From the HBA President

The perceptive among you will have noticed that we have not had a newsletter for a long time. The problem has been that nobody among our members has been willing to take on the post of editor. The upside is that , also for several years the county subscription has remained unaltered despite rising costs, due partly to avoiding the cost of printing and mailing the newsletter (also due to having a very capable treasurer who has looked after your money with great skill and care).

So this missive which coincides with the first issue of the EBU’s Focus aims to be a pale means of communicating with you as best I can.

Email is very cheap, but something like half our members do not have access or have not given us and the EBU their email address. For the latter, please make amends now. I hope that clubs are better briefed and will pass things on to their members effectively and keep our records up-to-date as best they can.

Please please will those who see this note share it with their friends who do not have email.

My main news now is a matter of immense sadness. Our County secretary, Freda Warner, died suddenly while on holiday just after she had retired from work. All who knew Freda loved her. She was a pillar of strength on the county committee and at Stevenage Bridge club. I will not dwell on the matter as all who knew her will wish to mourn her passing in their own way.

A few words about the EBU’s strategy proposals.

The proposals are, contrary to popular belief, intended to be fiscally neutral and, to my personal knowledge, were devised by bridge players who do not live in ivory towers. The response by our members has ranged from acceptance through indifference to total rejection. There will be a vote on the matter at the EBU shareholders meeting in June so we will see what transpires.

The designers have done a deal of listening since the first proposal was issued. Among the changes, a fee for new members has been removed, frequent players will receive a rebate and clubs will pay a more reasonable affiliation fee.

My personal perspective, for what is worth, is based on a 20% drop in membership in the last 10 years and the trend continues. The decline is also felt in our competition entries. On that basis, doing nothing is not an option nor is raising subscriptions which would accelerate approaching the edge of the cliff. Since no-one has thought of anything better, I have to accept the strategy, warts and all, as perhaps the best way for duplicate bridge and its organizing bodies to survive. I emphasise that this is my personal opinion and does not represent the views of all your executive committee nor many members.

I do, however, appreciate the views of those who reject it and ask of them simply to think what else we can do. I have heard the arguments of those strongly against the EBU proposals. If any of you have any constructive ideas in lieue, I should be delighted to hear from you.

Thanks to the clubs who returned the EBU survey which throws light on how many play and where they play. In a year over 80,000 seats are occupied at affiliated clubs. Not bad!

I have been playing bridge for some 60 years (really?) and with total obsession in my youth. So I, like all of you, wish the game to flourish and will be glad to hear of any ideas you may have to further this objective.

A memorable experience was playing for 58 hours out of 64 in Jill Gatti’s flat at 6d a hundred (I lost a bit) with all sorts of bodies like the odd Tarlo dropping in and out. Life is calmer now.

With my best wishes

Mike Hancock