Cytricon IV

Cytricon IV was the 1958 Eastercon, held April 4-7, 1957 (Easter weekend) at the George Hotel in Kettering, UK. There was no guest of honour. The committee was Dave Newman and Norman Shorrock.

It was the ninth convention in the Eastercon sequence and the last of four consecutive conventions at the George hotel. There was no programme, no programme book or other publications, and probably no badges, although the convention is notable for being the birthplace of the BSFA. Membership seems to have been around 48, so higher than Cytricon III but still much smaller than Cytricon II.

Unlike Cytricons II and III where the names appear to be retrospective coinages, Cytricon IV was a term that was used at the time. Between 1971 and 1989, the convention was recorded on the canonical list of Eastercons as Cytricon III as the original Cytricon III had been omitted. This is despite it being clearly identified as Cytricon IV in the Science Fantasy News announcement.

Preparations

There were seemingly no discussion of, or public plans for, a 1958 convention at Cytricon III. In Science Fantasy News #15 (February 1958), Vin¢ Clarke described it as 'The word-of-mouth Con' and claimed to be bringing:

... the first public news of the progress of preparations for the 1958 S-F convention, one of the most closely kept secrets of modern fandom. Only 50 or so fans with personal contact with the Liverpool group know the Facts but SFN brings you the undercover story NOW...

Membership was 8/6d for the whole or part of the weekend to cover postal expenses and 'provide hooch for a Saturday night party in the basket lounge. Any surplus cash will go to TAFF.'

Hotel rooms were 25/- per head per day bed-and-breakfast. The main hall was not booked. As of February, there were 36 members and the hotel reportedly had capacity for about 14 more.

There seem to have been no formal progress reports.

Venue

The George Hotel in Kettering was an old coaching inn dating back to 1639. It would host all four Cytricon Eastercons from 1955 to 1958 and the Kettering Minicon of 1960, as well as Cytricon V, a fiftieth anniversary gathering in 2008. It was later renamed the Naseby Hotel but sadly it closed permanently in 2016 and has been turned into flats.

Attendees

As there were seemingly no publications we have no membership list. The names below are thus all known attendees based on the relatively small number of convention reports. Names marked * are family members of attendees who likely weren't fans per se.

1. Jill Adams
2. Ron Bennett
3. Eric Bentcliffe
4. Sid Birchby
5. Brian Burgess
6. Pete Chappell
7. Ken Cheslin
8. Dave Cohen
9. Peter Davies
10. Cyril Evans
11. Audrey Eversfield
12. Barry Hall
13. Sandra Hall
14. Joan Hammett
15. Paul Hammett
16. Chuck Harris
17. Bill Harrison
18. John Humphries
19. Terry Jeeves
20. Eddie Jones
21. Eric Jones
22. Margaret Jones
23. Mike Kilvert
24. Ivor Mayne
25. Don MacKay
26. Renee MacKay
27. Ken McIntyre
28. Archie Mercer
29. Dave Newman
30. Stan Nuttall
31. John Owen
32. Ella Parker
33. Nancy Pooley
34. Bob Richardson
35. Phil Rogers
36. John Roles
37. Sandy Sandfield
38. Frank Simpson
39. Ina Shorrock
40. Norman Shorrock
41. Phil Sless
42. Ken Smith
43. Iris Tubb *
44. Ted Tubb
45. Jean Valis *
46. Norman G. Wansborough
47. Norman Weedall
48. Bryan Welham
49. Peter West
50. Bobbie Wild
51. Jack Wilson

Jean Valis was Dave Newman's girlfriend and not a fan per se.

Despite its low key nature, there were 10 first-time convention attendees, notably Jill Adams, Ivor Mayne, Phil Rogers and Ella Parker. Loncon the previous summer may to have an extent been a recruiting channel.

The convention

IN common with the previous iteration, Cytricon IV had no programme as such. Barry Hall and Bryan Welham arrived on Thursday and at first finding nobody else began to suspect the convention had been cancelled. Others, however, arrived later that day and on Friday where the evening was given over to socialising.

On Saturday there were various excursions into the town followed by more socialising. Fans played music tapes and Sandy Sandfield played guitar, and there was a room party featuring 'poleaxe punch' courtesy of the Shorrocks. Sid Birchby reported 'only a dozen hard cases' still partying at 5am.

Sunday began with a camera shoot where several attendees are pictured wearing blazers with a Knights of St. Fantony crest following the first public appearance of the group the previous year, and an OMPA meeting where members listened to a tape from the absent Vin¢ Clarke.

On the Sunday there was a meeting to discuss the state of British fandom which last about two hours and 40 minutes. It had been prompted by an article in Zymic #6 (December 1957) in which 'Vince Clarke had railed against the prevailing apathy of British fandom and the falling numbers of both fanzines and fans'. Describing the meeting in Space Diversions #10, Dave Newman said:

It was universally agreed that what fandom needed was a return to its root source – science fiction – and what SF needed was more support from its fans. As a result of all this the British Science Fiction Association [BSFA] was born.

Barry Hall claimed there were only two dissenters, Brian Burgess and Norman Wansborough, both of whom were asleep.

The meeting appointed Dave Newman as chairman of the new organisation, Archie Mercer as Treasurer, Eric Bentcliffe and Terry Jeeves as joint secretaries, and Ted Tubb as editor of the official organ, Vector.

Exhausted by this seriousness, the fans partied until dawn.

Publications

No publications have been traced and there may not be any.

Future conventions

The Sunday meeting had decided that the new Association would be responsible for the annual convention, and concluded that the 1959 event should be 'at the seaside' over Whitsun. It proved to be neither of those things.

Links

• Rob Hansen's page on the convention at fiawol.org.uk.
• Transcripts of convention reports at gostak.org.uk.

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Cytricon III	Eastercon	Brumcon
Cytricon III	Cytricon	Cytricon V
	1958

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