Chairman’s Report 2024/25
ROY
Thanks for coming. I’d like to start by just taking a moment to remember the founder, and Life Member, of this Club, Roy Seaman, who died earlier this year. Roy was club Pairs champion on 14 occasions stretching between 1969 and 1995 and was still actively playing with the Club online during the Covid period. He will be remembered via the Roy Seaman Trophy which he presented in 1998 and which is awarded annually to th Club Player with the most Master Points not winning any of our other Ladder Comps.
THANKS
I would like to thank everyone who regularly helps out with the club.
The Committee: Martin Sidders, Claire Garretty, John Duthie, Gary Kendall, Gill Lambert & Jane Scaysbrook
Tony Hazell for organising the vital Reserve Player Rota. If you haven’t volunteered in the last year or so it would be really appreciated if you would do so. It’s always a struggle and there are a few members that physically can’t do it but otherwise please help. It enables the club to welcome new members. We always highlight the Ladder Winners at the end of each year but it’s the Reserve Players that really keep the club strong so thank you to. Anyone can do the role, there is no special knowledge required unlike TD or scorer:
Two volunteering sessions
Janet Elliott Lawrence Wybraniec Jim Fry
Peter Hill James Kleiner-Mann Simon Cook
Jill Akroyd Joan Walton Gary Kendall
Jack Williams
One volunteering session
Ross Murray John Graham Michael Aslett John Hattersley
Colin Owen Mike Hann Linda Gallow Jackie Watt
Stef Weedon Mark Pontin Steve Lambert Nigel Lewis
Phil Minor Sarah Boyd Steven Leung John Duthie
Louise Peck Claus Crede Jane Edrupt Mike Parikh
Penny Mauger Janice Blackstaff
On Mondays I’m also very grateful to Jim Fry, Peter Hill, John Roberts, Nigel Lewis, James Kleiner-Mann and Jane Scaysbrook for their consistent help getting the room and refreshments sorted.
To Mark Pontin, Nigel Lewis, Gary Kendall, Lawrence Wybraniec, Stef Weedon, Mike Parikh and James Kleiner-Mann for getting the cash sorted with Gill most weeks.
Our TDs and Scorers co-ordinated by John Duthie: Gary Kendall, James Rogers, Mike Hann, Steven Leung, Pankaj Chaudhuri, John Stobo, Rod Adams and me.
Advance thanks as well to Sarah Boyd and Mark Pontin for agreeing to get trained as scorers.
Apologies if I’ve forgotten someone, I normally do.
APPEALS
Our TD’ s probably have the toughest job and that’s what behind the only other item on the Agenda today, a change in our Appeals Procedure, but we’ll come to that next.
AWARDS
Whilst we presented the majority of our Ladder Awards at the start of April we do have one Winner who wasn’t there that night but is tonight. He actually won the most closely contested competition of the year, the TaraStan X-IMPs Ladder, so congratulations to Michael Aslett.
COMPS
As we look at the club at present I would say we are in excellent health for Monday night Pairs. Our Monthly Teams isn’t quite as strong and I’m very keen to get more players involved in that. If you want to play, even occasionally, please let me know and I’ll really try and get you sorted with Team mates. Clare Garretty has also offered to help with Team creation when I’m away which is much appreciated.
Our Thursday night BBO Pairs is less strong. Online Bridge has been in decline since the end of COVID and there is a lot of competition, not least from EBU Events multiple times a day on BBO & Realbridge. We struggle to get the table numbers anymore. We’ve agreed to carry on if we get a minimum of five tables each week which we are just about managing but if not we will just stop the event.
|