Knowle Bridge Club AGM 2025
Chair’s Annual Report, Part 1

2025 began well and got better: there were good numbers of membership renewals; table numbers kept up; fresh faces emerged as players of the month; play was generally happy and maybe just a bit quicker allowing a couple more hands per evening. This was all very encouraging, so your Committee got enthusiastic!

Most members are familiar with the club WhatsApp group which is a great convenience for getting messages between members. Behind thescenes is another grouping for the Committee and another for TDs. Committee discussions seldom need formal meetings: we chat at the club and on WhatsApp which has now largely taken over from E-mails. Then we got enthusiastic! More people wanted to get involved in doing things for the club. Roles were identified, including getting our own card dealing machine. New WhatsApp groups arose for each scheme, its training and its co-ordination. Chair was copied into each group, so as they all shared ideas I got hours of reading through my phone on most  days.

I regret to report that in the early summer I stopped taking as deep an interest in all of this as I should have done because I was preoccupied with buying and selling a home. It was great, though, to see just how keenly and earnestly the Committee and volunteers applied themselves. Reporting on outcomes must fall to my successor as chair after I left in August. It has been a privilege to have done what I could through the years to help such lovely people as yourselves to run your club.

Paul Hardstaff

Chairman's Report (Part 2)
Our Chairman for more than ten years Paul Hardstaff left us in August with the club in good shape. Paul will be much missed by the Club. He guided us
through the difficult Covid years and aftermath in his quiet, understated way. He came early every week to set out tables and chairs etc. to make the hall
look inviting, to fill the urn and switch on the heating. He inspired Geoff to taking on this mantle which has ensured a smooth change over. I would like
to give a big thank you to Geoff for organising and leading a team of helpers who make sure that the Hall is ready for us to play on a Wednesday evening.
(If you would be willing to join the setting-up rota, please see Geoff or Mike who will add you to their 'WhatsApp' group.)

It could be expected that in the few short months between Paul leaving and a new Chairman being voted in, that very little or nothing would have happened. However this is not the case. Tony Cundy very nobly offered to admit anyone interested in to the art of tournament directing and several members volunteered to have a go. This has been so successful that we now have four new directors who have successfully run their first Bridge evening. Congratulations to Caroline, Jan, Marie and Richard on their achievement, with others waiting in the wings to give it a go after Christmas. We have also taken the plunge with our own dealing machine and which has now been in brought into use and to date seems to be producing some very brain challenging hands.

We are very lucky to have a full Committee of enthusiasts and a lovely bunch of people as members of our Club, with everyone willing to take a turn at helping out, the future is looking bright.

Fran Baxter (Interim Chairman)

Knowle Bridge Club Chair’s Annual Message 2024

Hasn’t the year gone well!  We manage more smiles than frowns. Table numbers are buoyant so we cover room hire costs and there is usually a slightly different selection of members present each week.  Some are relative beginners seeking a friendly place to develop while seasoned campaigners look either for an evening’s gentle diversion or opportunity to practice and build a partnership. The mixture makes for varied and absorbing play. Our Player of the Month awards have continued to add a bit of fun and sometimes taken a winner by surprise. Competition must have been keen because no-one succeeded twice this year. Congratulations to everyone who won.

Our equipment has worked well with occasional confusion making a learning opportunity for TDs. A new piece of kit now lets us pay table money by card. The venue, Knowle Village Hall, is pleasant place to play. Its refurbishment programme has done wonders with the rooms we use and next phase will be improving the green room and backstage.

Last year’s drinks and nibbles set a happy atmosphere for our AGM and subsequent bridge play. It was disappointing to get no addition to our committee during the meeting, but shortly after first Geoff Walters and then Marie Howarth volunteered and were quickly co-opted. They bring fresh viewpoints to  invigorate the old stagers. We also persuaded Fran Baxter to join so we benefit from her experience with  Dorridge Bridge Club and as a TD.  

Committee members are presently the following people:

• Andrew who understands the computer and tablets. He directs. He backs up Tony generating hands.
• Faye who ensures there is always something available to drink. She knows a local background and always considers individuals.
• Fran who directs and has long experience running bridge. She researches solutions and finds answers
• Geoff who organises our TDs. He is usually first on the scene to set up for an evening.  He is irrepressibly cheerful and always encouraging.
• Marie who keeps track of membership. She collects table fees and has co-ordinating this evening’s refreshments.
• Mike who keeps our accounts, books the hall pays the bills. He administers our Whatsapp group and our Player of the Month awards.
• Tony who generates our hands from a computer and uses a dealing machine so we have cards to play each week. He directs and leads on policy for TDs.. He researches anything we need to know with tireless enthusiasm and knows the history of everything to do with bridge.

Beyond the committee, Chris Lynn is usually our fee collector and Janet Cundy very often substituted in Chris’s absence.  David French continues to be absolutely brilliant looking after our website.
I try not to get in the way of any of them. On behalf of all club members I offer a big “Thank You” to all of these.

Committee recently considered whether we should affiliate to the English Bridge Union.  We concluded we should not.  The only benefit for most members would be awarding master points, for which a fee would be paid to EBU per player per session and there would be some constraints on the movements we play. Our members would all be expected to be members of EBU too.  We felt the rigour of satisfying EBU risked spoiling the relaxed and friendly atmosphere that we enjoy.

Occasionally before and after an evening’s bridge I just stand back and watch how busy it is when, say, 10 tables are set up or cleared away.  Furniture whizzes around the hall; cloths, bidding boxes, tablets and boards fly into their places. Everyone knows what needs doing and does it so willingly. Thank you, members, for running your club so tidily every week.  Thank you for being such a lovely club to belong to.  I hope I enjoy 2025’s bridge as much as I have done 2024.

Paul Hardstaff

Knowle Bridge Club

Chair’s Annual Message 2023

There was optimism in the air at last year’s AGM, helped maybe by drinks and nibbles. This optimism carried us through the winter when numbers stuck at about half a dozen tables until a very pleasant shock on 5th April of ten and a half tables, since when we have enjoyed enough good and varied company and played some happy bridge.

Why is it going so well? Is it the new drinks mugs that Chris & Mike Lynn found for us? Is it luxurious Knowle Village Hall with its working heating and its refurbishments creeping forward? Is it curiosity as to what will go wrong next for the TDs and scoring system? Is it incredulity of the hands you get? Is it the chance to be player of the month? Well, yes, it is all of those, but I think we are just lucky that people who play at Knowle tell others that they have found a friendly club for a happy evening’s bridge. New arrivals find this is all true and that the bridge we play can be well- contested without too much pressure for speed.

So my first thank you this year is to anyone who has spread the word to others and to everyone who heard about us like this and came to check us out. May your enjoyment continue. Keep spreading the news.

My second thank you is to all of you. It makes the committee and TDs so very happy to see everyone working together as a club. I am slowly learning not to stand in the way at the end of the evening as tables and chairs whirl back to their stacks. I hear the tinkling of washing up towards the end of a session and find the sit-out pair are busy. Early arrivals join in setting up the room. On a couple of occasions Peter Thompson has met me as I unlocked and had the tables and chairs out while I set up the kitchen.

Third thank you is for TDs, Fran, Mike and Tony who with me have a little bit of anxiety over setting up for play each week but seldom get taxed with hard decisions because you are all such well-behaved players. Directors are essential and it would be good have more than four. It isn’t difficult: even I can do it. Any volunteers?

Fourth thank you is to the committee. Mike as treasurer has his book-keeping and yet he also manages the Whatsapp group and calculates our players of the month. Tony has the hand dealing software to generate our hands and uses a machine to deal cards into our frames for each week. He gets as close as anyone to understanding how our scoring tablets work. Faye ensures our refreshments are available. Andrew has been sitting at Tony’s feet learning about our computerised aspects. (I should mention committee wives: Chris Lynn does most collecting of table fees; Janet Cundy does this when the Lynns are away and also helps when Tony uses the dealing machine.) I try not to get in the way of all this industry, but I give the tablets a fortnightly charge up, draw up our TD rota, keep track of personal numbers for our scoring computer, use the dealing machine if Tony is away and liaise with Knowle Village Hall Association.

That is a pretty complete list of what the committee does. It is mostly routine and not too demanding: admin without needing specialist bridge knowledge. We operate by chatting on Wednesdays or having an occasional flurry of e-mail. Fresh committee members from among those who have joined the club in the last year or two will stop us getting stale. We need your input, so please consider volunteering or persuading a friend to step up.

Finally congratulations to the members who have won or shared player of the month. Fran Baxter has featured 3 times in 2023. Well done, Fran. In short, well done everyone. Let’s have a great 2024.

Paul Hardstaff

Knowle Bridge Club

Chairman’s Report 2021

Our club’s last annual general meeting took place in 2019, so I have to report the events of two years.  Autumn of 2019 drew uneventfully past our enjoyable Christmas evening through the winter and into the early spring of 2020 with Monday morning “easy-peasy” bridge, Wednesday evening main sessions and lessons ticking along nicely.  But in March 2020 everything stopped because of the pandemic. Social activities like duplicate bridge ended.

We followed instructions and guidance, kept ourselves as safe as we could in our homes and met very few friends.  We did not hold an AGM in 2020 and decided that club memberships would renew for a further year without any fee being sought.  Many of us found new uses for computers, including playing bridge on-line through some of the web sites that we discovered.  Mike Lynn was particularly adventurous and used one of the on-line sites to set up a small team-of-four league which gave his friends a lot of fun as well as making them feel much less alone in their lockdown.

Enjoyment of on-line play led in February 2021 to the start of a Thursday evening session of pairs duplicate bridge using “Real Bridge On-Line” where players could not only play bridge but see and speak to other players at their table.  This session was begun by Fran Baxter and Mike Lynn for members of Dorridge and Knowle Bridge Clubs plus some friends.  The cost of these evenings has been met by the clubs so no playing fees have been charged. The close co-operation between Dorridge and Knowle clubs has been good and members who have taken part have been able to keep their clubs’ identities fresh.

In summer, after vaccinations, social restrictions began to ease and we could consider restarting face-to-face bridge.  Not everyone yet feels ready for this, but we found enough interest to begin on Wednesday 18^th August and have continued Wednesday evenings since then and begun Monday mornings as from 11^th October.  We were pleased to find Knowle Village Hall had continued its refurbishment programme during lockdown and made some big improvements in the shape of new doors and décor.  Since our first return in high summer we have found that the heating system works well and we don’t need to freeze to be safely ventilated.  We aimed for safety by trying to have our equipment, including the hall’s chairs and tables, handled by no more members than is absolutely necessary.  As on Thursdays we have drawn no distinction between members of Knowle and Dorridge clubs and both are equally welcome.  We have made a start and now we look to thrive.

Thank you to everyone who has so far returned to play face-to-face because you have made worthwhile our efforts in planning the reopening. Our purpose now is to keep our club running, ready to welcome back those who are careful of their own safety and are not yet ready to come out to play. So as to include everyone, all who were members before lockdown will be continue to be members for 2021/2 year and no annual subscription will be sought for this year.

I am grateful to many people. First, the committee (Faye Doble, John Allen, Mike Lynn & Tony Cundy) for the way they have kept in touch and offered wisdom.  Mike has not only run the on-line play but has developed a nice line in cheerful e-mails which he reliably sends out before each session. Tony got our scoring systems working again and has continued dealing our hands.  Bill Jones kept in touch with his former students and coached some of them on-line. Now he is back giving his Monday tips. Roger Fitton has kept our web site pretty and informative.  Fran Baxter not only TDs for us but from her position with Dorridge Bridge Club made sure the Thursday on-line evenings got going and are so successful.

Finally, might anyone volunteer for tournament directing or some setting up or clearing away on Mondays or Wednesdays, or want to join the committee? We have got through lockdown and are back again and have things to do.

Paul Hardstaff