Stowmarket Bridge Club

Secretary’s Report 2023-24

Everything has run fairly smoothly this year once we were able to sort the new banking procedures. We have had a couple of new committee members join us in Judith and Amanda however Richard has had to step away.

From a personal point of view the teaching initiative is starting to reap its rewards with several students now playing regularly on a Friday. I would like to ask members to be tolerant with these new members so as not to put them off coming. It is a big leap from learning to playing at a quite competitive club session.

In addition to the teaching, we have started a new improvers play and learn group on Tuesdays at Old Newton. With the assistance of Sekhar, Alaric and Brian this is developing very nicely and is another step for beginners in the road to playing at the club on Fridays. We are running this as part of Stowmarket BC and we have seen several new club members albeit not all are attending on Fridays yet.

On a competition’s front we now have 8 competitions running from the traditional Scratch and Handicap ladder to several knock-out cups and the team Upside Down cup.

With a summer presentation party planned for late August we hope to make this a significant annual event. We are currently looking at adding individual keepsake awards in addition to the annual trophies for the winners.

Going forward I would like to continue with the teaching especially while we have free access to Stowmarket library, the continued growth at Old Newton, and the running of the various competitions.

I am happy to continue on the committee for 2024-5 in whatever role required.

Andy