chairman06

Chairman's Report for Year to 31st March 2006

It is now over twenty-two years since the Club was formed at a meeting on 4th January 1984, and it is interesting to note that a dozen of the 33 attendees are still playing regularly at the Club.

The high point of the year from a playing point of view was Peter and Margaret Lee winning the Surrey Pairs Championship, surprisingly for the first time. Peter and Margaret joined forces with Liz Phillips, Bob Rowlands and others to win the Lady Rose Cup (the Surrey Knock-out Cup), and in the Pachabo Cup (a National Competition for the County winners) were placed third (out of 38).

The main social event of the calendar was the Christmas Party which was again a resounding success, although this year it was not a "sell-out". My thanks to Chris Pullan for being the Master of Ceremonies and Director for the evening and to Rosemary Rice and "her" ladies for preparing such a good spread.

During the year Peter and Pam Southon, our Chief Tournament Director and Secretary respectively, decided to move to the West Country and thus were unable to continue to fulfil these posts. The Club was lucky that Rosemary Rice took over the mantle of Secretary and that Mary Street and Terry Kedgley put their names forward to be co-opted onto the Committee for the rest of year.

Sadly during the year two of our long serving members died, Peter Southon (shortly after his move to Devon) and Mike Stilwell, they will be sadly missed.

The hits we have on the Web Site continue to increase as does the information that we put on the Site, in October we started putting the Hands on the Site and from the feedback that we have received has proved very popular.

The number of members and attendances continue to fall. We are getting to the position that the numbers on a Friday are now at a critical level and if it wasn't for the renegotiation of the Rent for Fridays drastic action would have to be taken.

During the year the Committee rationalised the issuing of prize vouchers and the number issued now depend on the number of Pairs participating. The Committee have decided that, despite running a deficit during the year that there will be no need to alter the Subscriptions or Table Money for the forthcoming year.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the rest of the Committee for their help and support during the year. I would also like to thank Sylvia Timberlake for her assistance in scoring and making sure that we are provisioned with Tea and Coffee etc. My thanks to Geoff Whitehead for his frequent offers to Direct which are much appreciated.

Joan Underdown has decided that she no longer wishes to continue to be a member of the Committee. She has served the Club for nineteen years, and has looked after the Stationery, Boards etc. She will be missed and thank you Joan for all your help in keeping the Mayfield functioning smoothly.

Malcolm Channing
Chairman