Whither British Go?

British Go Journal No. 62. July 1984. Page 3.

Ian Meiklejohn

Another journal - not quite on time, but almost, give or take a couple of weeks. This one has a new Editor, what's more, so you might be forgiven for thinking that it marks the start of a new era. Who knows, I hear you all thinking, maybe I'll get four issues this year...

Actually, you won't, since a fall in the BGA's cash reserves has led the committee to publish only one more journal this year, the next to follow early in January. So, like last year, only three issues of the journal will land on your club secretary's door mat. In fact the reason for this has less to do with money than people. Or rather the lack of people. In recent years it is not just the journal that has suffered, either. The fortunes of the BGA have witnessed a gradual but seemingly ineluctable slide. Membership has now dropped to 550. The cause of this sorry state of affairs ? Quite simply, our organisation has been inadequate to the task of servicing and expanding the member-ship. Like the journal, the work has fallen on the shoulders of a very small band of enthusiasts.

Of course not all is doom and gloom. As our president, Richard Granville, points out elsewhere in this issue, the British tournament scene is more active than ever, and our top players, including Matthew Macfadyen [ picture omitted. ] do well in Europe. But things are far from rosy in the garden of British Go. If the game is to thrive, perhaps indeed, survive, in the 80s it needs the involvement of a wider circle of volunteers willing to shoulder at least a small portion of the burden. China not only invented the marvelous game of Go, it brought us the proverb "many hands make light work'. Perhaps there is a moral there.