No. 19 Series 6 May 2015 Kelsey Success for Alison & Freida Alison Gavine & Freida Souter, members of DBC Beginners’ Class have won the Hugh Kelsey compe- tition. They are taught by Liz Hunter at her Monday class and we’re all very proud of our National Champions! (see more on P8) ******* New Feature this Month! I am very pleased to announce a new feature for the Slam this month. Grand Slam Crossword The Slam is very fortunate in gaining the services of an expert cross- word compiler - new member Michael Macdonald-Cooper. A recruit from the classes, Michael has been playing in the club for only a few months but your intrepid editor, finding out his expertise via social media, jumped straight in and asked for help in bringing you this extra feature. Not for the faint hearted, (your editor is completely stumped!) Michael’s crossword appears on P6, with the solution coming next month. Enjoy! ******* April Hoax Well done all those who spotted the April fool’s hoax last month. Have to say some were taken in. One member was heard to ask where we would park at the V&A. Another was heard to mutter about being called ‘living relics’. All good clean fun! Bridge in Dundee before DBC When Dundee Bridge Club was founded in 1945, it began its life with 120 members. This is strong evidence that Bridge was not new to Dundee at that point in time – 120 people interested in Bridge did not spring from nowhere. Further evidence in one of our cupboards was a small cup entitled ‘Dundee War Charities Bridge League’ with dates from 1939-45. More recently, I gained access to a website called Findmypast (belonging to the Courier) which, in addition to family history data, contained scanned pag- es from over 240 newspapers from 1953 and earlier. Not surprisingly, the Cou- rier and the Telegraph featured in this list. This was to provide a fascinating glimpse into the development of Bridge - internationally, nationally and locally. Bridge outside Dundee As many of you may know, the game of Bridge was developed from whist in three stages – first, Russian Whist (or Biritch – the origin of the word ‘Bridge’) invented around 1886, then Auction Bridge whose first rules appeared in 1904 and then our current version, Contract Bridge developed by Harold Stirling Van- derbilt in 1925. It is possible that Auction Bridge was played in Dundee and elsewhere from 1904 but the earliest evidence in Findmypast of it being played, other than in people’s homes, was in the Hastings & St Leonards Observer of 22 June 1918 which described an Auction Bridge event, although there was a reference to ‘gambling in Bridge’ in the Sunderland Daily Echo and Shipping Gazette of 6 March 1902. The latter must have been a reference to Biritch. The earliest mention of Bridge in the columns of our local papers was an item in the Courier about Biritch in 5 November 1904 but this did not indicate that it was played in Dundee. Another article (Dundee Telegraph of 6 April 1912) about women & Bridge referred to Auction Bridge but the event was in Paris. Both of the Dundee papers had articles about an Auction Bridge hand which had contained 13 clubs but this took place in Philadelphia. The first mention of competitive Bridge in Dundee is to be found in the Courier of 7 April 1928 with a description of a Bridge drive which had taken place in the Dundee Unionist Association Bridge Club in Albert Square. [For readers from south of the border ‘Unionist’ was the former name of the Scottish Conservatives.] This tournament had been the last of the winter programme. It is possible, therefore, that this season had started in autumn of 1927. The event was for mixed pairs but a number of the ladies played as gentlemen sug- gesting that even in these days there was a predominance of the fairer sex. There were 21 tables. Over the next few years, Bridge was mentioned sporadically in the local papers, eg 21 December 1929 in the Telegraph there was an item about a Dun- dee Dental Hospital Bridge & Whist Drive which raised £71 for the Hospital’s funds. (con’t) 2 The game’s political base widened. In the Courier (15 February 1930) there was reference to the Ladies Bridge Club of the Dundee Liberal Associa- tion. In 12 December 1931 this organisation had a whist drive with 30 tables in their Reform St rooms. News items relating to Bridge in Albert Square and Reform St began to appear reasonably regularly in both Dundee papers. Quite a number of Dun- dee Bridge Club’s founder members were mentioned in the thirties and early forties, eg Reoch, Pool, Cameron, Hay, Robb, Kinnear, Gair, Malcolm, Imrie, Mars, Gray, French, Cunningham [not Jim – he is not that old!]. However in the early 30s, Bridge articles must have been about Auction Bridge in light of two news items in the Courier in early 1934. Introduction of Contract Bridge to Dundee 23 January 1934. A company of about 80 Bridge enthusiasts attended a demonstration of Contract Bridge given in Kidd’s Rooms Dundee by Miss Isabel WP Duncan, an associate member of Culbertson’s Studios, London. She dealt with ‘correct bidding and play’ including a new feature of doubling. This visit had been arranged by Burns & Harris (the local printing company). 27 February 1934. The first Contract Bridge (duplicate) tournament to be held in Dundee was played in Kidd’s Rooms with 80 people present. This was arranged by Mr Arthur Burns [Presumably of Burns & Harris] and run by Miss IWP Duncan. The winning ‘YZ’ couple was Mrs JB Taylor & Miss Ferrier with a score of 2680 and the winning ‘AB’ couple Mr AJ Paterson & Mrs Nicoll with a score of 4410. The terms YZ and AB were used to indicate the differ- ent directions. NS and EW had not been applied at this point. Contract Bridge was beginning to take off - 24 April 1934 (Telegraph) a Contract Bridge competition was organised by the Dundee Liberals - but Auc- tion Bridge had not died. In May1934 an Auction Bridge drive was held at the Unionist headquarters. In September 1934, a Bridge Drive organised by the Ladies Guild and the Royal National Life Boats Institution was held in Kidd’s Rooms which had two sections one for Auction and one for Contract. (Telegraph) A Dundee pair Messrs JM Allan & S McRitchie had success in North of Scotland Contract Bridge Pairs competition in Caledonian Hotel, Aberdeen. They won the East/West Section and advanced to the final four in the same hotel on 2nd March 1935. (Telegraph). They finished as runners-up by one point. Inter club matches began to appear - 20 March 1936 (Telegraph) Dun- dee Liberal Association beat the Crieff Unionists by 1450 points. The introduction of a league was mooted. The Liberal Bridge Club for some time a stronghold of contract Bridge in Dundee had been advocating the formation of a Dundee & District Bridge League. This was through en- couragement from SBU who realised that Dundee was the only large city in the country that was behind in this respect [shame on Dundee!] (con’t) 3 On 25 January 1938 a Contract Bridge League was inaugurated with the following teams (of four?) Liberal A & B, Val D’Or, Highfield, Black Sox, Victoria, Windsor, Broughty Unionist, Broughty Unionist Bridge Club, Forthill, Dundee Unionist I & II, Victoria 2, December 1937 (Telegraph). The Bridge League also ran pairs competitions. On 28 November 1938 (Courier & Telegraph) Dundee beat Edinburgh by 3700 points in the Liberal Rooms – the visiting team had 2 internationalists and was captained by RR French. The Dundee team were: S McRitchie & GE Hay, A Cameron & H Robb, JB Cunningham & G Hay, R Kinnear & W Hill, WS Rob- ertson & D Stephen, JC Petrie & J Paterson, AF Davie & F Bromberger, G Dalzeill & J Imrie As a result of the outbreak of the Second World War, Dundee Contract Bridge League was suspended but some members decided to start the Dundee War Charities Bridge League [See earlier reference to the War Charities Cup] with teams from the original League’s first and second divisions. It was decided to accumulate a fund ‘to provide comforts for the forces’ The opening rounds saw Val D’Or, Windsor, Unionists, St Joseph’s, Roseangle, Strathtay, St Mary’s, Reres, Ardbeg, Broughty, Reform & Lawton in action (6 December 1939 Tele- graph) The League met regularly in the King’s Theatre café, each player paying 1 shilling plus a levy of 6d. The first disbursement of monies took place with donations of £7 to Royal Navy, £7 to Black Watch & £6 to DRI. (30 April 1940 Telegraph). The League also ran pairs competitions. The League ended in September 1945, having raised funds of over £150 for war charities. In October of the same year, the Courier reported on the formal opening of Dundee Bridge Club and in December its financial pages noted that Dundee Bridge Club Ltd, 6 Airlie Place, had been registered with Companies House to promote Contract and Auction Bridge. [I have come across no other mention of Auction Bridge in any sources dealing with Dundee Bridge Club including minutes and Slams.] Wyllie Fyfe ******* Central District Charity Pairs 12 April 82 players took part in the competition, including many Dundee BC mem- bers. We cleared £1,061, which together with £256 raised at Montrose last Au- gust and a contribution from Central District gives a total of £1,350 for the Monifieth Befriending Scheme. The cheque presentation is 2.00 pm 6 May in the Clubhouse so do come along (and play in the Wednesday afternoon bridge while you are at it).