Welcome to Hamilton Bridge for 2023 - One hopes you have had a good break and return refreshed for a new year of Bridge. It is going to be a year of considerable challenges from which we hope the Club emerges stronger …..

Regular Bridge for the 2023 year starts next week on Monday 30th January at 7pm.
Sessions for the rest of that week continue with bridge on the same days and times as played last year ( as in last year’s programme book )

Table Money - unfortunately due to increased costs and a lower playing membership it has been necessary to increase the Table Money to $5

If you need more information on session dates then open this link using your browser to see links for all the individual sessions or the complete week as currently planned

The Club has a very uncertain year coming where we have both positive and negative issues to consider and more importantly find solutions……
 

Positive

▶ The Club this year will celebrate 70 years. Plans are being worked on for a celebration bridge / dinner event later in the year to mark this occasion. Currently this is likely to take place in July
 
▶ Congratulations to Blair and Liz Fisher both holding the top positions for the 2022 year for the Baden Wilson Trophy ( The Baden Wilson trophy is for the top overall 'A' point earners in a calendar year based on points earned in NZ only )
 
▶ The increased popularity of daytime bridge and further more the increased popularity of social bridge which is helping offset the decline in competitive bridge
 
▶ The Club is in the position of having reasonable reserves and while decisions will need to be made these do not need to be rushed
 
▶ The programme books for 2023 along with the invoices for the year should be available for distribution next week
 

Negative

▶ The need to increase Table Money and potentially other charges. Currently the Club has at best a stable but more likely slowly declining playing membership as a result of Covid along with the effect on members of national inflation which is beginning to force the Club to make unwanted decisions…… Costs due to inflation have increased considerably over the later part of last year

As an example the Clubs insurance bill in 2019 prior to Covid was $6800. This year’s invoice for the same being $9900 – an increase of $3100. This requires a membership increase of 37 to cover just this increased sum or about 775 members playing between them that number of additional sessions – this is approx. 20 additional tables of bridge played every week through the year ! Hence our major problem……
 

▶ The declining numbers playing evening / night bridge. It would seem that members have lost interest in night competitive bridge. We need around 5 - 6 tables to make a session viable to cover the costs of holding that session. It would seem likely that a combining of Monday and Thursday night sessions will be necessary to cover costs as well as providing a “better playing experience” for those taking part
 

▶ The collapse of Wednesday night bridge at the end of last year. Our Open Players by a large margin make up the smallest percentage of the grades at the club but due to their experience and ability want the best in the way of competition. Unfortunately the small number of Open players does limit the bridge experience available locally so with the advent of Real Bridge and other On-line systems which provide a better playing experience for our Open players they are playing less at the Hamilton Club. Should this trend continue its very likely the Wednesday programme for this year will need to be re-examined
 

▶ WAPs - The WAP's sessions also suffered low numbers during 2022 however the results of the recent survey show a preference for the status quo with face 2 face to bridge each month on the scheduled Sunday. We will be encouraging club intermediate players along with our regular open players to experience the friendly WAP sessions

 
As mentioned above the year ahead has a number of challenges –

● Maximise the numbers taking lessons this year and then retaining them as future members
● Minimise as much as possible the costs in running the club without in the first instance reducing the service and
    bridge experience for the members
● Maximise the number of times our members play during the week
● Don’t give our members any reason to leave the Club for a reason the Club controls……
● Investigate whether we can better use the building to increase our income
● Is sponsorship something the Club can benefit from and if so how ?
   ( Club Open Pairs Championship and like )

The Committee
Hamilton Contract Bridge Club