The Death of a Comping Legend

Many older compers will recognise the name Aubrey Morris. In the 1950s, he was editor of the weekly comping newspaper, Competitors Journal, and for many years he was the President of the London Competitors Club.

Aubrey passed away on December 19th 2013 after suffering from pneumonia which developed after a fall. He was 85 years old.

When I started comping in the 1980s, he was no longer editing CJ but was still a regular contributor and I found his tips and advice invaluable. I still have a pair of self-published booklets of his that I bought at around that time:

They contain guidance on tiebreaker writing, researching answers, effective ways of approaching order of merit competitions and writing limericks - and those who know me well will vouch for my love of limerick writing, which comes from my original reading of Aubrey's booklets. Most of the information in them is, of course, out of date now - we no longer need a compers' reference library, for instance, when a search engine means we have all the information on the internet at our fingertips, but they are still great to turn to for inspiration.

Rest in peace, Aubrey, and thank you for helping to introduce me to the greatest hobby in the world!