NATIONAL CLUB

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Open Major Minor Handicap Rapidplay Early-season notes

updated 24.7.02

NATIONAL CLUB 2001-2

Did they get more entries?
Not quite. It's hard to compare this year's entry with last, except in the Open and the Handicap Rapidplay. But, for what it's worth, there were 45 entries last year in the U175, U150 and U125 put together. This year's U160 and U125, which more or less replace them, have 42. Of course the old U100, least well supported of the competitions, has disappeared.

28.6.02. We have Final results in full for Open (Championship and Plate), Major (Championship and Plate), and Minor (Championship only). For these, thanks go to John Philpott and Mike McNaughton. The Minor Plate Final is not played yet. One of the Minor Plate semi-finals is not played yet.

Open Major Minor Rapidplay Notes home

OPEN CHAMPIONSHIP
10 entries (8 last year)
Round 1 (by 13th January: seeded teams underlined) Hastings & St Leonards 2½ 3½ Ilford; Hounslow 2½ 3½ The Hen & Chickens; Kingston 2½ 3½ Bedford; Maidstone 2½ 3½ Athenaeum; Wood Green 3½ 2½ Mushrooms. Someone obviously forgot to tell Wood Green the correct outcome. (Seeding: 1 Wood Green; 2 Bedford; 3 Ilford; 4 Maidstone; 5 The Hen & Chickens. This is calculated on the last three seasons' results.)
Round 2 (by 3rd March) Athenaeum 1 5 Wood Green
Semi-finals (by 28th April) The Hen & Chickens 1½ 4½ Bedford; Ilford 1½ 4½ Wood Green
Final Bedford 1½ 4½ Wood Green (Wanstead, 23rd June)
PLATE
Round 1 Mushrooms 5 1 Hounslow
Semi-finals Kingston 1 5 Maidstone; Mushrooms 2½ 3½ *Hastings & St Leonards
Final Maidstone* 3 3 Hastings & St Leonards (Wanstead, 23rd June)

OPEN FINAL

	Wood Green	23.6.02	Bedford
1 2 3 4 5 6	Jonathan P Levitt 220 Neil McDonald 223 James R Poulton 221 Peter J Sowray 206 Graham D Lee 217 Desmond TN Tan 205	½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 1 0 ½ ½ 1 0	Andrew J Ledger 215 (B) Dave J Ledger 209 Stephen C Ledger 192 Paul F Habershon 168 MD Smith 156 I Bacon 157
(Wanstead)		4½ 1½

OPEN PLATE FINAL

	Hastings & St Leonards	23.6.02	Maidstone
1 2 3 4 5 6	Bernard Cafferty 190 Mark C Rich 186 John A Dodgson 184 Robin WB Moss e190 Richard J Almond 170 Nigel Harvey 166	½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ ½ 1 0	Ian R Watson 207 (B) Cliff R Chandler 214 Chris M Cooley 206 Chris I Howell 178 David H Powell 166 Paul D Fenn 171
(Wanstead)		3 3
Maidstone won on board count.

Open Major Minor Rapidplay Notes home

MAJOR U160
18 entries (no comparable figure for last year)
Round 1 (by 23rd December) Tunbridge Wells 1½ 3½ The Holt; Hastings & St Leonards 2 3 Maidstone; Southampton 2 3 Thornbury; Cosham 2 3 Basingstoke; Basingstoke Juniors 3½ 1½ Hammersmith; Wood Green 3 2 Writtle; Kings Head ½ 4½ Bourne End; Prescot & Knotty Ash 3½ 1½ Rose Forgrove A; Rose Forgrove B 2½ 2½ *Wanstead & Woodford
Round 2 (by 10th February) Bourne End 3 2 Basingstoke Juniors
Quarter-finals (by 24th March) Wanstead & Woodford 2½ 2½ *Bourne End; Maidstone 2½ 2½ *The Holt; Basingstoke A 1 4 Wood Green; Thornbury 2½ 2½ *Prescot & Knotty Ash
Semi-finals (by 26th May) The Holt 2 3 Wood Green; Prescot & Knotty Ash 2 3 Bourne End (played at Solihull)
Final Wood Green* 2½ 2½ Bourne End (Wanstead, 23rd June)
PLATE
Round 1 Cosham 1 4 Hastings & St Leonards
Quarter-finals Hastings & St Leonards 3 2 Tunbridge Wells; Rose Forgrove A 3½ 1½ Kings Head; Hammersmith w/o scr Southampton (don't tell Cosham and Hastings); Writtle 3 2 Rose Forgrove B
Semi-finals Writtle 4 1 Hastings & St Leonards (received from both sides, so it must be true); Rose Forgrove A 4 1 Hammersmith
Final Writtle 2½ 2½ *Rose Forgrove (Syston)

MAJOR FINAL

	Bourne End	23.6.02	Wood Green
1 2 3 4 5	Andrew P Smith 189 (B) Roger de Coverly 183 MJ Egby 150 Kevin P Hawkins 144 David J Turner 128	½ ½ 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0	Cjiedu Maduekwe 189 C Hasman e170 David A Cutmore 159 David V Harrison 150 Brian A Smith 129
(Wanstead) (158.8)		2½ 2½	(159.4)
Wood Green won on elimination.

MAJOR PLATE FINAL

	Rose Forgrove	23.6.02	Writtle
1 2 3 4 5	T Braithwaite 164 M Round 165 RW Jennings 153 IW Smith 146 T Pawson 133	0 1 1 0 ½ ½ 1 0 0 1	G Moore 173 (W) IBN Smith 170 D Millward 160 R Slade 157 A Hung 129
(Syston)		2½ 2½
Rose Forgrove won on elimination.

Open Major Minor Rapidplay Notes home

MINOR U125
24 entries (no comparable figure for last year)
This competition has been run in secret. We have some later-round results from match captains and a club website, and what's in blue is surmise. John Philpott has supplied the Championship Final, and the Plate Final will get played when it gets played.

Round 1 (by 20th January) Alwoodley 1½ Lancaster; Buckley Mold 4 1 Aberystwyth; Checkmate 4 1 Hereford; Chislehurst I 1½ 3½ Tunbridge Wells; Crowthorne 4 1 Totnes; Hastings & St Leonards 2 3 Woodpushers; Hesperides 2 3 Basingstoke; Kings Head 3½ 1½ Cosham; Magdalen College School 2½ 2½ *Rainham; Newark 3 2 Northampton; Waltham Forest 1½ 3½ Chislehurst II; West Leeds 2 3 Ashfield
Round 2 (by 10th March) Ashfield 2 3 Checkmate; Basingstoke 2 3 Kings Head; Lancaster 3 2 Buckley Mold; Rainham 4 1 Crowthorne; rest byes
Quarter-finals (by 21st April) Chislehurst II lost to Checkmate; Lancaster beat Newark; Tunbridge Wells 2 3 Rainham; Woodpushers 3 2 Kings Head
Semi-finals (by a date not known to us) Rainham 1½ 3½ Woodpushers; Checkmate 3½ 1½ Lancaster
Final Checkmate 3½ 1½ Woodpushers (Wanstead, 23rd June)
PLATE
Round 1 Alwoodley beat West Leeds, to judge by their appearance in the Quarter-finals; Cosham beat Waltham Forest ditto; Northampton lost to Chislehurst I ditto; rest byes. (Hereford were paired at home v Magdalen College School, but got a bye because MCS hadn't entered the Plate.)
Quarter-finals Aberystwyth 3 2 Alwoodley; Hastings & St Leonards (?)3½ 1½ Cosham; Chislehurst I scr w/o Hesperides; Totnes lost to Hereford
Semi-finals Hereford beat Aberystwyth; Hastings & St Leonards v Hesperides. 3.7.02: not played yet, but they're talking about talking about a date.
Final Hastings & St Leonards or Hesperides v Hereford
     Note 24.7.02. Cyril Johnson has today issued an Interim Statement, from which we gather that Hesperides were initially defaulted by the Controller at the quarter-final stage. So, we imagine, were their opponents Chislehurst. The match (deadline 21st April) had not been played. Hesperides appealed to CFWJ on the 11th June. We do not know why this was so long after the deadline, but there do seem to have been delays in the competition. After seeking further evidence, CFWJ reinstated them and noted that Chislehurst had withdrawn. CFWJ's statement, issued a month afterwards, continues:
     "The semi-final between Hastings and Hesperides will take place as soon as possible, with Hastings enjoying the rights as home team, and neither team being forced to play a weakened team. The final will take place at a venue to be decided as soon as possible.
     "Where appropriate, reimbursement has been made of costs incurred. I reserve the right to make a further statement of regret to the wronged parties later.
     "Mr G Brown has tendered his resignation as controller of the event for reasons of work pressure, and I thank him for his efforts.
     "I would like to thank Hesperides and Hastings for their quite proper conduct in this matter."

MINOR FINAL

	Woodpushers	23.6.02	Checkmate
1 2 3 4 5	Andrew Briggs 146 (B) Julian B Mitchell 136 Gary Charles 120 J Oliver Andrew 98 Graham Hind 94	0 1 ½ ½ 0 1 0 1 1 0	Sabrina Chevannes 153 Paul Lam 134 Mike B Fox 149 Charlotte J Wilcox 99 Wilf Morgan 86
(Wanstead) (118.8)		1½ 3½	(124.2)

Open Major Minor Rapidplay Notes home

HANDICAP RAPIDPLAY
9 entries (11 last year)
John Philpott writes 8.4.02:
The BCF National Club Handicap Rapidplay was held as a five round Swiss for teams of four on Sunday 7 April at Magdalen College School, Oxford, with Priscilla Morris controlling. The experiment of switching from the knockout competition that has been held in previous seasons to a Swiss led to an extremely well contested and enjoyable afternoon, and the event will be repeated in this format next season, with zonal qualifying competitions being organised if there are sufficient entries to justify this. Nine clubs entered this year's event, and a scratch "Aardvarks" team was organised from reserves and supporters at the venue in order to avoid a bye.
Pairings for each round were based on game points, but the overall scores were adjusted by a handicap determined by average grades (-8 for >195, -5 for 176-195, -3 for 156-175, 0 for 136-155, +3 for 120-135 and +5 for <120) to determine final placings.
Going into the final round, Aardvarks were leading on adjusted scores, but they went down 4-0 to Athenaeum, enabling Athenaeum to catch Wanstead & Woodford who had finished with an adjusted score of 8½ after defeating Syston 2½-1½. Bedford could have won outright by beating Crowthorne but were held 2-2, so there was a three way tie for the prize money for 1st, 2nd and 3rd places (with each team receiving £135), but Wanstead & Woodford take the title by virtue of having the lowest average grade of the tied teams.

Wanstead & Woodford
Athenaeum
Bedford
Syston
Aardvaarks
Guildford
Mushrooms
Cardiff
Crowthorne
Cowley

Mean grade
138¼
171½
194¼
120
126
184
184¼
186½
192½
158¼

GP
  8½
11½
13½
5
4
12
12
12
12
   9½

Handicap
0
-3
-5
+3
+3
-5
-5
-5
-5
-3

Score
8½
8½
8½
8
7
7
7
7
7
6½

Open Major Minor Rapidplay Notes home

EARLY-SEASON NOTES
21.11.01
Rules
Grading limits are on mean grade. The Rules have been amended to accommodate this, and we've put a copy on the site.
(Early season)
There are changes this year. The National Club is in three sections only: Open (6 boards); Major U160 (5 boards); and Minor U125 (5 boards). The grading limits are on mean grade. Additionally the Major and Minor have ceilings, for an individual player, of 200 and 160.
     Note 30.9.01. The details above are not those we originally published. They are as amended by Council yesterday. The problem was that the grading limits on the entry form differed, in various ways, from those on its front cover. We previously gave the limits on the form itself, because they had already been so circulated by the Director. That's now wrong. The U125 is positively that. We are still not sure whether the U160 is really U160 or "not over 160" as on the entry form. [Note 19.10.01. It's U160.] Both limits are certainly on mean grade.

Entry fee is £20 for each competition.
PRIZE FUND, for winner and runner-up (Plate included):
Open £1060
Major £675
Minor £675
This is generous. To cover these prizes alone they'd need an awful lot more entries than there have been in the recent past. (Last year's total entry, for the five competitions there were then, was 61 if we've counted right.)

HANDICAP RAPIDPLAY
Entry Fee £20
Prize Fund £440 minimum
The Handicap Rapidplay has also changed. Instead of a KO it will be organised in regional one-day Swisses, followed by a Final Congress at a central venue. This sounds interesting, and it is to be hoped that entries will be sufficient to make it work sensibly. Last year's 11 would have just about provided two regional APAs and a Final Congress with two teams in.
     Dates: Zonals Sunday 2nd December 2001; Finals Sunday 7th April 2002. A Union can run its own Zone if it gets 12 entries, and we daresay the date would be flexible. (For 12 entries it also gets two qualifiers for the Finals.)
     The handicap rules are new, of course. Unfortunately they seem ill thought out. This is in contrast to the handicap section of the BCF Counties Rapidplay 30.9.01, whose rules are impeccable.
     It would be unfair to say that without explaining what we meant. So we've put some Thoughts on Handicaps in the Comment page. We couldn't resist it anyway.

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