From: Bill Leveritt Subject: Re: query about Brisbane Go Club Date: 9 August 2019 at 4:15:11 pm AEST To: "neville.smythe" Hi Neville I’m still alive, though starting to suffer the effects of getting older now I’ve turned 70.  But not badly enough to stop Elenor and I leaving for Europe tomorrow for a two month holiday. Re Brisbane Go Club I first learnt about Go from a man I worked with in the early 1970s.  In about 1974 I joined the staff at University of Queensland.  In about 1975 or 1976, I can’t be sure, the Japanese Consulate organised a team of three professional Go players to come to Brisbane and they gave a talk and demonstrations at the Uni.  Edwin Dowdy was a lecturer in Anthropology and Sociology and he organised the publicity around the Uni.  I went along.  Following the talks Edwin organised a meeting of interested locals, subsequent to which we formed the Club, with Edwin as President, myself as Secretary and Ron House from the Department of Mathematics as Treasurer. I can’t be sure of exact dates but it must have been a year or so before the first Australian go championships in Sydney, out of which we formed the AGA. The BGC continued to meet at the Uni for several years.  Edwin dropped out after a short time, and I only ever saw him once more when he turned up for a competition in the early 2000s.  Ron House also left when he took a position at the university of Southern Queensland in Toowoomba. Our tenure at UQ eventually came to an end.  We had been unable to secure a regular meeting room.  Fortunately, through a contact of one of our members, we were able to meet in the Pancake Manor in the city.  We were there for many years.  I dropped out of regular attendance due to pressure of work and a growing family, but there have been enough new members willing to take up the roles of running the Club.  The BGC now meets at a games shop in the southern suburbs.  I don’t attend as my eyesight is deteriorating and I don’t like driving at night. But funnily things turn full circle.  I met with Horatio Davis just last Wednesday evening at the University of Queensland. He wants to start a UQ Go Club.  I’d be happy to be part of that when I get home from Europe as I can easily get to UQ by bus. Best wishes Bill Leveritt Sent from my iPad On 9 Aug 2019, at 11:14 am, neville.smythe wrote: Hi Bill How are you? I have a question: do you know how the Brisbane Go Club got started? I have been asked to give a talk at the Chinese Go Congress in a couple of weeks about the development of Go in Australia. I know the origins of the Sydney club - Kurt Flatow, an immigrant from Germany taught a few players at the Sydney Chess Club in the 60’s; the players eventually formed the Sydney Go Club (70-something?) . Unfortunately I have been unable to track down a photo of Kurt (and don’t have the email address of his son Fred, who may have died anyway). I am pretty sure the Sydney Club would have been the first (at least as a public club). Brisbane would seem to have been next — certainly we didn’t hear about Melbourne players until after we formed the AGA. Anything you can add about the history would be a useful addition to the AGA archives! Regards $@%? $@%? $@%? $@%? $@%? $@%? $@%? $@%? Neville Smythe VicePresident AGA Inc.            VicePresident@AustralianGo.asn.au IGF Director (Oceania)                           Tel:  61-2-6232-7277 Mob:       0414517719