funded by the club.

Finally, I’d like to thank you all for putting up with me and the changes that I am making towards the running of The Club, some of which are fairly simple and others more difficult, and to some, probably unnecessary. But I feel we need to take “moving into the future” an important issue, and with new methods and technologies we need to embrace the change that comes with them. I understand that not everyone wants change but only through communication can we learn to understand the reasons. If unsure, please talk with me on a one-to-one level and I’m sure we can understand each other.

My first and foremost rule is inclusion, and that means for the whole club, not just those pointed out earlier in the committee etc. Remember this is YOUR CLUB not mine, so if there’s a small something that you can do to ease the load on others, Please Please make yourself known. I think I’ve waffled enough now, so with your grace I’d like to move on to the Club Trophy winners over the last few months.

List of winners: -

Harry Radcliffe Bowl. - Margaret Denham & David Adams

Burnside Memorial Trophy - Louse Scull & Mervyn Jones.

Carol Fram Salver - Lesley Forman & Paul Royal

Club Shield - Rene Lister

Spring Trophy - John Watson & Mike Nailard

Dennis Smith Memorial Trophy - Mervyn Jones.

Master Point Trophy - Margaret Denham & David Adams

AGM Trophy - Rene Lister.

Nicky Burns Autumn Trophy - Margaret Denham & David Adams.