MAYFIELD DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB

 

Chairman’s Report for Year to 31st March 2007

 

 

This is the twenty-third Annual General Meeting of the Club and my third report as Chairman. As most of you know I have decided to step down as Chairman and hopefully we have found good replacement. The three years have proved hard work at times but have been enjoyable.

 

I would like to thank those people who have assisted me during my tenure as Chairman, the fourteen Committee Members who served under me especially our current Secretary, Rosemary Rice, and our Treasurer, Chris Pullan. Also to Sylvia Timberlake, who only served on the Committee for the first year but has been a tower of strength in her support for all three years, as she takes care of our provisions as well as scoring and Directing when necessary and even washing the tea towels.

 

At the last Annual General Meeting not enough members indicated their willingness to stand for the Committee and rather than press gang somebody to join the Committee the decision was taken to operate with one member short. The Club has also operated without a Chief Tournament Director for the last year. Hopefully both of these positions will be filled this year.

 

There has been sad news during the year as in April 2006 Pam Southern passed away. During the year Bob Canning, Ann Whitmont and Rene Price also passed away. They will all be sadly missed.

 

The main social event of the calendar was the Christmas Party which was again a resounding success and a sell-out. My thanks to Chris Pullan for being the Master of Ceremonies and Director for the evening, to Rosemary Rice and “her” ladies for preparing such a good spread, to Ron Maclaren and John Timberlake for sorting out the drinks and to George and his wife waiting on us.

 

The playing highlights of year were Margaret and Peter Lee winning the County Mixed Pairs, Liz Phillips and Tim Cook winning the Senior Pairs, and Renate Lane and Audrey Randall winning the County Pairs Plate.

The total attendance for this year is more or less the same as the previous year, with the fall in the numbers on Tuesday being matched by an increase in the Friday attendance. This has enabled us to keep the table money and subscription the same for the forthcoming.

 

I am afraid that I have to finish on a more disturbing trend, that of criticising and being rude to our Tournament Directors. Our Tournament Directors are volunteers and combine the job with playing on the evening, often to the detriment of their own game. If a Director makes a decision or asks you to speed up please accept what the Director says. Unless players show the Directors some respect we will find that we will not have any.

 

 

Malcolm Channing

Chairman