A SHORT HISTORY OF
ST.ALBANS
DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB
by Roy Seaman
Fifth Edition May 2008
About the author
As an
undergraduate at
playing this
decided to teach themselves to play Bridge. This they did with the aid of a
book and, as a
result,
While TD at St.
Albans,
He retired after a
back operation in 1989 and spends time playing Bowls, playing with and writing
on his computer, Family History research, compiling staistics for
"15-to-1" and "Countdown" on both of which he has appeared
and, of course, Bridge. He is a member of Hatfield Bowls Club, which is only
about half a mile from the site of the old Hatfield Bridge Club, where he was
for a time, Company Secretary and Treasurer.
A SHORT HISTORY OF ST.ALBANS DUPLICATE BRIDGE CLUB
Introduction and
Preface to Fourth Edition
The First edition
came about as the result of a chance remark made at the Club regarding the
previous venues of the Club. It took a time to produce because of the apparent
disappearance of the Minute and Account books, which subsequently came to
light, but was finally published in early 1992.
The publication of
the Second edition in 1994 coincided with the celebration of the Club's
Thirtieth anniversary, albeit six months after the actual time and my
appointment as Chairman of the Club.
The Third edition
in 1999, had two aims: to update the Club competition
results and outside competition successes and, as membership has shown a lot of
changes in the last five years, to provide new members with a chance of
learning about the Club's history.
The fourth edition
again updated results, but also for the celebration of the Club’s 40th Anniversary in May
2004.
This
the fifth edition has been revised and updated for a new
version of the Club’s website.
Early Days 1959-69
The Club started
life as The Hatfield Bridge Club some time around 1959 and met in the Youth
Centre in Bishops Rise in
At the time that I
joined, the Club was struggling; the attendances were not very good and the
premises were pretty bad and very noisy. Unfortunately the Club did not survive
for all that long afterwards - not more than about ten months, I suppose - and
then folded.
The next time
anything was heard of the Club was that, quite out of the blue in early 1964, I
received the letter, which is reproduced as an Appendix at the end, which
announced the starting of Hatfield & St.Albans Bridge Club at the Peahen
Hotel on the corner of
The AGM of 1966
reported, with great consternation, that the room rent had been put up to
£2.2s.0d and, as a result, the annual subscription had to rise from 6d to 2/6d!
The next year, it was raised again to 5/-. In 1968, much was made of the
necessity for getting the results out on the night and paying out the prize
money and the Club, reported to have the largest membership of any in the
County, entered teams in their leagues which had taken over from the old
Business House leagues (see under outside tournaments). Later that same year, a
special EGM was held to consider a big increase in the room rent (to £3.10s.0d)
because, although they were very happy to have us as a regular booking (they
not only had the room rent, but income from our use of the bar) they wanted to expand. The
big room upstairs, which had been used as a private dining room, was to be
refurbished as a conference room and the downstairs room amalgamated with a new
dining room. We graduated to the bigger room, which we very occasionally had to
vacate - we even had tables on the landing and in the bedrooms - which, except
for very rare occasions, provided adequate space. After considering various
options, the increase was accepted and the annual subscription raised to 10/-.
1968 saw the
foundation of the
HBA Executive Committee and, initially, John Tebb was appointed by the Club as
its representative. This was short-lived as the HBA felt that representatives from all the clubs was too unwieldy and,
therefore, the clubs should be represented by the four Regional Directors. I
had taken over this office for the Southern Region in April 1968 and so I was
able to keep an eye on the interests of the Club.
In this era,
"Teams" appeared to be more popular than "Pairs" and we did
manage fifteen tables. The running of the Club had settled down to SR as
Secretary, Les Williams (now my partner) as Treasurer and myself
as TD. For 1968-69, attendances reached a peak of 9 tables for Pairs and 12 for
Teams on average (relatively small by present-day figures).
The Middle
Years 1969-83
As a result of the
1968 Gaming Act, there were fears that, unless it was entirely clear that
Over
this period of the Club's history. things ran on very steadily with little of note to report.
The general management of the Club throughout the whole period was in the hands
of the "old guard"
of SR, Les and myself. The Chairman changed from Ian to Brian
Roberts in 1973 and the former was granted Honorary Life Membership - the only
one ever created until much more recent times. SR, Les and I had a combined total of 54 years as Club Officers
when, feeling that it was time for new blood, we retired en bloc at the AGM in
1983 and Brian had had 16 years as Chairman when he retired in 1988.
Attendances gradually declined and Teams became less popular - the averages
were little above seven. 1978 was a successful year for outside competitions
with SR, playing with Colin Morse, winning the Marjorie Lukyn Cup (effectively
the County Club Pairs Championship) and my team (with Les, Henry Piwarski and
Eric Kirk) winning the County Second Division League.
The Present 1983-2004
In the early
Eighties, things started to change at the Peahen; the rent started to climb
more steeply, there was talk of the hotel being sold and, in addition, even
further declining attendances caused the Club to look for other, cheaper
premises. At the end of a considerable period of uncertainty, during which time
we had actually been given notice (and retracted), the move to St.Michael's
Church Hall was made in 1985. This proved to be very unsatisfactory because of
the cramped conditions and the Club moved to the present room at Jersey Farm in
May 1989.
The thirtieth
anniversary of the reformation of the Club was celebrated in 1994, albeit six
month after the actual time, invitations to which were sent out to former
members and County people. The event took the form of a teams
competition and, although the attendance was not as large as had been hoped, it
was a pleasant evening with the presentations and a short address by the EBU
Managing Director, Alan Williams, which ensured a mention in "
"Another
recent visit to a club might have been business mixed with pleasure but turned
out to be pure pleasure. It was the 30th anniversary, a club where I played
briefly many moons ago with my Dad, who was my bridge mentor and is still a
100% bridge nut. The reunion of members from all stages of the club's history
turned into a memorable evening of old friends well met,
fond memories and exceptionally good-natured bridge. For me it was an evening
of pride, playing in a team with my Dad and the President, Roy Seaman, both of
whom were awarded Honary Life
membership of the club."
Note the reference
to me as President, rather than Chairman and the omission of Gordon Pells' Life
membership.
The Club suffered
the deaths of four of it's long-serving Officers -
Brian Roberts in 1983, SR Lewis in September 1994, Ian Mcluckie in October of
the same year and Les Williams in April 1997.
Life Membership
The granting of
Life Membership was originally conceived as something of a "thank
you" to long-serving principal officers (normally of at least ten years
service), but fell into decline after the original granting, despite the
retirement of the three officers in 1983. However, when I took over as Chairman
in 1994 and the celebration of thirty years since the revival of the Club was
in the planning, it was agreed that the practice should also be revived, starting
with these three officers and Gordon Pells, who had served as Treasurer and
Chairman for a combined period of ten years. Unfortunately, by the time the
celebration was held in November, SR had died and therefore never received his
Life Membership. Ian followed very quickly and Les, who by then had moved to
the south coast, did not live for very long to enjoy it, leaving Gordon and
myself as the only two. Gerald Everitt, having served ten years as Tournament
Director, was given Life Membership in June 2001 and Diana Barry, having served
as Treasuer and Chair in April 2006 .
The Officers
The following
shows the four principal officers since the re-formation of the Club in 1964
(the year shown is that of the AGM at which they were appointed) :
Year Chair Secretary Treasurer Tour.
Director
1964 Ian.Mcluckie Tim.Davis Ruth Hunt Ben Scott/Mike Sutherland
1965 .. Bob (S.R.) Lewis .. Roy Seaman
1966-72 ..
.. Les
Williams ..
1973-82 Brian Roberts
.. .. ..
1983 .. Ken Cameron Gordon
Pells Brian Meadows
1984-87 ..
.. .. Nick
Beeson
1988 ..
.. Andy
Ross ..
1989 Gordon Pells .. .. ..
1990 .. Jane
Edrupt .. ..
1991-93 .. .. Diana
Barry Gerald Everitt
1994
1995 .. .. .. ..
1996-97 .. Christine
Ambrose .. ..
1998-03 Diana Barry .. Tony
Skirrow ..
2003 .. John
Eyre .. ..
2004 .. .. .. ..
2005 .. .. .. ..
2006 Gerald Everitt .. .. Diana
Barry
2007 .. .. .. ..
2008 .. .. .. ..
Outside
Competitions
During my eighteen
years as TD, one of my big disappointments was that I could not persuade other
members of the Club to take part in competitions outside the Club and so
successes under the Club's "colours" were few. In 1967, the old
Business Houses' League was abandoned and a new County and Regional set-up was
established. Fred McMahon entered a team in the Club's name for the Southern Region
and then tried to find people to play! Pat and Gordon Pells, Les Williams and myself, not then playing together, were four of the six who
actually played during first season. The team was very successful and won both
the League and Knock-out Cup and never played in that league again as it gained
promotion to the
The next success
for the Club was in 1983, when the Eccles Cup (Inter-Club competition for
players below Regional Master based on a Pairs format) was won with what I
believe to be the second best score ever. With the best three out of four
competing, we finished up with 3rd. (Henry Piwarski and myself), 4th. (Alan Bunce and Frank Wilson) and 5th. (Frank
Guy and Vic Palmer) for a score of 12 (lowest best, 6 being perfect). It
was particularly pleasing for me to be in the winning team as it was the last
time I was eligible to play. Further success in this competition was a long
time coming, but St.Albans won the Cup
again in both 1998 and 1999 to become the first club to retain it; it was won
again in 2006. Although for many years the Club has held a HBA Championship
Pairs qualifier, very few pairs, as noted at the 1990 AGM, went on to compete
in the next round and so, as a result,
regular members of the Club have rarely got to the Final; the best
result for a very long time was Les and myself achieving 5th. place the year before it became a Green Point event; David
Ellison and John Wood were champions in 2006. Success has come for Club members
in both the HBA, Eastern and Southern Counties Simultaneous events with a
number of top ten placings.
In 1998, Metin
Mehmet picked up one of the Hertfordshire Macallan whisky bottles for Master
Point achievement. Further successes have already come in 1999 in that a team
(Mrs.C.Ambrose, M.Mehmet, Mrs.J.Ward & P.Wooding) representing the Club
reached the fourth round of the Nikko Silver Plate and Martin Melhuish and
Gordon Traynor achieved 21st place out of 96 in the Peterborough qualifier for
the National Pairs.
In 2000, my team
(Brian Roberts, Geof Fair & Frank
Finances
As can be seen
from the letter at the end, the annual subscription was set at 6d. (2.5p) and
table money at 4/- (20p) at the outset and today, they are £5 and £1.50 (as
agreed at the 2004 AGM) respectively (former up from £3 in 1964, increased to £7 and now reduced.
There has been much discussion over the years about these and the relationship
between the annual fee and the table money for visitors; other vital financial
issues have been the proportion of table money which comes back as prizes
(which were abolished entirely at the AGM in 1998) and whether the Club should
issue Master points or not (if they are issued - costing quite a lot of money -
all have to be so, even if people do not register them or, in fact , tear them up!).
Fortunately, these
problems have always been solved and the Club, to my knowledge, has never been
in financial difficulties.
Characters and Celebrities
at the Club
Over the forty
year existence of the present Club several hundred of different people must
have played and, in that number, there is bound to be some people of note or
characters and I will mention just a few.
Col.
Frank Sladen was one of the early members at the Peahen and was regarded as the
"father" of the Club. We celebrated his 90th birthday at the Club one
evening and he went on to about 95 (1970) and achieved his ambition of dying at
the Bridge table, although not ours.
Alfredo
Campoli, violinist, is probably the most famous person, although in another
field, who attended the Club and his "autograph" is to be found
several times in the visitors' book established at the time of the Gaming Act.
Brian
Callaghan, who as a young man, just down from Cambridge, played quite a lot; he
has played for England and his name still appears in the big tournaments.
Bernard
Byron, who for many years was Secretary and A.W.(Bill)
Clarke, President of the HBA respectively were, at one time, regular attendees
on Teams nights.
Sally
Evans with her first husband, Dennis Carpenter, were regulars for some time;
she went on to play for
Geoff
Bull, blind from a very early age who had a mention in
the "Guiness Book of Records" for holding the fastest 100 yards
sprint for the blind came to the Club with his Braille cards and often assisted
in totalling the scores in his head - as we used to do the results on the night
in those days! I well remember playing a league match against his team in a
large building, being greeted by him in Reception with "nice to see you
Roy....." and then being escorted by him alone to the fifth floor canteen.
Arnie
Anidjar-Romain, previously the Club's highest EBU ranking member (his reaching
Life Master is recorded at the AGM in 1982) played for England Juniors and
still conjures up bids which nobody else finds - who would pass an opening bid
by the
Wilf
and Dorothy Lamport and Edie McCreadie, who I first met in 1955, were regular
visitors despite Wilf's many commitments and years on the HBA Committee and he
kept us supplied with stationery at good rates.
Ian McLuckie, SR Lewis, Brian Roberts and Les Williams, all long-serving
Officers of the Club now sadly not with us. Mention should
also be made of Les' son, Allan, who did play at the Club and was, for a brief
period, the General Manager of the EBU.
Of more
recent years, we have lost
Colin Morse, John Slane, Henry Piwarski, Derek Aldworth, John
Crowle-Smith, Phil Wooding and Freda Warner.
The Future
The future is
always difficult to predict, but what can be said is that the game continues to
attract more and more people as it loses its elitist tag. The Club now enjoys
the highest average attendances than ever before and the best premises; it is
to be hoped that it will go on from strength to strength, continuing to be a
friendly place to play the "King" of card games.
Perhaps the sad
part about club Bridge now is the introduction of some rather encumbering
rules, very necessary at the highest level, which tend to make Club events less
social than they used to be. Fortunately, this aspect of the game is not
emphasised at St.Albans where, certainly, the less experienced find such things
as stop bids and alerting as severe distractions. The introduction of bidding
boxes in 1996 has proved far more successful than anticipated and are now used
every week.
APPENDIX Text of the letter
which started up the Club again:
To past members of
the Hatfield Bridge Club
Dear Member,
A committee
meeting was held on 30th May* 1964 to discuss means of reviving this club. The
following report of the meeting is circulated for your attention.
1. Present : I.O.McLuckie Chairman
T.Davis Secretary
Mrs.R.Hunt Treasurer
B.Scott Tournament Director
Apologies were
sent by F.McMahon, giving approval to his fellow Committee members to take any
decisions resulting in the revival of the club activities.
2. The Treasurer
reported the present cash assets of the club to be approximately £9.
3. It was proposed
that the name of the club be changed to "The Hatfield and St.Albans
(Duplicate**) Bridge Club", to meet initially on specific dates commencing
Monday 11th May, 1964 at 7.45 in the Mitre Room at the Peahen Hotel, St.Albans.
Subsequently, regular meetings will be held alternating between Mondays and
Tuesdays at intervals to be decided later. It is expected that the change of
venue will result in considerable support from the more populous St.Albans
area. The proposal was agreed nem.con.
4. It was proposed
that there be a nominal annual subscription of 6d. Voting rights at the annual
general meeting will be dependant on at least 5 attendances in the current year
including at least 3 attendances in the half year prior to the A.G.M. The year to date from May 1st. This proposal was agreed nem.con.
5. It was proposed
that the charge be 4/- per session comprising
1/- table money
1/- stationery, master points and
administration expenses
2/- to be returned as prize money on a
scale to be agreed
This proposal was
agreed nem.con.
6. It was proposed
that approx. £3 be paid from club funds to meet the capital cost of providing
auxiliary lighting for the Mitre Room. The lighting will remain the property of
the club and will be erected only for the duration of club events. This
proposal was agreed nem.con.
7. It was proposed
that additional table covers be provided. It was agreed that the cost of
suitable materials be investigated.
8. The club is to
be affiliated to the H.B.A. and the EBU master points secretary will be
notified of the change of name.
9. Other
competitions will be announced later.
It is sincerely
hoped that you will support the revised activities of the club.
---------------
Notes : * The
date of commencement appears to be before the committee meeting, so it must be
assumed that the later was actually
in March. I do not ever remember the club meeting on a Tuesday.
** The "duplicate"
referred to here was not actually introduced (see "Middle Years").
CLUB CHAMPIONS
INDIVIDUAL
The Individual
Championship was inaugurated for the 1968-69 season and the format for it
remained the same until 1992 when it was discontinued. The format was that
points were awarded for the position on each playing occasion and the best six
of these scores in each quarter counted, so there was a large element of
attendance built in (otherwise, how did I win it for so many years!).
Year Year
1969 Jean Marks 1981
1970 Roy Seaman 1982
1971 Roy Seaman/Les Williams 1983
1972 Roy Seaman 1984 Henry Piwarski
1973 Roy Seaman 1985 John Slane
1974 Les Williams 1986 Ken Cameron/John Slane
1975 Roy Seaman 1987 John Slane
1976 Roy Seaman 1988 Ken Cameron/John Slane
1977 Roy Seaman 1989 John
Slane
1978 Roy Seaman/Les Williams 1990 Nick Beson
1979 Roy Seaman 1991 Nick Beson
1980 Roy Seaman 1992 Phil Wooding
This Championship was
reintroduced in 1995 with the new format based on Master points awarded and
also the requirement that only the best four scores with any one partner
counted.
Year Year
1995 Henry Piwarski 2006
1996 Phil Wooding 2007 Gill Fisher
1997 Peter Pye 2008 Gill Fisher
1998
1999
2000
2001
2002 Robin Beasley
2003 Diana Barry
2004
2005 Diana Barry
PAIRS
The Pairs was
introduced in 1970 originally based on a percentage rule and was quickly
abandoned after a pair who came rarely,
but always did well, managed to win because there was no qualification level. A
later one , where the substitute rule was altered,
resulted in a three-way tie which could not be split. The attendance rule was
then introduced, but this usually resulted in the same winners for Pairs and
Individual.
Year Year
1970 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1982 Roy Seaman & Les Williams
1971 Ron Howey & Sid Rothbart 1983 Roy Seaman & Les Williams
1972 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1984 Frank Guy & Vic Palmer
1973 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1985 Pat & Gordon Pells
1974 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1986 Pat & Gordon Pells
1975 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1987 Nick Beson & Tony Ross
1976 Pam Hawes & Imogen.Masters 1988 Nick Beson & Tony Ross
1977 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1989 3-way tie
1978 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1990 Nick Beson & Tony Ross
1979 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1991 Nick Beson & Tony Ross
1980 Roy Seaman & Les Williams 1992 Alan Morrison & Graham
Wright
1981 Roy Seaman & Les Williams
In 1993, yet
another method was introduced (the current one), which is based on local Master
Points (Club level for all events) earned. For this Championship it makes very
little or no difference to the top few places, but does not give a true picture
of the lesser members in the pecking order in that a good pair of visitors
playing and winning, say twice, will receive more points than probably half the
regular members in the whole season.
Year Year
1993 Pat & Gordon Pells 2005 David Ellison & John Wood
1994 Alan Bunce & Roy Seaman 2006 Jane & John Eyre
1995 Alan Bunce & Roy Seaman 2007 Jane & John Eyre
1996 Ken Cameron & John Slane 2008 Vee & Humprey Harlow
1997 Ken Cameron & John Slane
1998 Freda Warner & Peter Pye
1999 Christine Ambrose & Metin
Mehmet
2000 Pat & Gordon Pells
2001 Christine Ambrose &
MetinMehmet
2002 Jane & John Eyre
2003 Jane & John Eyre
2004 Jane & John Eyre
TEAMS
The Teams
Championship started in 1993 and using the Master points format gets over the
rather difficult problem of substitutes playing for a fixed team, in that the
team scores for each member, but not for substitutes or when only two members
play.
1993 Pat & G.ordon
Pells, Vic Palmer, Brian Roberts
1994 Ken Cameron, John
Slane, Phil Wooding, Ted Tarelli
1995 Pat & Gordon
Pells, Margaret & Roger Cook
1996
1997
1998
1999
2000 Brenda & Derek
Aldworth, Paddy & John Crowle-Smith
2001 Christine Ambrose,
Metin Mehmet, Jane & John Eyre
2002 Peter Ellinger, John
Mathews, Pat Jacobs, Chris Goodban
2003 Jane & John
Eyre, Christine Ambrose, Robin Beazley
2004 Freda Warner, Peter
Pye, Margaret & Bernard Eddlestone
2005 Peter Ellinger, John
Mathews, Gill Fisher, Pat Jacobs,
2006 Peter Ellinger, John
Mathews, Gill Fisher, Pat Jacobs,
2007 Peter Ellinger, John
Mathews, Gill Fisher, Pat Jacobs,
2008 Gerald Everitt,
George Singer, Vee & Humprey Harlow
SEAMAN CONSOLATION CUP
While up-dating
this section of the history, it occurred to me that the championships over the
years have been confined to relatively few people (see below), so I dreamed up
a new award. Because the Individual and the Teams are based on slightly
complicated formulae and the Pairs goes to a very regular partnership, I felt
that there should be a cup, which I have presented, for the individual
achieving the greatest total of master points (local level), but excluding the
winners of any of the other championships.
1999 Julie Wreford
2000 John Slane
2001 Peter Pye
2002 Christine Ambrose
2003 Pat Jacobs
2004 Robin Beazley
2005 Jane Eyre
2006 David Ellison
2007 Humphrey Harlow
2008
To date,(2008) there have been 102 Championships and the all-time
list of winners of 5 or more is:
Roy Seaman 37 Les Williams* 14
Jane Eyre 8 John
Slane* 9
John Eyre 7 Chris Ambrose# 7
Pat & Gordon Pells 6 Nick
Beson # 6
Gill Fisher 5 Alan
Bunce # 6
Ken
Cameron # 6 Tony
Ross # 6
*
died # no longer member