In October 1932, Selsdon was a prosperous district in North Surrey.  The concept of Greater London did not exist, and Selsdon was outside the bounds of Croydon, then a county borough of Surrey. Wikipedia states of Selsdon: “The leafy suburb was developed during [the 1920s and 1930s], and is remarkable for its many Art deco houses.”  Perhaps we can infer that many of the new inhabitants were middle-class professionals, some of them seeking stimulating recreational pursuits.

It was on 4 October of 1932 that our story begins. 17 Selsdon residents assembled at 8 pm in The Tea Room, Worth’s Café, 4 The Broadway, Selsdon, in order to consider whether “the social activities of the district should be augmented by the formation of a Bridge Club”. If they had not taken an affirmative decision, our story would have terminated very abruptly!

The first Chairman was Mr W. Fisher of Selsdon Park Farm. (I know not what the “W” stood for – it was many years before a forename is recorded in the club minutes). Mr Fisher may possibly have been a working farmer. Forty years later, my dad and I were introduced to the club by the then Treasurer, Max Krasner, who until the late 1960s had been a very successful poultry farmer in Selsdon Vale.

Mr Waller of Littleheath Road was elected Hon. Secretary and Treasurer, and Mrs Astington, Mr Willson and Mr Pincott were elected to make up the committee of five. Mr Hobden had been nominated for the committee, but withdrew his name citing inability to spare the time. F.J. (“Fred”) Hobden was to remain a luminous figure for the next forty-five years of the life of the club, and was one of the founding fathers of the Surrey County Bridge Association.

The first annual subscription is recorded as a “nominal two and six”. (Young members – that is 12½ p.) 12½ p was about 3% of the average weekly salary of £4. Average weekly earnings in 2016 were £539 pw. If current Selsdon members were to pay a subscription based on 3% of average weekly earnings, we should be paying £16 instead of our nominal £5.

It is probable that at the outset rubber bridge was played. The word “duplicate” is absent from these pre-war records. It is likely that members often or perhaps always in these early years “cut in” for partners.

The Selsdon bridge universe chugged smoothly onwards in the course of a turbulent decade. The minutes of a committee meeting in September 1933 record a draft set of club rules. These rules make clear that the club was a contract bridge club. The committee had the power to suspend members. Play was to commence at 7.30 pm and cease at 11 pm. There was an interval for refreshments. Players cut for tables and partners.

These first rules were approved at the AGM on 6 October 1933, held at the Sanctuary Tea Rooms, Addington Road. The Chairman reported that “the majority of the members had thoroughly enjoyed themselves during the past season”. The Secretary/Treasurer reported that there had been a “gratifying” increase in membership from 17 to 46, and that the accounts now showed a balance of three pounds, thirteen shillings and eight pence. It was agreed that the rules be “embodied in a membership card and a copy issued to every member”.

Mr Coleman was elected Auditor in 1933, and Hon Secretary and Treasurer in 1935. Mr Fisher (still Club Chair) paid a handsome tribute in 1937 to Mr and Mrs Coleman stating that the club’s success was “undoubtedly due to [their] combined efforts”.

Very long-standing members of the club will remember Stan Coleman. As a young member, I was “cut in” with Stan in a club duplicate, and counted myself fortunate to have obtained a very kind, generous and good-humoured partner! Stan donated a trophy at some point for the club’s individual championship, a competition which was discontinued in the 1980s, I think.

The club saw a 12% drop in its balances in 1936 – down to £6:13:8 from the previous year. The rental for the hall had increased from three and six to ten bob per week! Mr Coleman reported on the relative popularity of the Pairs Tournament evenings. This may suggest that members preferred to play with a regular partner than to cut in. It was agreed that a “progressive pairs tournament” take place on months where there was a fifth Monday.

In the Minutes of the 1938 AGM it is recorded that a motion proposed by Mr Hobden was carried unanimously, the decision being that “an Individual and other tournaments be arranged on “cut in” evenings. These were to be organised and run by Mr Hobden, who had been elected to the new position of Deputy Chairman.

And so we come to the AGM held at the Sanctuary Tea Rooms on 29 November 1939. Of course, Mr Chamberlain had come on the radio on 3 September with quite an important announcement. But in November, Britain was still in the period of what is known as the “phoney war”, and perhaps it is unsurprising that the war gets not a mention. Membership had slightly decreased from its 1938 height of 60. Tournaments were proving a very popular feature of the club’s events, thanks to the efforts of Mr Hobden, and apparently Mr Coleman spent quite a lot of time on the telephone drumming up support to the extent that members were most concerned that he would be out of pocket. They therefore – against his protestations – allocated Mr Coleman £1 per annum for the “phone account”. Prize money was also discussed. It had been four shillings for first prize (perhaps £20 at today’s prices) and two and six for second. This would be adjusted to reflect the table money available on a particular night to ensure that costs were always covered. What table money was payable is unstated.

And on those last solemn notes, the blackout curtain is drawn, the next AGM taking place on 24 September 1945.

Jeremy Fitzpatrick - October 2017

In October 1932, Selsdon was a prosperous district in North Surrey.  The concept of Greater London did not exist, and Selsdon was outside the bounds of Croydon, then a county borough of Surrey. Wikipedia states of Selsdon: “The leafy suburb was developed during [the 1920s and 1930s], and is remarkable for its many Art deco houses. ..........

Following the end of WW2 the AGM took place in the September of 1945 and was held at the Scotch Bakery tea room in the Broadway, Selsdon. It is not clear from bridge club records and also subsequent searches on Selsdon history whether this was on the same premises as Worth’s Café (used for bridge pre-war) or indeed a different venue.

Mr Hobden was still acting chairman and records detailed the financial balance stood at £5,12 shillings and there was a need to purchase 10 new card tables for £2, 10 shillings. The room would be used for bridge on a Monday evening but following the war there were only 17 players left and the new committee set annual subs at 5 shillings with table money at 6p and visitors 1 shilling.

Over the next few years bridge continued at the Scotch Bakery and the membership grew to some 42 players and authorisation was given to play teams of four competitions in addition to duplicate pairs. Indeed, during this period the first interclub matches were set up with Heathfield and Spencer bridge clubs.

The club balance reached as much as £18 as interest in bridge grew but attendance declined significantly in 1949 due to disappointing attendance that was put down to a long hot spring and summer when (according to separate records) temperatures were in excess of 30C and it was the year when clothes rationing in Britain finished.

A set of bridge rules were introduced by the club and it is likely that they originated from what we now know of as the EBU which was originally founded in 1936. Also, by the time this post-war five-year period came to an end the club became affiliated to the Surrey County Bridge Association.
In addition, Mrs Ife joined the club committee and in the future the Ife Cup, which we still play for today, was established in honour of her husband.  

Robin Clarke - February 2021

Following the end of WW2 the AGM took place in the September of 1945 and was held at the Scotch Bakery tea room in the Broadway, Selsdon. It is not clear from bridge club records and also subsequent searches on Selsdon history whether this was on the same premises as Worth’s Café (used for bridge pre-war) or indeed a different venue.

Mr Hobden was still acting chairman and records detailed the financial balance stood at £5,12 shillings and there was a need to purchase 10 new card tables for £2, 10 shillings. ..........

This five-year period saw a few changes covering premises, bridge events and some new faces on the committee.

There had been some disquiet amongst the membership concerning facilities and condition of the bridge room which were not possible to resolve. Following discussions, the club approved the move to the Morris Chapman room at St Johns Church Hall during 1951. By all accounts it proved popular and improved attendance.

The club maintained its yearly four competitions namely, individual, teams of four, pairs and Xmas drive. However, from 1951 a team was entered for the Surrey Affiliated Clubs knockout which was likely to be the forerunner of what we know today as the affiliated teams of 8.

Over the five years the team entered by Selsdon met Malden Wanderers and always lost in round 1 or 2, but in 1955 managed to get to the final ultimately losing to Purley Downs. However, the club enjoyed some success when it also entered the Croydon Bridge League and managed to reach the final on one occasion in 1953.

The club maintained a healthy bank balance of around £20 (roughly £400 today) but no doubt fixed and ongoing costs were quite low then. There was no mention of any increases in table money so one can probably conclude that membership was healthy. However, there were some reports of new clubs setting up trying to attract players, but Selsdon was achieving 8-14 tables.

1955 marked the introduction of match point pairs for the first time instead of aggregate scoring which no doubt would have reduced the amount of work to produce a ranking list before electronic calculators were commonplace.

In 1953 club rules were changed to restrict committee members serving more than two consecutive years but was not clear from minutes why this came about. In 1955, Mr Absalom joined the committee who became well known in bridge circles as an accomplished player and apart from his service to Selsdon, became EBU vice president in later life.            

Robin Clarke - February 2021

This five-year period saw a few changes covering premises, bridge events and some new faces on the committee.

There had been some disquiet amongst the membership concerning facilities and condition of the bridge room which were not possible to resolve. Following discussions, the club approved the move to the Morris Chapman room at St Johns Church Hall during 1951. ..........

Bridge continued in the Morris Chapman room at St John’s Church.

1956 was judged a successful year for both improved membership and attendance but some issues with room heating prevailed. The regular individual, pairs championship, teams of 4 and Presidents prize continued throughout this period. Membership remained around 45 players with also several life members.

Our club teams did not do so well during this period in the Surrey events despite efforts being made to try to get as many players as possible involved. Comments were being made that the club’s poor performance in team events was due to the policy of trying to give everyone a game rather than selecting the strongest players.

In 1956 there was first mention of a master points scheme being set up by the British Bridge League, but the club considered itself too small to take part for the time being. Duplicate match points pairs were also only being run fortnightly as there was still a desire by some to keep aggregate scoring (some nuance that with the latter the weaker players could win by having a board with a big score that would dilute poorer results).

There was some discussion of introducing a handicap system in 1958 to help weaker players but nothing transpired from the committee.

Finances remained strong and there was only one increase in table money from one shilling and nine pence to two shillings with cut-in remaining at 1 shilling. Part of the reason for table money increases was the relatively high cost of the stationery required for match point points. Perhaps more importantly the growing telephone yearly expenses of £5 and increasing to £7 at one point – which was high in today’s equivalent costs. It is evident that a lot of calls were being made pulling team members together, finding partners for people and coercing others to play.

Also, for the first time the accounts were presented in a revised format to include liability of assets.

There was a surprise announcement at the 1957 AGM when the long-standing chairman Mr Hobden advised that he would stand-down during the following year as he was going on an epic journey with his wife to help is daughter in New Zealand for a year (unfortunately no other details were in the minutes). A Mr Dunn took over but months later he mysteriously retired from the post, passing it to Mrs Carr, but as soon as Mr Hobden returned, he was re-elected as chairman in 1959!

Also, during this period Mrs Barr took over as secretary after Mr Coleman stood down after 11 years. A somewhat different style of handwriting in the minutes’ diary!

Robin Clarke - February 2021

Bridge continued in the Morris Chapman room at St John’s Church.

1956 was judged a successful year for both improved membership and attendance but some issues with room heating prevailed. The regular individual, pairs championship, teams of 4 and Presidents prize continued throughout this period. ..........

During this period, the first complaints were being raised about the noise being created from discussions after hands were played and were documented in minutes for a couple of years. Not only was noise being mentioned but also the noting of “irregular” bids. Perhaps this is what we now refer to as the psyche. Indeed, for a while there was also accusation of “cheating” by players using tone inflexion on some bids. Of course, back then it was a few decades later before bidding boxes were eventually introduced to overcome some of these issues. From documents it looks like Selsdon became more competitive in the 60’s.

In 1963, some members raised the subject of master points again, this time as part of the EBU scheme and it would encourage more duplicate play. Some clubs had joined the scheme. Apparently, the cost per player for each session was going to be 3 old pence and a vote was put to members which resulted in a 13-13 split at the AGM. The chairman took the deciding vote and elected to keep the status quo!
However, pressure continued and it was raised the following year, this time with members advising that without a EBU rating they could not play in certain competitions and also most clubs had joined the scheme. That was enough for the resolution to be passed by 16-8 votes.

Accommodation was being raised again to be able to have space available for up to 20 tables to enable growth. At the time it was difficult to operate with more than 8. Enquiries were made to the South Croydon tennis club, but their committee rejected the proposal. Also, the British Legion club was approached and they were prepared to offer an initial period. However, the charge was going to be 30 shillings per session which the committee balked at. This would equate to around £30 per session in 2020. The topic was put on hold.

From a bridge standpoint club teams started to enjoy a lot more success and were routinely winning matches against other clubs. In this era matches were being played for the first time against Mayfield, RAE and others. Indeed Selsdon reached the final of the Affiliated Clubs in 1961. It was the start of the Absalom’s doing well and winning competitions and also representing in teams and as a pair in the Mary Edwards. It is not clear whether the new- found success was just due to the influx of good players / improvement of others, a change in selection policy for matches, or both. Yearly competitions remained largely the same and there continued to be some stalwarts for pairs aggregate scoring thus keeping a balance with match point duplicate.

Finances remained strong as well as membership and visitors regularly playing. Indeed, the infamous winter of 1963 (heavy snow from December 1962 through to March 1963, low temperatures down to minus 20C with river Thames frozen) was said to have led to a big growth in average club attendance.

Robin Clarke - February 2021

During this period, the first complaints were being raised about the noise being created from discussions after hands were played and were documented in minutes for a couple of years. Not only was noise being mentioned but also the noting of “irregular” bids. Perhaps this is what we now refer to as the psyche. ..........

Again in 1965 the subject of accommodation was raised and it was evident that the following year the room charge was going to be increased by five shillings a week which would put up expenditure by £13 per year. Annual subs were raised from 5 shillings to 7 shillings and sixpence, table money to sixpence.

New accommodation was looked for in earnest again and some options were considered unrealistic for cost. However, discussions continued about a possible move to Croydon High School, but this was eventually rejected due to the prohibition of smoking which the committee at the time would not countenance.

The issues did not subside for long as a precipitous moment came in 1969 when the Church advised that the club would need to switch to playing on a Wednesday if they wanted to retain use of the Morris Chapman room. A number of members were against the day change and the committee restarted the process to find alternative accommodation.

A EGM was called in June 1970 with the choice of Old Whitgiftians Pavilion or potentially South Croydon Tennis club. Old Whitgiftians won the vote 19-9 for play commencement on Thursday 5th October 1970. That marked a new era for the club spanning many years.

Over the course of the last period at St Johns, performance in county competitions and inter-club matches remained to a large extent in the doldrums. Regular internal competitions continued but with a few revisions in other respects. First Thursday rubber bridge stakes increased from one to three old pence per 100 due to hight inflation, but in 1966 it was proposed to trial replacement with cut-in duplicate due to increasing popularity, extended in 1967 and apart from bridge after AGM’s rubber bridge was abolished in 1968.

The frequency of teams’ nights was increased to four times a year to stimulate more interest and obtain improvement in partnership strengths for team matches. In 1970 handicaps were finally abolished as players were keen to maximise their master point accounts for moving up the ranks. A new prize was introduced for the best percentage over the season with four different partners, but the AGM approved a modification to play a common bidding system. No doubt this was the fore-runner competition which we know now as the Memorial Bowl.

Complaints of table noise after hands, irregular bids and tone inflexion when making bids were said to have abated but numerous errors with board travellers continued. It was also agreed to establish a notice board to advise information of upcoming events, entries, results etc. to improve communication and reduce cost of phone calls. Whilst club finances remained healthy, table money would be revised according to new costs associated with the pending move to Old Whitgiftians.

After over 30 years of being treasurer Mr Coleman stood down in 1965 being replaced by Doug Simpson.

There was the sad news of the death of long-standing member of Mr Ife in 1969 and his life membership was passed to his wife. Also, during this time, the committee had to help out more due to ill health of the long-standing chairman Mr Hobden and the additional sad news of the death of his wife in 1970.              

Robin Clarke - February 2021

Again in 1965 the subject of accommodation was raised and it was evident that the following year the room charge was going to be increased by five shillings a week which would put up expenditure by £13 per year. Annual subs were raised from 5 shillings to 7 shillings and sixpence, table money to sixpence.

New accommodation was looked for in earnest again and some options were considered unrealistic for cost. ..........

Late 1970 ushered in the new bridge era at Old Whitgiftians with the last AGM being held at St John’s Church in September 1970. By the time of the 1971 AGM, Mr Hobden was able to resume as Chairman.

Old Whitgiftians was proving to be a popular venue for players and it was raised by the committee on more than one occasion that the initial main issue was being able to start at the scheduled time due to difficulties in trying to herd the regular beer drinkers away from the bar. The start was moved to 7.45 pm with the directors given discretion to not allow any latecomers to play after this time.

With the move to the new venue it was necessary to review financial provisions and in 1971 subscriptions were raised to 30 shillings, with table money being also raised to 4 & 5 shillings for members and visitors respectively. This also enabled interest free loans to be paid back to certain members for capital expenditure but there were no recorded minutes to explain what this was for. Up until the 70’s, only AGM notes were kept in club archives, but this was then extended to routine committee meetings. Also, the start of the financial year was moved to September 1^st following a vote.

New membership was growing fast and by 1974 it had increased from around 74 (in 1970) to 185. It was common to have 50+ members attending AGM’s. Bridge sessions were being run on Tuesdays and Thursdays with at least 10 tables being typical. Popularity carried on increasing to the point of having to run two sections on Thursdays when table numbers were above 18. This also led to some initial restrictions on new membership who would only be allowed to play on a Tuesday.

Growing numbers led to the introduction of new competitions (separate ladies and gentleman’s pairs) and trophies which also led the club to take out appropriate insurance for the first time.

Naturally the club financial position improved dramatically, so much so there was pressure to move surplus money into a new deposit account (which attracted high interest rates in those days) and indeed the club was able to assist the EBU with the financing of the 1975 European championships. With the much bigger pool of players, success started to emerge and in 1973 the club won the Affiliated clubs league for the first time.

This first period at Old Whitgitians was not without incident either. In 1974 the country was hit with the impact of the miner’s strike causing a three-day week and power cuts on a rotor basis. The club did not want to lose any bridge sessions and the committee was charged with following the dates and times of power outages in the area and had approval to purchase numerous torches to bring to club nights so bridge could continue just in case. Unfortunately there is no documented evidence on whether the torches were ever used or what happened to them after the crisis was over.

In 1975 smoking at the bridge table raised its ugly head for the first time long before there was an eventual ban by the governing bodies. Many complaints had been raised by members of their discomfort when playing bridge due to the large number of smokers and especially with certain members who continuously “had a large cigar on the go”. The matter was constantly on the committee agenda and eventually trying to appease all decided there would be a smoking ban at the table between 9-10 pm. However, it was documented that directors received some abuse trying to enforce.

Sadly, Alan Carr who had been deputy chairman since 1958, died in 1971. Also Mr Hobden who had been Chairman for a very long time stood down in 1971 (and elected honorary life president), being replaced by Mr Caswell. However Mr Hobden had further illness and died in 1973 but had managed to complete the club’s first book for duplicate movements. In 1974 the mixed pair championship was named the Fred Hobden cup.

Robin Clarke - April 2022

Late 1970 ushered in the new bridge era at Old Whitgiftians with the last AGM being held at St John’s Church in September 1970. By the time of the 1971 AGM, Mr Hobden was able to resume as Chairman.

Old Whitgiftians was proving to be a popular venue for players and it was raised by the committee on more than one occasion that the initial main issue was being able to start at the scheduled time due to difficulties in trying to herd the regular beer drinkers away from the bar. ..........

This period was undoubtedly the start of a golden era for the club in terms of bridge success at both county and national level. For membership it was one of the largest clubs in counties and had a large pool of good players with many being able to compete effectively at national level. The list was long and included some well-known names (Durden, Lavis, Absalom, Haigh, Rice, Donnelly, Leverick, Press, Lucas, Rolph, Simpson and others who followed). Such was the strength in depth, competition was high to obtain a place representing the club in various events. The club routinely won the Affiliated Clubs League and with the introduction of the Metropolitan Cup (for home counties), almost the complete Surrey team was made up from Selsdon pairs. There was routine success in the Lady Rose Cup, County Pairs and our teams reaching the last stages of national events such as the Gold Cup.   

With such competition at club level some downsides emerged. Psychic bids started to become common place and eventually the committee had to introduce a form system for recording, due to member complaints and to allow review. In parallel the EBU introduced the classification of Green / Amber / Red for psychic bids with the latter attracting potential sanctions. Introduction of alerts were being introduced for conventional bids, also the stop-call for jump bids. There was also some membership disquiet around complete freedom to play A licence conventions for routine club nights and the need for introduction of a handicap system. In 1977, for the first time, a club pair received a written warning from the committee for regular complaints concerning their ethics and not following rules at the table.

Club finances continued to grow and reached an overall balance of £835 in 1978 (just over £5,000 in today’s money). More money was needed to be transferred to deposit and an account with the Woolwich Building Society was set up. Discussions were also held on ways to try to reduce the financial balance, but it proved unnecessary as membership was peaking and started to decline slightly due to competition from other clubs in the area (South Croydon and others).

The issues around smoking continued to rumble on but the 9-10pm ban was kept in place. Also, with the manual administration around match-pointing results for two sessions and significant number of tables, directors were often not returning results within a week and there was a need to find a better system for completion and display on the notice board. Also, for Directors and Stewards who were not turning up for their assigned duties, a better system was required. On a more positive note, the first mention of a club Xmas cheese & wine party was made in 1976 to be held on the last Tuesday before Christmas. In 1977 it was agreed to continue with the Xmas party as such a success with the only complaint being that more wine was needed!   

Mr Bernard Caswell stood down as chairman in 1979 becoming a life member and the well-known Roy Absalom took up the post.

Robin Clarke - April 2022

This period was undoubtedly the start of a golden era for the club in terms of bridge success at both county and national level. For membership it was one of the largest clubs in counties and had a large pool of good players with many being able to compete effectively at national level. The list was long and included some well-known names (Durden, Lavis, Absalom, Haigh, Rice, Donnelly, Leverick, Press, Lucas, Rolph, Simpson and others who followed). ..........

Club success in county and national events continued unabated with new players and partnerships emerging in the club. However, membership had fallen from its peak and was down to around 160 players. There was a falling off in attendance especially on a Tuesday (thought to be due to South Croydon holding frequent Surrey qualifying events), but the club finances remained stable.

This period saw many different initiatives and issues to address.

Due to the decline in attendance, it was felt that some club promotion was required to create more interest and it was agreed to publish newsletters around every 6 weeks or so. These proved very popular initially but the incumbent publishing them was eventually sanctioned by the committee due to various complaints by members that the newsletters had become outspoken, personally critical and in some cases offensive. The task was handed over to another member in 1984.    

Old Whitgiftians started to push up rent increases significantly against the backdrop of not addressing heating concerns in winter and general lighting standard. Agreement was finally reached after the club was prepared to cancel the Tuesday rental. Even with agreement, table money and subscriptions had to be increased. Also, the club allowed the playing of matches as alternative to private houses to improve income. To attract more players on a Tuesday there was successful introduction of a ladder competition.

Issues around weekly match-pointing continued and the club first established a full time scorer at a cost of £100 per year which was subsequently changed to a £2 a session. There were said to be regular traveller discrepancies that required follow-up. Mis-boarding was also a regular occurrence but eventually it was decided to restrict curtain cards to competitions with pre-dealt hands. Attempts were made to abolish the non-smoking rule, but eventually this was defeated at an AGM vote.

The Xmas party continued in earnest but in 1982 it was modified to include “Crazy” bridge that apparently did not go down well with some and it was agreed to include “Normal” bridge as well for future parties. Unfortunately, there was no record of how “Crazy” bridge was actually played.

Also, in 1984 the concept of a player grading system was introduced by Roger Fellows that later became fully established and routinely updated providing a ranking list for all the club players. Whilst it was a ranking based on a numerical output based on performance at club level rather than AKQ grade etc. there is arguably similarities to the EBU NGS system that we know of today.

Robin Clarke - April 2022

Club success in county and national events continued unabated with new players and partnerships emerging in the club. However, membership had fallen from its peak and was down to around 160 players. There was a falling off in attendance especially on a Tuesday (thought to be due to South Croydon holding frequent Surrey qualifying events), but the club finances remained stable. ..........

These few years saw more limited success of club players in county and national events together with a fair amount of consolidation of club activities. In addition, after 8 years of service, Roy Absalom stood down as chairman in 1986 and Derek Tustin was duly elected at the ensuing AGM.  

Typically, the Tuesday evening session was now only attracting around 6 tables which meant at current rent levels (reintroduced) the session was running at a loss and was being subsidised by the Thursday session which was more popular at around 10 tables. Club competitions were moved to a Thursday and various initiatives, such as publicity to attract new players, establishing a two-week Swiss Pairs competition and cut-in teams trialled on a Tuesdays all aimed at trying to keep Tuesday sessions viable. Whilst membership numbers were above 100, the club was eventually unable to make it viable to hold two sessions, especially with planned rent increases to £23 per night and in May 1987 the club finally dropped the Tuesday session.

With the need to purchase some new tables, cloths, playing cards and some other items coupled with rent increase, the club felt the need to increase table money and subscriptions to stop the decline in finances. By the end of 1989, rent had increased to £27 per night. With table money increased to £1 and subscriptions to £5, the club no longer paying for members entry to national competitions coupled with no charge for scoring, finances improved to having a balance of over £1,570. Accounts auditing was restarted as had lapsed for a few seasons.

In 1985 the first concept idea of a novel teams of 3 competition was introduced by Roger Fellows and after some adjustments, it ran in 1986 without any glitches and has been part of the yearly programme ever since. Also in 1988, the team championship and mixed pairs competitions were reduced to one session and a time limit put on the AGM (including no longer reading the last years minutes) so there was time to play bridge after. The Ife Cup sessions were moved to the first Thursday each month and have remained so ever since.

There were indeed some issues to address during this period. No sooner than a smoking rule had been agreed it was raised again at the 1985 AGM by one of the smoking lobby protagonists challenging the success of the time ban. Some contentious debate took place on the emotive topic and fortunately a decision was reached without a vote to accept no smoking for the first half of a session as this was the new rule being introduced by the EBU at county and national events. The smokers were requested to bring their own ashtrays. How things change over time can be quite interesting – some members who raised the topic for de-restricting are still current club members and non-smokers!

After previous debacles with heating at Whitgiftians came to a conclusion, the topic of poor lighting on one side of the room became an ongoing issue being raised time and time again with no action taken by the management. Frustration led to the point that the bridge club committee approved the purchase for several 100W light bulbs that would be brought to Thursday sessions to replace what was in the light fittings and put back the original bulbs after bridge! Nowadays that would probably not be allowed with health and safety legislation. Anyway, the Thursday ritual was duly noticed and eventually the management agreed to introduce strip lighting – but of course the bridge club finished up making a financial contribution as part of the negotiation.

Robin Clarke - February 2023

These few years saw more limited success of club players in county and national events together with a fair amount of consolidation of club activities. In addition, after 8 years of service, Roy Absalom stood down as chairman in 1986 and Derek Tustin was duly elected at the ensuing AGM.  

Typically, the Tuesday evening session was now only attracting around 6 tables which meant at current rent levels (reintroduced) the session was running at a loss and was being subsidised by the Thursday session which was more popular at around 10 tables. ..........

Initially the period was one of maintaining financial solvency as Whitgifians imposed several inflation busting rent increases moving it from £27 to £37. This meant an average of 8 tables for break-even, but on some Thursdays the club was only achieving 6 tables. Cash surplus had fallen by 50% at one point and actions had to be taken to stem the loss. By the end of 1993 table money for members was pushed up to £1.25 and £1.75 for visitors. There was some disquiet and at the 1991 AGM a proposed rise in subscriptions from £5 to £10 was defeated and an eventual compromise of £7 accepted. Interestingly this was somewhat higher than the £5 still being levied in 2023. Weekly prize money for winners was abolished and free-play vouchers introduced. With the financial measures taken, coupled with an improvement in membership, despite some clubs providing daytime bridge, the bank balance improved. As part of trying to improve membership club details were established in Yellow Pages (state of the art in those days, prior to the internet gaining traction later in the 1990’s), and local libraries. Also, a push to re-invigorate the newsletters and post to non-attending members.      

In 1991 the first use of computers started. Typically, results for sessions were not available for a few days, but with some software that had become available, scores from travellers could be entered quickly after play had finished and it was noted that there was some excitement when players could see the calculated results and positions on the same evening from a computer screen for the first time. It was not long before software became established and same evening results became the norm for all sessions. In the same year the subject of bidding boxes was raised (the EBU had started to use for certain tournament events), but the committee rejected the idea, citing high cost (£21.50 for 4) and concerns of slower play. It was to be several more years before the topic was raised again.

Some initiatives were also introduced. Firstly there was some rules created for the Ife Cup covering the restriction to the six best results with tie splitting if required and a selection committee for players representing the club. Concerns had been raised on how players were selected to play and the agreed criteria would become – current member, EBU ranking, Selsdon grade and results in county / national events. In addition, an appeals process was set up as some members wanted to appeal against director decisions at the table.

The early 90’s at the club was also not without shocks and incidents. In 1992, Roy Absalom decided to donate £600 to the club, but stipulated that the money could only be used for buying drinks at the AGM. Some members were somewhat surprised (in those days a pint of beer was only just over £1) and for posterity a copy of the drinks order for 24 people was kept in the archive. Initially the committee set up a special account to manage the money for AGM drinks but eventually absorbed it into the main club funds. Nevertheless, the money spent on drinks was accounted for in the financial reports and indeed it was not until 2004 when last orders were announced when the kitty was empty.

In 1993, at the first committee meeting following the AGM, the chairman Derek Tustin announced his resignation shortly after the start and left leaving the rest of the committee somewhat floundering on what to do next. Some members around today who were serving then, probably knew a lot more than was recorded, but an official statement through a letter was eventually circulated citing the decision was down to “lack of unanimity” on the committee. Later, an offer of life membership for services given to the club was declined. After the hiatus, Vic Long was co-opted and helped-out until his own tenure started in 1994 after being elected as the new chairman at the 1994 AGM.

The smoking debate was relatively quiet and whilst raised a few times the status quo was kept. No sooner than when the club lighting issues were resolved, complaints started to come in about poor car park lighting in 1991 following a spate of vandalism and the odd car prangs at the end of the sessions (nothing to do with the beer drinkers of course!). Needlessly to say, many representations to Whitgiftians management did not yield any meaningful progress. Also, following the collapse of a chair during a session with a member finishing up with a bruised posterior the club thought it may be a good idea to renew its insurance policy which had lapsed.

From a bridge playing perspective it was a relatively quiet period for successes of members other than a couple of notable exceptions – Roberts / Fellows winning the National Womens Pairs in 1990 and Clarke / Hodgkiss / Press / Chisnall winning the Lady Rose Cup in 1992.

Robin Clarke - February 2023

Initially the period was one of maintaining financial solvency as Whitgifians imposed several inflation busting rent increases moving it from £27 to £37. This meant an average of 8 tables for break-even, but on some Thursdays the club was only achieving 6 tables. Cash surplus had fallen by 50% at one point and actions had to be taken to stem the loss. ..........

Membership improved during this time and typically the first Thursday for the Ife Cup attracted 11 tables and other nights around 9 tables. Coupled with only one rent increase to £40 in 1998 and a planned increase to £55 in 2004 club finances went from strength to strength reaching a balance of nearly £6K in 2002. By 2004, table money had only increased to £2 per session and subscriptions actually reduced back down to £5 at the 2001 AGM. The strong financial situation enabled the club to order its first Duplimate dealing machine in 2004 at a cost of £2.8K to reduce administration for sessions.

With the improved attendance, the committee tried to reintroduce Tuesday evening sessions for teams in 1997 but after a trial period it was finally discontinued as numbers did not provide cost recovery and it was considered inappropriate to have a different table money levy to Thursdays.    

In 1995 the topic of bidding boxes resurfaced as they had become more widely used at clubs and EBU events. The committee failed to come to a consensus but decided to put it to the members at the 1995 AGM. A presentation on merits was given including the benefit of the removal of the unethical loud double (penalties partner!!) that was alleged, with the aim for members to accept introduction on a trial basis for review. The vote carried 17-3 (6 abstentions) and £155 was spent to purchase enough boxes for table numbers. Following review, none of the issues raised by the critics came to pass and all were generally in favour, so use was agreed to be the norm.

In 1997 a reform of the Ife Cup rules was proposed as it was felt that basing the winners on total master points was unfair, as under EBU rules points were proportional to the number of pairs playing so it favoured those doing well on sessions where there was high attendance. After a review it was proposed to introduce SCP’S (Selsdon competition points) for the 1997 / 1998 season for both the Ife Cup and Memorial Bowl which would award 50 points for percentage scored for 75% and above reducing proportionately to 0 for 25% or less and 50 points for 1^st place reducing to 0 for last. In 2002 the SCP’s were revised to apply to only pairs that finished in the top half and percentage scores above 50% (with 50 points for 70% or more). The scoring system is still in place in the club as of 2023.    

For whatever reason, concerns over slow play / late finishes (after 11.00 pm) resurfaced and directors were asked to keep a note of persistent offenders who would be spoken to privately and it reached a point that if players had not left the bar and be seated by 7.40 pm, the director would have the discretion to not allow participation if it affected the movement. Eventually the start time was changed to 7.30 pm in 2004. 

The smoking debate again came to the fore in 1997 with the committee wanting to push back the start of smoking to 9.30 pm and others wanting a complete ban. A total ban was voted for at the AGM but the result was 11-11 with no abstentions which gave a problem and under the club rules the chairman ruled the status quo. This was just the start of more contentious debating and the topic came back to the 1998 AGM with a new proposal to ban all smoking in playing areas. This time the vote passed 17-7 with 7 abstentions. Most likely the die was already cast as the EBU had earlier banned smoking in playing areas. Nevertheless, a few members did not renew their membership allegedly in protest but did later return. This marked the end of a long running issue and of course several years later there became a national ban in public places.

The car park lighting issue rumbled on until 1998 with Whitgiftians eventually saying they had no funds and wanted to close the debate. Whilst the Xmas party continued to be a success some frustration arose when the subject of paying corkage arose and other issues including poor quality seating were not addressed. With a significant rent rise in 2004 and more in the pipeline, the 30 plus years era at Whitgiftians was rapidly coming to an end. It also marked 50 years of membership for the Absalom’s together with many years of service to the club and the presentation of a glass bowl was gratefully accepted.

This nine-year period probably marked the most success that club members enjoyed in competitions, especially at national level. Notably the most prestigious being –

1998 Crockfords Cup - the winning team included four Selsdon members; Tony Lunn, Sean O’Neill, Robin Clarke & Bill Hodgkiss.

2001 Garden Cities Trophy - the Selsdon team: Geoff Bell, Nick Press, Jagdish Aggarwal, Robin Clarke, Bill Hodgkiss, Rosemary Fellows, Roger Fellows and Chas Fellows were the runners-up.

2001 Tollemache Cup - the Surrey team won the final and included Selsdon members Robin Clarke and Bill Hodgkiss.

2003 Gold Cup - the winning team included Selsdon members Sean O’Neill and John Frosztega (also Tony Lunn, but sadly he died before the quarter-final).

Robin Clarke - February 2023

Membership improved during this time and typically the first Thursday for the Ife Cup attracted 11 tables and other nights around 9 tables. Coupled with only one rent increase to £40 in 1998 and a planned increase to £55 in 2004 club finances went from strength to strength reaching a balance of nearly £6K in 2002. By 2004, table money had only increased to £2 per session and subscriptions actually reduced back down to £5 at the 2001 AGM. ..........

Rent rises during this period became relentless and very much on a take it or leave it basis. Club finances were strong and initially with two table money increases, financial stability was maintained to try and continue bridge at the venue that was popular with the membership. However, with average table numbers dropping from around 10 to 8.5 and the prospect of having to accept a rent rise to £80 a session for 2008 (doubling of rent in the space of three years) financial projections were dire even if saving measures discussed were accepted by members. Consequently, a sub committee was formed to search for alternative venues that would be affordable for what was hoped would be for medium to long term. The Sanderstead Methodist Church was selected, approved by the membership and the lease signed to start playing on June 7th 2007, bringing an end to 37 years of playing bridge at the OWA. A club article at the new premises was written for the local paper and attracted some interest.

At half the rent, there did not seem to be too much disquiet with some members having to be content with putting up with tea & coffee instead of their regular few pints of Doombar real ale. In some cases, before the session started! (start times often wandered to 7.45 and later, trying to prise people from the bar)             

Around 2004 was really the start of the club trying to embrace the 21st Century digital Age. As part of the planned purchase of the Duplimate machine for dealing the boards it required an AGM vote approval following a presentation of how it worked and the merits (random deals, availability of the print-out of hands for analysis, speeding up sessions as no dealing by hand at the session, common practice to use at EBU tournaments and club trends to adopt). Needless to say when used for a few sessions, complaints started to be made that hands had become more difficult with frequent “wild” distribution and more akin to playing SIMS. From analysis data later published, people were right in their perception that computer dealing gave rise to less flat distribution! In fact, from going through thousands of hand dealt hands, flat distributions (4333, 4432, 5332) were in fact occurring at significantly higher percentages than what random computer deals were giving. Computer dealing, was though, closer to the mathematical probabilities for different distributions and suit breaks and the real issue was that a deck of cards needed to be shuffled properly some 7-8 times to equate and that would not happen in practice.

2006 was the initiation of the club to the world wide web when the committee decided to buy the domain name www.selsdonbridgeclub.co.uk. It was just the start of the transformation that would occur in the following years and initially the aims were more modest to use the web site for club information, calendar events, competition results etc. It was still early with internet adoption and many members were reluctant to embrace and requested much of the information to be printed out and put on the noticeboard.

Throughout these few years, Vic Long continued as chairman and was able to report several successes of club members at county and national level. Most notably in 2004 a team comprising of Nick Press, Jagdish Aggarwal, Denny Wade, Rosemary Fellows, Robin Clarke, Bill Hodgkiss reached the national final of the Nicko plate losing narrowly and were also part of the winning 2007 affiliated clubs’ teams of 8.

Despite significant effort being focused on club finances and consolidating different accounts (but still managing to be able to pay for the entry of the captain’s selection for the teams of 8 and up to two teams for the Nicko), measures were evolved to try to reverse dwindling membership and organise a gala night for the 75th anniversary of the club in 2007. Some members felt that membership levels were being affected by high playing standard, rigorous enforcement of rules and allowing bidding systems with a Level 4 EBU category.

In 2005 the Roy Absalom fund had reached a level insufficient to continue to buy bar drinks for those who attended the AGM and in typical spirit of the time it was decided to use the balance to buy wine to supplement the prizes for competition winners.

Robin Clarke - February 2024

Rent rises during this period became relentless and very much on a take it or leave it basis. Club finances were strong and initially with two table money increases, financial stability was maintained to try and continue bridge at the venue that was popular with the membership. However, with average table numbers dropping from around 10 to 8. ..........

Digital aspects started to change at quite a fast rate, both at club and EBU level. Bridgemate / Bridgepad software for entering scores at the table to do away with travellers and end of session manual scoring, had become available. The committee were enthusiastic and were able to obtain a free trial and there was the possibility to share the cost (c £700) as the Monday Club would use on that day. Session use was voted through at the AGM of 2008 and software came into full use during the October. Apart from players getting used to the table software, some were against live scores visible on the computer, but the majority opinion was to maintain real time positions.

Historically, part of the EBU’s revenue came from individual players’ subscriptions, latterly through direct debit. Clubs purchased master points books to give paper slips to players who finished in the top third and points were based on the EBU formula for numbers of pairs / teams. For county and EBU events, local points, green points etc. were posted to individuals. Periodically it was up to the members to tally up the various paper points for the seasons in question, enter on a card, post back to the EBU and wait for a new card back with latest totals and if you made the next achievement rank, one would get a nice new printed certificate to put in your picture frame!
    
Around the end of 2008 and into 2009, the EBU started communicating its new strategy for managing various aspects of bridge. Firstly, EBU subscriptions would cease, clubs would remain affiliated, but there would be a pay to play levy per person per session. From early indications, the cost to the club was not clear but as more information became available it would be around £250 per year when the implementation was due to start in 2010. Potentially table money may have to increase.

Apart from moving to P2P for bridge, there would be further changes, including moving to electronic issue of master points for members (making paper certificates and collection redundant), using EBU software for scoring, integrating web sites with bridge webs and using session data to calculate NGS grades which would be implemented the same year. The committee found many of the changes a lot to absorb and did consider the status quo but that would have presented problems for members obtaining and managing masterpoints when the EBU were scrapping membership subscriptions and moving digital.

In the end some “sweeteners” were offered by the EBU which included a free licence for Scorebridge and first year free hosting of club websites on the Bridgewebs platform, provided clubs remained affiliated and duly Selsdon Bridge Club decided to go along with the implementation. A new computer was required for the scoring software and work required to enter members names and EBU numbers in the system. Unfortunately, at the time, the church hall did not have any WiFi so results from the session had to be uploaded to the EBU as a separate task.   

Vic Long continued as chairman through this period and again was able to report more successes of club members at county and national level. In particular, a team consisting of Christine Dyer, Roger Hitt, Derek Eneas and Roger Fellows reached the QF of the Nicko and most of the same team won the Wanborough Cup in 2013. Sadly, long standing member and successful bridge player, Rosemary Fellows passed away earlier after illness, and it was decided that the teams of three trophy would be named in her memory. After a 20 year tenure, Vic decided it was time to stand down from the role and Roger Whittaker would duly be elected at the 2014 AGM.

Despite significant changes at the club fully moving to digital, the club was involved in trying to grow membership. It was agreed to establish a “no fear” section in the side hall for a local group of several improving pairs known by one of the members who would be assisted with the aim to transition to the main session when their standard was considered good enough. Unfortunately, the section only lasted five weeks as the church wanted to keep the carpeted area used, designated as “quiet” and with no other suitable area available at the time we lost the group who went back to playing at St Johns. Whilst this initiative did not turn out as hoped, the club did manage to have around 8 tables each week, sustain finances, with only one increase of £0.50 in table money. During the period there were only modest increases in rent to £45.

Robin Clarke - February 2024

Digital aspects started to change at quite a fast rate, both at club and EBU level. Bridgemate / Bridgepad software for entering scores at the table to do away with travellers and end of session manual scoring, had become available. The committee were enthusiastic and were able to obtain a free trial and there was the possibility to share the cost (c £700) as the Monday Club would use on that day. ..........

2014 was a year of many changes of club officers and committee. Roger Whittaker took over as chairman (there had only been five chairmen in the previous 82 year history of the club), Chas Fellows wishing to stand down as Treasurer (David Elvin to take over following retirement), Annette Robers to become initially assistant Secretary and at a later date Roger Fellows standing down as chief TD. Also, with so many changes associated with support for web activities etc., there was a need to review roles required moving forward. Eventually the club approved at an AGM the need for just six functional officers (Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Secretary, Treasurer, Webmaster, Chief TD) and up to four committee members.    

During 2016 the club started a process of sending out a questionnaire to members to establish whether there should be a change in direction for the club for the future wellbeing. Overall, the membership was happy with the current situation as saw no need to change the name of the club (as technically not in Selsdon). The venue had good parking, friendly atmosphere with new members being made welcome, the playing area was spacious and airy for more tables than the typical average. For some, the lack of an alcohol licence was a pity with some gripes on slow play, a couple or so days a year when the club could not use the hall (Maundy Thursday / local elections etc.) and heating issues. The focus turned to trying to maintain playing standard, improve attendance with existing members and address some issues raised.

Concerns had been raised that the strongest players paired up with each other, making it difficult for weaker pairs to win competitions. As a consequence, a new competition “Handicap Teams” was born in 2016 now that there was a national NGS system that meant two pairs could be teamed together so all teams had approximately the same average NGS percentage. Also, typically the existing free play vouchers for session winners, based on percentage scores were going to a relatively small group of pairs, so it was considered fairer to give the voucher to pairs who obtained the best performance against their partnership NGS grade. With the NGS grades available for players and pairs it did allow better guidance for the teams of 8 selection for the affiliated clubs competition coupled with other information from performance with club, county, and national competitions.

The club maintained a healthy financial balance during most of this period and table money remained at £3 per session (until 2018) and moved to online banking for most transactional aspects. Rent remained relatively stable. As part of trying to improve the club, several initiatives were taken including an online magazine named “Top Trump”, the start of a club history going back to the club’s formation in 1932 and bridge training topics before the start of sessions. In fact, in 2019 the club had the second highest average player NGS (at 10) in Surrey and was only eclipsed by Mayfield.

There were again several notable bridge successes at county and national level in competitions. In 2014 a team that contained Selsdon members Nick Press & Robin Clarke had a comfortable win against the Allfrey sponsored team of internationals (Andrew Robson, Tony Forrester, David Gold) in the third knock-out round of the Crockfords cup. In 2015 a full Selsdon team (Christine Dyer, Denny Wade, David Elvin, Jeremy Fitzpatrick) reached the Crockfords Plate final and in the same year with an additional four players (Steve Irwin, Tony Cherrett, Robin Clarke, Nick Press) reached the grand final of the Garden Cities teams of 8. Sadly, long standing member Denny Wade who was one of the most successful club players passed away in 2018.

In 2018, Roger Whittaker stood down as chairman after four years and Roxanne Day took up the reins the same year. During late 2018 and 2019 it proved to be a very difficult time to maintain the number of players on club nights. It was a growing trend across many bridge clubs up and down the country not being able to keep a pipeline of younger players taking up bridge and many clubs had to close as financially unsustainable. Selsdon had to raise its table money to £4. The situation was so concerning that the EBU established a post of membership development officer and there were similar roles established at county level. Numerous meetings were set up to brainstorm and Selsdon itself set up a sub-committee to come up with plans to try and address liaising with both the EBU and county contacts. Various initiatives were taken, covering advertising in supermarkets with fliers, local magazines, sports clubs, U3A, summer barbecue, invitation nights, teaching and much more.

During late 2019 early 2020 the club was down to typically around 6 tables but there were some signs that numbers would improve. However, by January / February 2020 the media became awash with news of a pandemic arriving from China. The club continued up until its last session held on 12th March 2020 with only 5 tables and took the decision that other clubs were making with EBU guidance to suspend F2F activities. From March 23rd the country was in lock-down and nobody knew if, and when bridge could be played again with all the social distancing rules. This initiated an exodus of bridge playing to online platforms – BBO / Real Bridge with many of our members registering and an uncertain future for F2F playing whenever life returned to normal. The committee carried on meeting online to discuss many topics, such as venue rent and keeping the lease, finances, risk assessments for future F2F play etc.

Robin Clarke - February 2024

2014 was a year of many changes of club officers and committee. Roger Whittaker took over as chairman (there had only been five chairmen in the previous 82 year history of the club), Chas Fellows wishing to stand down as Treasurer (David Elvin to take over following retirement), Annette Robers to become initially assistant Secretary and at a later date Roger Fellows standing down as chief TD. Also, with so many changes associated with support for web activities etc. ..........