Teams Group History
John Evitt
The teams group was initiated by Bruce Northey
and John Evitt in January 1977, after an attempt was made to persuade
the Auckland Bridge Club to set up regular teams competition. Those
also present at the initial Steering committee meeting were Virgina Crawford,
Jeremy Knight and Eileen Taylor.
Initially we played at the Auckland Bridge
Club, with a requirement that players must be at least provincial
masters or higher. The club was regarded as a loose subsidiary of the
Auckland Club. The original subscription was $2.00 with table money $1.00.
Numbers were always reasonable from the start, with 12-16 tables in
action on the Wednesday night. This night was originally chosen because
many of the members were also playing on Tuesday and Thursday at Auckland.
The 1978 committee comprised of Kevin Rotherham, Mavis Carruthers, Lionel
Wright, Mike Cornell, John Evitt and Nigel Hannay.
As usual there was a fallout with Auckland over money and
also how the venue was to be used, especially in relation to having
alcohol available. So in 1979 the club went to the Officers club courtesy largely of Peter Cricket
who was a member. The problem of alcohol and lateness did not arise at
the Officers Club, as many nights there would be a core of players still there
at 4am!
The 1979 committee had the addition of Tony Taylor, Jan Cormack, Andrew
Blair, Wyn Jones, Stan Abrahams and Rob Shaw. Due to the untimely death of
Kevin Rotherham during May 1979 Rob Shaw took over as Convenor. During
1981 and 1982 additional committee members included Alan Taylor, Richard
Solomon, Paula Bryant, Ira Garrison, Trevor Robb and Bill Humphery.
Because the standard of lighting in the Officers Club was pretty poor,
a comprehensive agreement was made with the Auckland Bridge Club which resulted
in a move back to the house in 1985 where we remain until 1990. We then
moved to the Auckland Bowling Club. The club played there for a couple of
years until the Bowling Club decided they would make extensions to the building,
so the Club moved again. This time it was to Jan Cormack's club 'Trumps'
in Parnell
As always seems to happen, an answer was found to any problems and
the club went back to the Auckland Bridge Club, where they remain to this
date. The committee position has always been flexible, and strangely (for
bridge players) most members have offered their time at some stage or
the other.
Because this club consistently produces members for the New Zealand
team, written bidding, stop cards and later bidding boxes were introduced
prior to them becoming mainstream