Minutes of the twenty-ninth Annual General Meeting held at Bolton Bridge Club on Monday, 16th May 2016, at 7:30 p.m.

Present

Dr. J. M. Brearley (Chairman), Mr. J. B. Brelsford (Secretary), Mrs. M. J. Wright (Tournament Secretary), Mrs. M. McConkey, Dr. A. J. Barnes, Mrs. L. Hitchen, Mr. J. A. Smith (Publicity Secretary), Mr. B. Irlam, Mr. N. Kenyon, Mr. A. Petrie, Mr. R. Mercer and Mr. P. Taylor.

  1. Apologies

Apologies had been received from Mr. A. Crabtree, Mrs. J. Brearley, Mr. W. Alston, Mr. P. Evans, Mr. D. Cross and Mr. S. Norris.

  1. Minutes

Approval of the minutes of the AGM of 18th May 2015 was proposed by M. J. Wright, seconded by A. J. Barnesand passed nem. con. They were then signed by the Chairman.

  1. Matters Arising

Mr. Smith asked whether the problems with the bank account had been sorted out. Mr. Brelsford said that the LCBA had received £162-50 in compensation and that there had been no more cheques bounced.

  1. Chairman’s Address

The Chairman welcomed everyone to the 29th Annual General Meeting of the Lancashire Contract Bridge Association.

He stated that, as he came to the end of his second term of office as Chairmanof the LCBA, the biggest challenge continued to be the falling numbers, not only at club level and those entering LCBA competitions but alsoacross many sports and activities.

Congratulations to Barry Brelsford, who was presented with his Dimmie Fleming Award six months ago. This was in recognition of all the work and time he has put in at club and county level. He has been on the Committee of Lytham Bridge Club since 1989, being at various timesChairman, Tournament Director, Treasurer and Team Captain. He has been Treasurer and Secretary of the Fylde District Bridge League for about twenty years. He was elected Vice-Chairman of the LCBA in 1996, became Chairman in 1999 and has been our Secretary since 2001. He has also been a delegate to the EBU Council or Shareholder for nineteen years, on the Selection Committee for ten years and acting Treasurer for nearly two years.Thank you for all your hard work, Barry, and we are delightedthat, although you are retiring as Secretary, you are willing to continue in these other roles.

On the playing front congratulations are due to Catherine Draper on her bronze medal in the Venice Cup in Chennai and to the B team for itsthird consecutive success in the NBL B Division. We wish it good luck in the national Inter-County League Final in July.

I would like to thank all those clubs that hosted LCBA events, for taking entries and organising the refreshments. Thank you also to all the officers of the LCBA who generously give of their time to ensure that things run smoothly. Jeff Smith continues to be our webmaster so, if you have any news or results for the website, please contact Jeff. Wewould be delighted to see new faces in one of the vacancies on committee.

At this time I would specially like to thank Jacqueline Wright, who is retiring from being Tournament Secretary, a post she has held since 2008. She has run our events with efficency and dedication and she will be sorely missed. In recognition of her service to the LCBA I would like to make a presentation. (Mrs. Wright was then presented with a bouquet of flowers.)

Finally good luck to my successor, who unfortunately is unable to be present this evening.

5.Secretary’s Report

Mr. Brelsford reported that, during the past year, he had updated the list of Secretaries of Affiliated Clubs and Delegates to Council by issuing a Club Record form to all affiliated clubs. Lancashire still had ten clubs affiliated to the LCBA with no clubs re-affiliating or disaffiliating during the year. He had produced headed notepaper and compliments slips. He had written six Lancashire reports for English Bridge. Anyone with a newsworthy item or photograph suitable for publication should contact him, although anything on the Lancashire web-site would be picked up automatically. He thanked Jeff Smith for up-dating the site. The Secretary had attended EBU Shareholders’ Meetings and produced written reports for the LCBA Council. He had also attended the Northern Bridge League Appraisal Meeting in Bradford. He had corresponded on the LCBA’s behalf with the EBU, counties, clubs and individuals.He had given notice of, provided agendas for and written and distributed minutes of all Council and Executive Committee meetings. In all this work he had been assisted by the members of the Executive Committee and he thanked them for their help and support.
  1. Treasurer’s Report

Mr. Brelsford went through the Income and Expenditure Account for the year.

Income from the levy was down, reflecting adecrease in club membership. This was the first full year of P2P income, which was correspondingly up. The contribution from the Cumbria match was £10 from each Lancashire team member. Sundry income included £162-50 bank compensation and £48 paid into the account in error as Preston’s entry fee for the Teams of Eight.

The first item in Expenditure consists of the entry fees for the four EBU competitions, the Tollemache, Corwen, Pachabo and Garden Cities. This item is reduced as the EBU has stopped awarding cash prizes and reduced the entry fees. Tollemache expenses are down as the team did not qualify for the final. The figure for Representative matches is up as last year’s figure did not contain the NBL entry fee which had been paid in March and appeared twice in the 2013-2014figures. The cost of the Cumbria match had been significantly reduced by its move to Lytham Bridge Club, which did its own catering.

The reserves are now up to a level where we should consider using some of them for the benefit of our affiliated clubs by, for example, organising another Tournament Directors’ Course.

Acceptance of the Accounts was proposed by R. Mercer, seconded by A. J. Barnes and passed unanimously.

  1. Tournament Secretary’s Report

Mrs. Wright began by thanking all the clubs, which hosted LCBA events during the past year, and the people in those clubs, whose hard work helped to make them a success.

Sadly we had had to cancel theMixed Pairs at Bolton through lack of support. We are transferring this competition to Lytham this coming September and hope the change in venue will encourage more entries.

The Butler Pairs, which was held at Lytham, attracted only 15 pairs, which was disappointing because Lytham is a comfortable venue providing excellent food. Traditionally this competition has been held on the fourth Saturday in January. We have decided to change this to the fourth Sunday in January.

The entry numbers for the competitions had fallen significantly over the past year with 378 entries to our eight competitions in 2015-16 as opposed to 442 in 2014-15. This has meant that we made a loss in two competitions.

The Congress was well attended on both days. This year the Congress will be on October 29th and 30th with the Pairs at Brierfield Bridge Club (a change of venue) and the Teams at Blackburn Bridge Club. Without entries from players outside Lancashire the Congress would be in a parlous state.

Winners of the competitions were as follows.

Event / Venue / Winners
Congress Pairs / Bolton / Austin Barnes & Des King
Congress Teams / Blackburn / Paul Hackett, Brian Senior, Jason Hackett and Adrian Kenworthy
Butler Pairs / Lytham / Bernard and Rhona Goldenfield
Championship Pairs / Blackburn / Dave Costich and Andrew Lum
Teams of Eight / Bury / Preston
Hector Barker Pivot Teams / Southport / Andrew and Veronica Petrie, Mike Tomlinson and Nick Sutcliffe
Madeline Berney / Brierfield / Paddy Murphy and Mark Weeks
Teams of Four / Colin Mitchell, Bill Alston, Jackie Pye and Jeff Smith*
Teams of Four Plate / John Brearley, Ross Shine, Don Hilton and Dagmar Fazackerley

*Because of problems with availability, Lancashire will be represented in the Pachabo Trophy by Jeff Smith, Stuart Norris, Rod Greenhalgh and Des King

Thanks go to Catherine Draper for organising the Hector Barker Pivot Teams.

Mrs. Wright stated that it was her eighth and final Tournament Secretary report. It was a demanding job but worthwhile and she wished her successor every success.

  1. Election of Officers

The following officers were elected unopposed.

President
Chairman
Vice-Chairman
Secretary
Treasurer
Tournament Secretary
Tournament Director
Publicity Secretary
Membership Secretary / Baroness Henig
Mr. W. Alston
Mr. B. Irlam
Dr. J. M. Brearley
Mr. J. B. Brelsford
Vacant
Vacant
Mr. J. A. Smith
Mr. P. A. Evans / Proposer Mr. J. B. Brelsford
Seconder Dr. A. J. Barnes
Proposer Mr. J. A. Smith
Seconder Dr. A. J. Barnes
Proposer Mr. J. B. Brelsford
Seconder Mrs. M. J. Wright
Proposer Mr. J. B. Brelsford
Seconder Dr. A. J. Barnes
Proposer Mrs. M. A. Mitchell
Seconder Mrs. C. Welch
Proposer
Seconder
Proposer
Seconder
Proposer Mr. W. Alston
Seconder Mr. P. A. Evans
Proposer Dr. A. J. Barnes
Seconder Mr. J. A. Smith
  1. Election of additional members to the Executive Committee

The following members were unanimously elected to the Executive Committee.

Dr. A. J. Barnes
Mrs. M. J. Wright / Proposer Mr. J. A. Smith
Proposer Mrs. C. Welch / Seconder Mr. P. A. Evans
Seconder Mrs. M. A. Mitchell
  1. Election of additional members to Council

There were no nominations in this category.

  1. Election of EBU Shareholders

The following members were unanimously elected as EBU Shareholders.

Mr. J. B. Brelsford (2 shares) Proposer Mrs.M. A. Mitchell Seconder Mrs. C. Welch

Mrs. M. J. Wright (1 share) Proposer Mrs. C. Welch Seconder Mrs.M. A. Mitchell

  1. Election of Accounts Examiner

Mr. S. Norris was proposed by Mr. J. B. Brelsford, seconded by Mrs. M. J. Wright and elected unanimously.

  1. Election of Representative to the Regional Club Committee

There was a vacancy for this position. Mr. J. A. Smith was proposed by Mr. J. B. Brelsford, seconded by Dr. A. J. Barnes and elected unanimously.

  1. Any Other Business

Mr. B. Irlam requested that the LCBA’s thanks to Dr. Brearley, Mr. Brelsford and Mrs. Wright for their contributions be officially recorded in the minutes.

The meeting closed at 7:55 p.m. with thanks to Bolton Bridge Club for hosting the meeting.