Lizzie & Dave Humfress moved to the village of Pewsey on the 1st of February 2008. This article is written by Lizzie.

I was checking out the 'what's on' columns in the local paper and found that the Pewsey WI held a meeting on the second Tuesday of the month so I duly went along to be entertained. Richard Giles was giving the talk and I found out lots about Pewsey Carnival and was welcomed by Libby Newman the then president.

During the meeting, I was given the 'red' book to read and found out that another WI was holding a Bridge day, so I put my name down for it. After the talk, Libby came up to me and enquired whether I could play bridge and I replied "Yes". She said that she had always wanted a bridge club in Pewsey and I nonchalantly replied "Oh, my husband Dave could organise one of those (he ran a bridge club while we lived in Amsterdam)". So the Bridge club came into being about 3 weeks later. The club opened in March 2008.

Val Bewley, (the ex-landlady) from the Royal Oak, let us have a room free and on our inaugural night about 36 people turned up to join in and play. It was amazing! Libby had been rallying the troops and so the club continued. We do not charge membership, just a small table fee enough to cover costs, which at the moment is £1.50 per night. We moved from the Royal Oak to the Methodist hall after about 18 months. We could now afford to pay rent and we had grown in numbers (not all of the 36 came back) but after a while we have enough to have 7 to 8 tables on a regular basis. We try never to turn anyone away so sometimes we have a sit out table. In addition, Shirley Kayne, one of our members, tries to match up those who are looking for a partner.

Dave believes that bridge is not just a game but more a way of life so he is very happy to work out the scores and to organise the rotations which are all necessary. Sometimes the 'Director' has to be called in to answer a point of order, but on the whole it all runs very smoothly. During the Wednesday session we break for a coffee / tea / squash about half way through so we have the opportunity to get to know each other.

Why not come along and give it a go ?