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updated 25.8.09
CLUB AND COUNTY NEWS
LONDON RAPIDPLAY LEAGUE
A new league, played at Golden Lane from June to August 2009. Twelve teams (of four, and each match was double-round).
1 Hendon 10/11 (GP 60½/88); 2 Kings Head 2 9½ (53½); 3 Athenaeum 8½ (57½); 4 Cavendish 6 (51½); 5 Mushrooms 6 (48½); 6 Kings Head 1 5½ (44); 7 Albany 5½ (43); 8 Battersea 4 (34); 9 Hackney 3½ (38½); 10 Dulwich 3½ (35); 11-12 Hammersmith, Metropolitan 2 (29)
Results Adam Raoof. See http://citychess.blogspot.com/
SUSSEX CCA RESULTS 2008-9
McArthur Cup Final Brighton 4 2 Hastings & St Leonards
County Individual Championship Final: Luke Rutherford beat Brian Denman
East Sussex Queen Adrian Pickersgill
West Sussex Queen no entries
Veterans Championship 1 Geoffrey James; 2 Jerry Anstead
See also the Mid Sussex League website. The South West Sussex League is not currently operating.
KENT LEAGUES: FINALS DAY at Dartford 10th May 2009
County Cup Charlton I 4 2 Lewisham I
Lewis Cup (mean grade <= 160) Maidstone II 3½ 2½ Rainham I
Stevenson Cup <= 140 Dartford II 3½ 2½ Folkestone I
En Passant Cup < = 120 Folkestone II 3 2½ Chislehurst II (Chislehurst incurred ½ point overgrading penalty)
Harvey Cup <= Maidstone V 3½ 2½ Petts Woos II
Tom Fuller Cup < = 80 Snodland III 2½ 1½ Charlton III
Intro Cup < = 60 Weald of Kent III* 2 2 Hastings & St Leonards III
LESTER MILLIN
With sadness, we have to report that Lester Millin died on the evening of Thursday 27 November 2008 at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. He was 71. He had been ill for some time with cancer, and in the last couple of weeks his condition deteriorated rapidly.
Lester was the Secretary, and a mainstay, of the Cowley Chess Club in Oxford for nearly thirty years. However, his major interest was in the coaching and encouragement of young players. It is probably his encyclopaedic knowledge of end-games and puzzles (win-a-sweetie etc.) which gave an early advantage to so many of the Oxfordshire Juniors who have made their mark on the Chess scene over the years. He encouraged the youngsters to play against adults regularly in the local League and was always willing to take them to tournaments and go through their games. This extended to helping out the National Junior Squad in escorting groups to the Guernsey, Jersey and Isle of Man tournaments. For many years he helped Peter Purland and Alec Webster with the Young Masters Tournament at Millfield, where his quiet helpfulness and organized approach made the event run that much more smoothly. As a retired Maths teacher, he developed a worksheet scheme for combining chess tuition and basic Maths skills (including coordinates, symmetry, magic square puzzles and Knight’s tours) and used it at Chess clubs in local schools. Such material of course soon became widely available over the Internet, so his hardcopy was never properly published, but remains to us as a useful memorial of his training methods.
On top of this Lester represented Oxfordshire for many years on the SCCU Executive Committee, and in 2001 he was awarded the title of SCCU Honorary Life Vice-President, an honour he shared with only two others.
Lester had carefully been passing on his Chess duties over the last couple of years. He was to be seen in January collecting in the last minute entries at the Kidlington Congress, where he had formerly been a controller, and in May he was collecting in the results at our UK Chess Challenge Megafinal, of which he was a great supporter. He had only just this summer given up the captaincy of one of the Cowley League teams and the position of Club Secretary.
His brother Geoffrey and sister-in-law Pauline were pleased and touched by the number of Chess friends who were visiting him over the last couple of months (although his interests in local affairs, politics, education, sports and puzzling were probably just as broad). We will miss hearing Lester’s strong views on local issues and experiencing his helpful, willing and generous nature. He will be remembered by many with much affection, gratitude, and respect.
Gerard O'Reilly, Priscilla Morris 29/30 November 2008
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