The Inaugural Meeting of the Club was held at Verney's Restaurant on the 9th January 1950. Verney's was on the corner of the High Street and Burnhill Road, Beckenham, opposite the Coach and Horses.It was decided that the initial number of members should be limited to 60 who would be known as Founder Members. The annual subscription was half a guinea and the table money 1/- (5p) to include tea and biscuits.
A report in the Beckenham Journal dated 22 January 1955 was headlined: "PLAY GOES ON – WITH COCKTAILS AND SUPPER". We are informed that eighty members gathered at Verney's for their annual Christmas party and that:
"Cocktails were followed by a Military Bridge Drive. After a buffet supper members settled down to semi-serious Rubber Bridge."
In those early days Rubber Bridge was played on Friday nights.
At a meeting held at Verney's in 1956, the records show that the landlord had put up the rent of the room from £26:6/- to £30 per month for the three evenings the club then met. Jack Caro proposed that this increase should be met by an increase in table money but clearly this was too radical at that time and no seconder was found!It took a further Committee meeting before it was agreed that the extra money should be collected by raising the annual subscription to 15/- for one session and 30/- for three sessions per week.
Much the same sort of subjects were discussed as today including incorrect travellers and match pointing, non-attendance of Duty Members, Direction of events and ventilation. What's new?
By the 1960s accommodation was proving a problem and numbers had to be restricted, although by 1959 a 20% drop in membership was noted due to an increase in the number of other duplicate bridge clubs in the district.
In 1977 we moved to the Public Halls and for many years the Club thrived at this location. Although in recent years the average membership has remained about the same, attendances are down. It would seem that this is in part caused by the proliferation of duplicate bridge clubs in the district.
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