www.beckenhambc.co.uk BBEECCKKEENNHHAAMM BBRRIIDDGGEE CCLLUUBB Seasonsʼ greetings December 2012 to one and all! Chairmanʼs Chat Welcome to new members who have joined in 2012: As I write, we have just concluded our very first Beckenham Open Bridge Week, which comprised Andy Scripture, Sue Scripture, Janice Manser, Gra - three varied formats of bridge and attracted a ham Jansen, Mary Jansen, Tom Wallace, Natasha Ab - good entry on each evening, including several visitors, some basi, Selma Abbasi and Mike Bull. of whom we hope will return to play with us again. It was Well done to Andy, Sue, Graham and Mary who have splendid to see the events so well supported by club mem - all progressed from the Improvers’ section! bers, and if that level of attendance could be sustained, we would not be searching for ways to make economies. I know that most of those who participated in our Butler- Subscriptions 2013 scored Pairs and our Swiss Pairs events enjoyed playing in a different type of session for a change. Many congratulations to The Annual Subscription of £12.00 for Club Mem - the prizewinners in each event. We may well try similar events bership will be due in January 2013. Members are in the future as a variation on the traditional match-pointed encouraged to pay this in person by cheque at pairs that we’re all accustomed to. the Clubʼs Christmas Party The success of the Open Week was due in no small part to on Monday 17 th. December the organisational efforts of our Secretary, Barbara, and to the or alternatively Online. meticulous preparations performed by Dorothy to ensure that The Clubʼs Bank Account Number is 03156446 the movements and scoring programmes for the novel formats and the sort code 30-91-35. we were using ran smoothly throughout the week. The account is held at Lloyds TSB Bromley Sadly, the attendance at our regular club sessions has not Branch. If paying online please ensure been maintained at similar levels, so the committee are looking that your name is entered in the Reference Field at what needs to be done to ensure that the club’s finances are brought onto an even keel. Ideally, we’d like to see at least two to help payment identification. or three more tables each evening, and if every member paid a Eddie Richart couple of extra visits to the club each month, that target would be achieved. Many of us also play at other clubs, so why not Problem 1 Defence take the opportunity to invite your partners or friends from those clubs to come and play at Beckenham on occasion? Dealer S. The bidding has gone: A major innovation this year has been the launching of a SWNE Monday evening Beginners course, taught by David Hudson, in 1S P 2D P The Club, next door to the Public Halls. We are enormously 2H P 4S All pass grateful to David for taking on this challenge, which I know he will find rewarding as his students make progress. Sitting West, you hold: The class is full, with 17 students, most of whom we hope ♠ xxx ♥ Jxxxx ♦ A ♣ Kxxx will eventually graduate to joining the club and playing in the You lead the ♦ A and see: main club sessions. As a transitional step towards that, we need to offer them the chance to join our Improvers Section, ♠ A Q x x which we plan to restart some time in 2013. ♥ A x Meanwhile we are exploring what steps we can take to in - ♦ KQ T xx crease attendance and to balance our income and expenditure, ♣ 10 8 and would like to hear your views on the options we are con - sidering. A short survey questionnaire has been distributed to Plan your defence. What happened? See page 2. all members, either by e-mail or at the club, and I’d be grateful if you could take a few moments to fill it in. It is important that Problem 2 Bidding we listen to our members before we take any decisions. *** What do you bid? Finally, I’d like to wish you a splendid Christmas and a healthy and happy New Year. I look forward to seeing N/S Vulnerable. Dealer North. ♠ 4 you at the Christmas Party on 17th December, to which North bids 1C natural. East calls 1S. ♥ K J T 8 2 students from the Beginners’ class have been invited, so What does S call with these cards: ♦ Q T 9 6 3 2 please make them welcome. ♣ 8 See page 3 for an answer (not THE answer!) Chris Lamb Memories of Beckenham Bridge Club (1) Harry would insist that he had actually played the Ace.” He played with several partners at different times. For a Former president of the club Tony while he played with Ahmed Ayub, an eager Zanzibari. No, Walkden shares his memories they didn't bid in Kiswahili. Tony Walkden joined the club in 1953. The Tony – a modest man – singles out one incident of which brother of a well-known swimmer Christopher he is especially proud. In about 1959, playing with Ahmed, Walkden, (bronze medallist in the 1958 Cardiff Common - he was sitting North with five spades and four hearts; he wealth Games) he was known to some of his chums as heard West open one diamond – and overcalled one heart CWB - “Chris Walkden's Brother”. Given Tony's track (!), depriving Harrison-Gray, sitting East, of the chance of record at the bridge table, perhaps Chris should be known bidding his hearts. North/ South scored a top, as all the other as TWB – Tony Walkden's brother! East/Wests bid and made 4 hearts (South had a heart void). Tony lived in Oakwood Avenue and later in Copers Cope Harrison-Gray looked at Tony's cards and asked why he bid Road. He got married in 1968, and moved to Watford, but a heart, “I felt I could always escape into spades if I was for several years drove across London to play at the club doubled,” said Tony. “An inspired bid!” said Harrison-Gray. In the 1950s, Beckenham Bridge Club was situated above Praise indeed, thought Tony; at the time . Verney’s Restaurant (now a pizza place on the corner of While at London University, Tony won the Waddington Beckenham High Street and Kelsey Square.) Tony has many Cup in the British Universities Championship in 1960 and happy memories of the club. 1961. In 1960, playing with Ahmed, he did well in the “I first learnt bridge at Dulwich College,” he says. “I used London Cadet Pairs, which he won, playing in the final to go to whist drives and picked up the elements of card with Jack Marx, one of the founders of the Acol system. play; at Dulwich I learnt about bidding by watching the A regular partner was Richard Harris, with whom one sixth formers play during lunch breaks.” year Tony won the South of England Pairs Championship. He ended up founding Dulwich College Bridge Club – Playing with Richard, they also won the London Pairs.“He and took great pleasure in defeating the masters. was very affable” recalls Tony, “but this did not always “I then heard about Beckenham Bridge Club, and dropped show at the bridge table.” in one afternoon to see if I would be out of my depth. They Another partner was Howard Oken; this was a successful were playing rubber bridge, and I saw one player (a bow- partnership – they won the Kent pairs, and the Croydon tied Mr Thornton, of Thornton's Stationers) make such a Congress in 1968 – but, Tony recalls “I always liked my hash of a hand that I knew I would be able to hold my own.” partner to appreciate my skill at playing a hand; but when he In those days, members played a bit of rubber on some was dummy, he just sat back and read his law journals.” afternoons, but the game was mainly duplicate in the Tony Priday invited Tony and Howard to play in the Eu - evenings. Tony met a number of memorable players. He was ropean Championship Trials, though sadly they didn't quite great friends with Cicely and Jack Caro (the Cicely Caro qualify. But Tony's moment of glory came in 1968, when, Cup is for the Mixed Pairs Championship). They played a playing with Howard, he joined the England team ( Jeremy good game, but their partnership was especially memorable Flint and Tony Priday, Maurice Harrison-Gray and Keith for being so amicable. Stanley) which won the Camrose Trophy. “I never heard a cross word between them,” says Tony. In 1975 Tony, this time playing with Richard, won the Like many of us, he of course knew John Durden - “He Life Masters Waddington Cup (Tony Priday called them played well, and often”, remembers Tony. “But I was never “the surprise winners” - rather rude, Tony felt!). For many entirely comfortable playing with or against him.” (Some of years, Tony played for Kent, and captained Kent in the us know how he felt!) Tollemache team in 1979. Other members Tony knew include Sam Russell (after Tony still plays a bit of club bridge these days, mainly at whom the Shield is named), Olly Biro, Roger Penton, and the Lingwood Club in Danbury, Essex, near where he now Charles Bulman, who was blind (the club used Braille lives; but his competition days are over. “Too exhausting cards). Tony also remembers Harry Ingram who captained and stressful,” he says. “All those autopsies! They used to Great Britain before the war, playing against the likes of ruin my breakfast!” Culbertson.