CLUB AND COUNTY

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updated 5.9.02
CLUB AND COUNTY NEWS

SUSSEX RESULTS 2001-2
McArthur Cup Semi-Finals Hastings 3½ 2½ Brighton; The Holt 4½ 1½ Chichester Regnum. Final Hastings 3½ 2½ The Holt
Individual Championships:
Sussex Championship John Dodgson and Feliks Kwiatkowski, jointly
Veterans Julian Simpole
East Sussex Queen Gino Scamardella
West Sussex Queen Bill Partridge
Schools Championships:
Wilson Cup (U18) Dorothy Stringer HS Brighton
Sadd Cup (U16) Dorothy Stringer
Butler Cup (U14) Not known. "Either Downlands or Holy Cross."
Gammans-Renwick Cup (U16 Girls) Holy Cross Uckfield
Primary Div 1 Holy Cross CE Primary Uckfield (can this be the same Foly Cross that won the U16 Girls?); Div 2 St Margarets CE Ditchling; Div 3 St Margarets First and Middle School Ifield
Sussex Jamboree at Dorothy Stringer HS 13.7.02 (10 teams of 6) 1 Brighton 6/6; 2 Eastbourne 4...
South-West Sussex League (6 teams) 1 Emsworth Dredgers 11/18 (GP 25); 2 Emsworth Eelers (same club, we believe) 11 (23)...
We omit the Mid-Sussex League and loads of Junior results because you should be able to find them on other sites. ("When will the SCCA have its own website?" - CPR)
Source: Sussex Chess 2002

DAVE METCALFE
It is our sad duty to report that Dave Metcalfe of Oxfordshire died on Monday 26th August aged 57. He had been suffering from a malignant brain tumour.
     Lester Millin writes:
Dave became Oxfordshire First Team Captain in the late eighties. He did not even have a grade at the time. He did not play organised chess in the Oxford League because he worked nights, and his chess was limited to playing Blitz during tea breaks in the Cowley Works. But the captaincy became vacant and, as the sole volunteer, Dave was appointed. Because of his efforts, we now run 4 teams: Open, Chiltern Under 170 and Under 125; Under 14/90. We won the Minor Counties because Dave could persuade strong players to turn out who before he became Captain were never available. He ran the First Team until 1994 and then, after a year as County Secretary, took over the U125 team in the Chiltern League. He was Chiltern Captain until 2001. He also found time, from 1992 to 1995, to be SCCU Fixtures Secretary.
     Dave was elected Oxfordshire President at the May 2002 half yearly County Meeting. He was such an excellent organiser, captain and friend, his appointment was unanimous. It is a shame that he was President for so short a time.
     Dave's funeral is at the Oxford Crematorium on Monday 2nd September (11.15 am).

HASTINGS & ST LEONARDS CC
Club Championship 2001-2 (7-player APA): 1 F Rayner 5/6; 2-3 B Cafferty, P Donovan 3½; 4 N Twitchell 3...
Results Paul Buswell

NORTH CIRCULAR CHESS LEAGUE 2001-2
A Division (6 teams) Barnet I 15/20...
B Division (6 teams) Barking III 13/20...
C Division (6 teams) Edmonton III 17/20...
Lawrance Cup Open KO: Imperial Knights
Finchley Cup (U150 KO) Edmonton
Kirby (Individual KO) Caius Turner
Results Gary Cook

A SURREY LEAK
6.6.02
A document has come into our hands which we think is not unconnected with recent Surrey disagreements about time controls. It is written in the first person, but we couldn't say who its author was. It was present and evident, though perhaps not formally so, at the Surrey CCA SGM 29.5.02. It reads:
Possible proposals for the August Council meeting of the SCCA
In the light of all the recent arguments that have been had and proposals that have been made, I thought I would make a few suggestions as to rules that will be necessary for the SCCA clubs to move forward peacefully in the coming years. I have done this tonight so that consideration can be given to passing them either at the August Council meeting or the Annual General Meeting in September:
     (1) Any club providing tea and coffee for their opponents shall ensure that china cups and saucers be made available to any player who requests them.
     The reason for this rule is twofold. Firstly, some players genuinely cannot cope with mugs, or far worse than that, beakers; and secondly, if the use of a mug were to go wrong in the middle of a game and as a result tea or coffee was spilt, in the absence of a saucer, there would be great danger of the board being flooded. This, in turn, could lead to arguments about whether or not pieces have been touched by a player's refreshment and disputes would then be expected as to whether or not they should have to move the first piece that the liquid came into contact with. Obviously, the imposing of this rule would depend heavily on who knocked the mug or beaker over in the first place.
     (2) All types of chess clocks must be provided, with all time controls on offer. There has been offence caused by some clubs in that they have been either offering digital clocks for matches and / or setting them initially for quickplay mode. Some players from these clubs are equally offended when they turn up at other venues and find not only manual clocks forced upon them, but manual clocks set for adjudication! What this proposal seeks to do is balance things fairly for everyone.
     We wish to ensure that 2 manual clocks be on each board at the start of play, one set for 1¼ hours to allow for adjournment or adjudication and another set for an hour for the quickplay finish time control (with the flags balanced as delicately as possible on top of the big hand on both clocks) as well as 3 digital clocks set correctly for each type of end game time control. These clocks should all be placed equi-distance from the board to ensure that no one type of clock or end game is suggested by the positioning of these clocks. It would also ensure that no club would then be forcing either outdated or too modern equipment and that they could not then be accused of trying to force one type of end game on their unsuspecting and obviously gullible opponent. The county would then need to devise a system that is fair to all parties to choose which clock to use and it will be up to the home player to remove the 4 un-needed clocks before the start of play.
     (3) Independent Referees shall be present at all Surrey league matches. For every team entered by a club in the Surrey Divisions, that club shall also provide a nominated referee that shall be present to deal with disputes at allocated matches between other clubs. They shall be asked to referee 9 matches per season at different venues and they cannot be involving their own team. Care must be given when allocating matches not to give someone a match that could be relevant to their own club's chances, to ensure that there are no dodgy decisions given in favour of the opposing team in respect of touching pieces, etc. Referees would have to be at the venue by 7-15pm and shall supervise the setting up of the boards and clocks to ensure that there is no foul play by the home team. All clocks should be tested for accuracy. Any digital clocks found to be too accurate shall be taken out of service straight away as this could cause offence to players who think manual clocks are more accurate or those who feel that players are less likely to agree gentlemanly draws in the later stages of matches because of the accuracy of these clocks.
     (4) All Surrey League long play matches that are agreed for quickplay finish shall play a time control of 1 hour and 15 minutes to start the game plus 30 seconds added per move. Those using manual clocks shall be expected to update their clocks after each move.
     (5) The SCCA be disbanded with immediate effect. Our constitution states that the Secretary shall send notice of meetings. As the Secretary has to be elected by a General Meeting (according to the wording of our constitution) and there is no Secretary to call a General meeting for a Secretary to be elected at, no further General Meetings can be called. This being the case, the Association can no longer function legally, which means that it should close itself straight away, if the implications of the law haven't already done that. However, this established, we should look on the positive side, as this should mean that chess clubs will be able to co-exist much more easily as there will be no meetings to attend and get wound up with each other at.

Your Webmaster is constrained to add that the SCCA, whether legally or not, appointed a Secretary at the meeting. His details are in the Notices page.

KENT FINALS DAY at Sevenoaks, 19th May 2002
County Cup Maidstone I 4 2 Lewisham I
Lewis Cup (mean grade not over 160) Thanet I 3½ 2½ Beckenham & Bromley II
Stevenson Cup (not over 140) Beckenham & Bromley III 3½ 2½ Petts Wood & Orpington III
En Passant Cup (not over 120) Tunbridge Wells III* 3 3 Sidcup II
Harvey Cup (not over 100) Sidcup III* 3 3 Medway II
Tom Fuller Cup (not over 80) Petts Wood & Orpington V 3 1 Beckenham & Bromley VI
Intro Cup (not over 60) has no Final. It was won by Sidcup ?VI.

ESSEX RESULTS 2001-2
update 21.5.02
ESSEX LEAGUE
Division I (9 teams) 1 Powdermill...
Division II (10 teams) 1 Maldon 14/18; second place undecided (Waltham Forest can pip Wanstead II by winning their last match)
Division III (7 teams) 1 Barking II 19/24; 2 Upminster III 14
NORTH ESSEX LEAGUE
Division I (10 teams) 1 Chelmsford A 16/18 (GP 33); 2 Writtle A 16 (30½); 3 Maldon A 15...
Division II (10 teams) 1-2 Clacton A, Billericay A 13/18 (22½); 3 Kelvedon & Feering 13 (22). Clacton and Billericay drew with each other so "presumably a play-off will be needed".
Division III (10 teams) 1 Chelmsford D 13/18 (23); 2 Baddow B 13 (22½); 3 Clacton B 11 (20); 4 Braintree C 11 (19½) ...
KO Cup Final Chelmsford A 2 2 *Colchester A; Plate Final Maldon A 2½ 1½ Kelvedon & Feering A
SOUTHEND & DISTRICT LEAGUE
Division I (6 teams) 1 Basildon I 17/20...
Division II (6 teams) 1 Hadleigh I 18/20...
Division III (not sure how many teams) 1 Rayleigh II 14/16...
Senior Individual Champion Michael Bridger
Team Lightning Final Basildon 3 0 Wickford. We think this is the only competition we've ever heard of which is played over 3 boards. No it isn't, Howard Grist reminds of the Womens Olympiad.
Source: Chessex, with clarifications and updates from John Philpott, David Millward, Howard Grist and Ivor (BN) Smith

KENT SUMMER QUICKPLAY 2001
was won 18th February 2002 by Maidstone who beat Tunbridge Wells 9½-6½ in the Final. Tunbridge Wells are looking for a relevant statute of limitations.

AJ (JOHN) SMITH 1942-2001
Kent players will be sad to learn of the death of former Medway player AJ (John) Smith, at the age of 59. John was one of Medway's leading players for almost 30 years, from the early 1960s, maintaining a 180-level grade throughout most of this time. He held down board 1 for Medway in the County Cup for a good part of this period, and won many fine games for the club. He was immensely helpful to me personally when I joined the club as a junior in 1973, and played a crucial role in my development as a player. As well as his over-the-board strength, John was a particularly fine and dedicated analyst, and a formidable correspondence player. In recent years, poor health had resulted in his giving up competitive chess and he had unfortunately lost touch with most of his old friends. He was found dead in his flat in Chatham in early December, having apparently been dead for some time.
Steve Giddins

HERTS CA CENTENARY SIMUL and Dinner 10th November 2001
John Denton writes:
The Herts Chess Association rounded off their Centenary celebrations with an afternoon simultaneous display by Grandmaster Chris Ward. In the evening, dinner was followed by an amusing talk from Chris, based on his experiences as a player and coach.
     Our visitor had a rather fraught start to the day, as he was held up for two hours by an accident on the M25. Two of the leading Herts players filled the gap by giving 'warm-up' simuls for the other players, and it certainly seemed to get everyone into the right frame of mind! Chris lost three games, and conceded thirteen draws, finishing with a score of plus nine. Best game by a Herts player came from county captain Kevin Clark, with a beautifully played attack which led to a won rook ending. The other winners were Herts president John Denton and event organiser Alan Brewis.
     In addition to our visiting Grandmaster, we welcomed to the dinner both the Leader and the Chairman of Hertfordshire County Council, in recognition of their support for our Centenary year. County Councillor Keith Gray expressed a strong desire to help the HCA promote junior chess, and further discussions will take place soon to move this initiative forward.
     Simultaneous Results (scores from Herts players' point of view):

  1  L D'Costa 200
  2  M Walker 199
  3  K Clark 179
  4  D Brennan 176
  5  J Denton 175
  6  N Belinfante 118
  7  P Gregory 172
  8  A Burrows 169
  9  T Thurstan 169
10  J Fraser-Mitchell 167
11  C Majer 165
12  G Davies 151
13  B Judkins 137
14  M Thomas 132

½
½
1
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15  T Douse 117
16  R Claret 113
17  M Topham 112
18  R Harrison 107
19  J Leake 108
20  S Morris 106
21  R Whitten 99
22  Q Latif 97
23  A Brewis 89
24  S Cage 88
25  P Baker 80
26  D Marshall 72
27  G Williams 68
28  D Craft -

½
0
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9½/28

42nd ANNUAL CAPES TROPHY at Edmonton, 21st September 2001
Lightning APA, 12 teams of four
1 Imperial Knights 34½/44; 2 Powdermill 31½; 3 Hoddesdon 30; 4 Wanstead A 27; 5-6 Beckton, Wood Green 25½; 7 Edmonton A 23; 8 Chingford 20½; 9 Muswell Hill 14; 10-11 Waltham Forest, Wanstead B 12½; 12 Edmonton B 8½
Highest individual scorer: Gary Cook (Beckton) 10½/11
The tournament was organised, for the 42nd time we believe(!), by the John Capes who donated the Trophy. For a history of the event, see the North Circular League Website at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~cernunos/nccl/history/capes_trophy.htm
Results John Philpott and Gary Cook, independently. These are John's figures; Gary's differ slightly in two places (not at the top end). Your Webmaster knows from experience the difficulty of picking up accurate results at the end of a hectic event.