So here is a catalogue of change for you, but also a testimony to our never giving up.
In the "Card Scene" Magazine for April-June 2020 there was a grand announcement - "CSGB SOUTHPORT CONVENTION 2021 - The CSGB has recently announced that next year`s convention will take place at Southport on 23rd and 24th of April.
However, the very next edition of Card Scene magazine, dated July - September 2020, told a very different tale; that : "The proposed October Annual Convention at Salisbury has now been postponed until April 2022. A recent Council meeting concluded that there would be legal restrictions on holding such an event, and that older members would probably have been averse to attending for safety reasons. All being well, the Southport Convention will be going ahead in Spring 2021.
Other events had also been affected. The Postcard Traders Fair at Woking, and many other smaller fairs were cancelled. Most of our clubs shut down too, though the East Anglia Cigarette Card Club attempted a meeting on the 18th of July 2020 and the Cotswold and Kent clubs also tried, on the 13th of September and the 3rd of September respectively. However Kent made it very clear that there would be no catering, though admission would be free and dealer tables would be rented at half price.
Auction rooms across the country also closed, or converted to online sales only, with viewings by appointment. On the 20th of May, Warwick and Warwick`s sale was internet and phone bidders only - whilst Toovey`s July auction did take place in the usual way, with a skeleton staff and safeguarding and sanitation measures firmly in place.