March 2025 Meeting Minutes
Published March 2025Minutes of the Committee Meeting of the DBA held online 11 March 2025
The meeting opened at 10am.
1. Officers & Members Present: Jacqui Munns (JM) chair; Jeremy Childs, vice chair (JC), Neil Marsden, treasurer (NM), Bill Luscombe (BL), Mike Hamon (MH), Sheila Ferguson, (SF). Apologies: Liz Timbrell (LT).
Since the last meeting committee member John Wintle has sadly passed away following a short illness.
2. Minutes dated January 21, 2025
- These were reviewed and accepted by the committee with no matters arising and are already on the DBA website.
3. Treasurer's Update
- As of March 10, 2025, the current and savings accounts held c£6,800 & c£27,900, respectively, giving a total of c£34,700. This increase in funds relative to the last report (c£32.250) is due to money received for the Devon County Congress and the No Fear Bridge Pairs event prior to expenses for these events being paid out.
- It was agreed that, to ensure continuity of access, there should be three signatories to the DBA bank account and that a current copy of the banking spreadsheet should be shared.
Action NM will apply for JM to be added as a signatory.
4. DBA AGM on November 27, 2024
- It was decided that the Devon Bridge Association AGM will be held on Sunday, July 13, 2025 at 11am on Zoom. A proxy system will operate, as it did last year, to ensure that the meeting is quorate.
5. Reports from around the county
North Devon Update
- The North Devon Congress (NDC) went ahead on the weekend of Friday 28th February to Sunday 2nd March, 2025 at the Barnstaple Hotel. Sharon Found joined the team to learn the ropes and will take over from Carolyn Page for next year. There were 46 pairs for the ten-match Swiss Pairs competition on the Friday and Saturday and 25 teams for the seven-match Swiss Teams competition on the Sunday. Numbers compared well to last year despite clashing with the Bath green-pointed weekend this year, and approximately a quarter of players were new to the event. Congratulations to the winners of the pairs, Debbie & Simon Richards, and to the winners of the Teams, Sally & Terry Stuttard with Chris Thomas & John Dick. It is likely that the NDC will have made a profit.
- Attendances at both North Devon clubs have improved recently. A second set of beginner’s classes started last week in Barnstaple with ten students. There will be a sixth Bridge seminar presented by Brent Wormald on Tuesday, 29th April, 2025 at the Barnstaple Library.
West Devon Update
- None received.
South Devon Update
- None received.
East Devon Update
- Regional TV show Spotlight visited Exeter Bridge Club in February and filmed a segment on Bridge and attracting players to the game. It is available on Youtube in case you missed it. The club is also planning a front-page advert in the Exeter Citizen soon.
- Exeter Bridge Club continue to run classes for beginners and improvers.
6. Subcommittees
(i) Devon County Congress (DCC) subcommittee
- This subcommittee (SF, NM, & BL) last met on January 21, 2025 on Zoom, and will meet again following this meeting.
There are currently 24 pairs and 11 full tables of teams signed up for the DCC in April.
(ii) Devon Competitions & the Teaching & Transition subcommittee
- Devon will not be represented in the EBU Pachabo Cup in 2025 as the qualifying Devon Knockout Teams of Four (for the Western Morning News Trophy) received no entries.
- Devon Club Teams-of-Eight
The Devon Clubs Teams-of-Eight qualifier for the EBU Garden Cities Trophy received just one entry - Torquay Bridge Club – and they will represent Devon in the regional finals on Saturday, May 10, 2025, with the final being played on June 7, 2025. - The Devon Premier Pairs for the Julia Chadwick Trophy
There are currently only two entries for the Devon Premier Pairs for the Julia Chadwick Trophy, which is planned to take place on Saturday, March 29 on BBO. It was decided to reduce the number of boards played to 32 in an attempt to encourage participation in this competition. This is the qualifier for the EBU Corwen Trophy (May 31 & June 1, 2025) with the top three pairs eligible to represent Devon in this competition.
Action JM will email Devon members who have previously played in this or any other Devon competition recently. - Western League 2024–25
In February, Devon played Somerset and both A & B teams won their matches. In March, Devon played East Wales and Devon A won their match.
Current standings for the A, B & C teams are 1st, 3rd & 4th, respectively. The final match will take place on 5th April, 2025 against Dorset, and it is still possible that Devon A & B could win their division. - No Fear Bridge Pairs
The second of these events will take place on Sunday, May 11, 2025 at Meldon Village Hall, near Okehampton. The fee will be £10 per person to include a sandwich lunch, although it has yet to be decided whether sandwiches will be bought in or made in-house. JC, JM, NM & LT will attend.
7. Club Liaison Role
- Liz has continued to contact clubs by email to raise the profile of the DBA and encourage their members to enter Devon competitions.
8. Website Update
- Transition to Bridgewebs site. The North Devon Congress results were published on the new Devon Bridgewebs site this year, marking the start of the transition from the North Section website to the new main site.
- The Filleigh charity event at the end of March was already on the North Devon site, but the next Filleigh event will go on the new site.
13. Future Meetings
- The next DBA central committee meeting will be on Tuesday April 22, 2025 at 10am on Zoom.
The meeting ended at 10.35am.