LONDON - It looks as though Tony Gray's attempts to revive mahjong activities in Great-Britain, are being successful. His Mahjong On Line Club already has over twenty members. The club,” UK Online Mah Jong Circle”, will start its meetings soon.

Initially, the On Line Club was restricted to UK players. But now, also players from outside the British Isles can participate.

Now that there are over twenty players on the list, meetings will start.  Mr. Gray intends to play at regular times each week on MahjongTime in games where access is for members and guests. The group will start with European Classical rules, as most UK players are more familiar with them. Tony Gray: “In time we would hope to extend this to having Riichi and Chinese Official, or MCR as it is called nowadays, sessions too.”

On the Mahjong Time Server, EC is a variant of the Chinese classical game, which until today is the most popular mahjong game in the UK.
 
Eventually, the British also want to play live. Tony Gray has already shown interest in the riichi mahjong activities which are being developed at Guildford, Devon.

Millington

Tony  (‘The recent comments of Mahjong News on the lack of organised Mahjong in the UK spurred me into action’) learned to play mahjong in the late 1960's. “I was introduced to the game by Alan Millington, who lived near me in Northumberland. We played Chinese traditional rules. In time we formed the Monkseaton Mahjongg Club, where we played tournaments - usually sixteen players - and leagues. Most of the members were of late school and university age then, but older members joined as time went on. The younger members mostly left the area to follow careers elsewhere. The club carried on for many years and some former members are known to have formed another club in Devon, based in Exmouth.
 
“Millington went on to write The Complete Book of Mah-Jongg, which involved a great deal of research, including learning to read some Chinese. I believe this is still regarded as the definitive work on the game in the English language, although of course it pre-dates the now standardised world rules. The Millington rules certainly were adopted in full by the clubs fathered by our original one in Monkseaton.
 
“I am now based in Devon myself with nobody to play with except my family. This caused me, along with a few others to begin to explore the idea of forming a UK online club, using the MahjongTime server." 

In Guildford, later this summer a ‘UK Invitational’ riichi tournament will take place, which the organisers consider a finger exercise for an optional UK Riichi Open, to be held next year. Mr. Gray wants to contact the Guildford group for new activities.

Tony has written a new letter to potential members. It can be downloaded here (PDF document) 
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Read the letter of Mr. Gray’s which has been sent to prospective club members (PDF document)
The Guildford 'UK Invitational'
MahjongTime Server