## Castle Morpeth Bridge Club 

Registered Charity Number - 1203651 

Chairman’s Report 2024-25 

Trustees: 

Paul Ingoe (Chair) 

Viv Heskett (Secretary) 

Ken Reed (Treasurer) 

Freda Simpkin 

Mike Guillain 

Castle Morpeth Bridge Club is an affiliated club of the North East Bridge Association and the English Bridge Union. Its’ purpose is ‘the advancement of amateur sport by promoting the game of bridge for the benefit of the residents of Morpeth and the surrounding area’. 

The club meet on a Tuesday evening at St James Community Hall, Morpeth, to play Face to Face (F2F) bridge. On the same evening, an online tournament takes place (Bridge Base Online-BBO) for those not wishing to play F2F and for a small number of remote living members. Table money for both F2F and BBO is £2.50 for members and £3.00 for nonmembers. 

Trustees’ meetings are arranged three times each year in addition to the AGM. Minutes of these meeting are published on the clubs’ website. Trophies are awarded at the AGM. 

During the year Dan Benison resigned as a trustee and was replaced by Mike Guillain. 

Table numbers from F2F averaged 8-9 for the year. Slightly better than the previous year. However, table money from these numbers do not cover the costs of the hall hire, NEBA and EBU charges. The Trustees’ will continue to monitor the situation and make changes where necessary. 

On-line table numbers have dropped significantly from 6-7 in 2023-24 to 4-5 in 2024-25. Canvassing for new members from local non-affiliated clubs has produced limited success. It appears that support from our more remote area members has evaporated as they return to their local F2F bridge clubs. 

Given that the increasing average age of the club is quite high, it is a matter of increasing concern that very few new members from the local teaching classes want to progress to the club. 

In the North East Bridge Association ‘Team of 8’ competition, the club again fielded two teams. The A team finished second in the league and was promoted to B division. However, the B team finished third in their group, narrowly missing out on promotion. 

In the annual 4 team Swan Trophy, Castle Morpeth managed to retain the trophy. Winning it for only the third time in the trophies 38 years history. 

Despite revenue falling by 23% on the previous year, actions by the Trustees still produced a profit of £117.11. 

Cash in hand stands at £11,295.69. 

Paul Ingoe