Where shall we start? At the beginning I suppose.
We incepted ourselves in February 1978 according to the little brown book in which all the details are stored and which is still in my bridge case. Our club was started by Eric Pattenden, known as Pat, and a few members of that early band of card sharps are still with us today.
We have never been a club in need of EBU assistance or support preferring to police our own indiscretions with a forgiving wink rather than a heavy stick. Overall this has worked very well for us and means that every Bridge night is a social occasion as well as a bridge night, when we like to discuss what’s been on the TV during the past week, the weather, the latest vicar in the town and other important issues like whether, in the event of a nuclear war, people would prefer Hellman’s Mayonnaise to Heinz Salad Cream.
I remember in the early days one of our members, who came from nearby Bury St Edmunds with his wife could remember not only all the hands from each night but the ones from the previous week as well. He was undoubtedly a good player but had the unfortunate habit of blaming his wife quite vociferously every time a hand went wrong. When he asked about Master Points, we all looked at him as if he had appeared from outer space and he stopped coming soon after that. I suspect that he only came to Mildenhall because he was thrown out of his usual club.
Many waters have passed under the bridge since then, people have come and gone either to other towns or to the great bridge room in the sky and we remember them all fondly.
Lest you were thinking that we are an easy touch, let me assure you that under our soft and kindly exterior lurks a fiercely competitive urge but we like to keep it all in perspective. After all, what does it matter if partner makes a suicidal play when, in the real world we are being robbed blind by the very people we send to Whitehall to represent us !
John Child, self appointed tyrannical director, MBC 2017
PS I found this article on my computer dated 2009. I don’t remember writing it but everything it says about MBC, I'm happy to say, remains true to this day so, to hell with plagiarism.
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