As they left after the first meeting, they all agreed; We must do this again; and bring someone else along too. The next meeting took place a couple of months later. Joe brought his business partner John Burke, and Rob Martin invited Richard Boardman of Balfour Beatty fame. Thereafter, more regular visits were made to the Argyll pub and more and more guests, all involved in property and construction related businesses, were introduced. Along with Mike Armitage, Joe Doyle, Rob Martin and Richard Boardman, the founder members included Steve Cole, Roger Howson, Ian Abley, Steve Rayner, Kevin Smith, Ritchie Clapson, John Burke, Andrew Pidgeon, Geoffrey Fox, John Towers and Tim Kier. There were probably some others too! But the mists of time (and mists produced by liberal imbibing as well) have clouded the recollections

As membership continued to increase it was decided to regularise the days of the meetings. For convenience, the first Thursday of the month rule was established. The name of the club was cast in stone as The Argyll Club, although this was occasionally shortened to The Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Underwater Formation Drinking Club. However, this was considered a waste of breath and too difficult to say after a couple of pints. Regulation food of salt beef sandwiches was also introduced.

With the rapid growth, Club rules had to be introduced. One month Members were required to wear something yellow. Most were very bad on that one. Another rule was that male members had to bring a lady guest to the meetings. This should have been easy but people either forgot or had far more sinister motives. Another rule that still stands to this day is that you can only make a mobile telephone call to your sister during meetings. This arose when Kevin Smith was caught speaking animatedly to someone on his mobile phone. His explanation raised him to excellence beyond anyone’s wildest dreams with the mildest of excuses;

Eh? … I’m talking to my sister!

Sadly, Joe Doyle died from cancer, which left members and friends alike feeling pretty fed up with such sad news. Joe had been ill for some time but being the fighter he was, he kept the grim reaper at bay for a long, long time.

In 2001 a huge Christmas meeting was organised by Mike Armitage on David Berry’s fishing boat, Choice which was moored in Docklands. This was going to be a big success. Just as Mike was welcoming everyone on board with a rare and fumbling (even slurring by some accounts) appearance as host, Rob Martin stepped up, right in the middle of Mike’s oration and suggested that the name should be changed, in honour of Joe, from The Argyll to The Doyle Club.

It was the defining moment and agreed on the spot.

Subsequently it was decided that the Doyle Club should be formalised even further. With everyone’s agreement it was decided to meet on the same day, the first Thursday of the month but in Balls Brothers, Ryder Street. Everyone attending was charged £20 for a kitty to cover everything. Frankly, this just didn’t work. The money proved difficult to collect; particularly from late arrivals! As a consequence, it was decided to get everyone there via email communication and for members to pay for themselves at the bar. Brad Bamfield’s first meeting was early in 2003 but nobody took any notice or remembers it.

With ever increasing business commitments and at a time when he was having trouble with his drains, Mike Armitage took a step back from administering the Club. In the summer of 2005, with Mike’s blessing, Trevor Howard volunteered and nominated himself Chairman, no democracy even then..

Then in October 2005, Trevor moved The Doyle Club to a new City location, with a private room that could hold about 30 members where we met for the next 7 years.

Since then, numerous companies and individuals have magnanimously supported The Doyle Club by willingly and generously sponsoring the meetings to enable light refreshments to be available during lunchtime. This, along with assistance and support from Brad Bamfield, who unilaterally assumed the role of Vice Chairman in early 2006, has seen The Doyle Club firmly established as the premier networking forum for those connected with construction, development and property, growing to over 1,100 members by 2010. Fortunately they all don’t come to all the meetings but we regularly attracted 120 to 130 members and guests which meant we filled the private room and took over the whole bar. Unfortunately the air-conditioning could never cope with our numbers and it seemed we always had maximum attendance on the warmest days. That meant the consumption of cooling beverages increased exponentially and clothing became soggy.

Sometime between 2009 and 2010, no one can actually recall, Brad introduced the Doyle Club web site and it soon became the key information route for members. Then we added the LinkedIn Doyle Group shortly followed by Twitter.