Minutes of Macclesfield Chess Club AGM 2019

Held At The Queens Hotel : 19:40

Present: A. Brough, G. Laurence, M. Renshaw, R. Shaw, A. Soames, D. Lobo,, A. Green,,M. Olssen P. Cattermole, P. Colville, R. Gray, A. Lane, J-P Taylor

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Matters Arising: The name of A. Lane has been added to the list of those attending the 2018 AGM.

The secretary pointed out that the safeguarding document had still not been added to the website.

Officer’s Reports:

Stockport A Capt, Rob Shaw: The A team finished third with 11 points from 10 games. Rob apologised for the mix-up with the Charnley Cup team which resulted in a first round loss on board count. Rob was pleased to note the arrival of James Heppell who played very well and also Martin Olssen joining towards the season end. He thanked all players for their support.

Stockport B Capt, John-Paul Taylor: The team finished next to bottom with 5 points including a good win against Holmes Chapel. He noted Joachim’s good results (3 wins, 3 draws ,2 losses) and also thanked other regular players.

Stockport C Team Capt, Mick Renshaw: The C team failed to win promotion back to Division 2 after finishing 2nd and losing only the one match. We were thwarted by Worsley who were new to the league and who were able to consistently field strong teams. Congratulations to them. Thanks to all those who participated and a big thank you to all those who helped with the transport. A special mention to John Astley for scoring a whopping 11/13 across the divisions – 84.62 %

Stockport Limit League Team Capt, Richard Murphy: No report submitted. The team finished third with 13 points from 12 games.

Stoke League Capt, Phil Cattermole: The team finished 2nd with 14 points from 10 games, a single point behind Crewe who had benefited from a board default in their penultimate match. Phil thanked all the players and emphasised that anyone keen to play in this league should let him know.

Secretary, Geoff Laurence: Geoff missed the Stockport League AGM but still managed to get some motions passed! He noted that he continues as fixtures’ secretary. Apparently a motion was passed to play with increments but time controls are changed to mirror Manchester League times. With a Stockport team dropping out this year, it is currently unclear whether our C team will be in div3 or div 2. Geoff thanked Phil Cattermole who very kindly stood in to represent the club. Both Geoff and Phil attended the North Staffs league AGM. This continues to be a long drawn out (and at times tedious) occasion. Some grade restriction rules were relaxed for the coming season. Geoff expressed his disappointment and annoyance that Steve Emmerton had been re-elected in a key role and immediately after the meeting resigned leaving the league in a difficult position.

Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Roy Gray: Roy presented the accounts which were error-free this time! The club recorded a slight increase in the balance over the season.

Income was £319 from memberships. £5 from sales and £4 from a donation.

Expenditure was £100 to pub charity (we currently pay no room rent), £150.44 on engraving, new clock, scoresheets and food at first rapidplay, £44 on league fees.

Overall the surplus of £33.56 means the new bank balance is £846.94

Website Manager, Denzil Lobo:

The website is now a secure site – a HTTPS site. The means we and our host are less likely to

be hacked and also the website should not go down due to a virus attack. This has meant that

I cannot import webpages from unsecure sites like the Stockport League site so some small

changes have had to be made

Website is running fine. The host is constantly upgrading apps so occasionally old apps stop

working but this is a minor problem. Please let me know if there are any small issues as I do

not visit every page so I won’t know if something is not working.

I have moved some pages around to simplify the web site. The website has a site map in the

footer on every page so everyone can see where pages are (if you cannot find the page you

are looking for).

Captains need to ensure results are put on the website –be proactive

General:Blog – The is the most interesting part of the website .Ask Captains to write some

blogs about their matches

Chess Clocks: We have had digital clocks for some years or more now. It is embarrassing that

so many members do not know how to set them. I have forgotten as many others have, so

refresh your memories!

Club Championship and Pomeroy Cup, Dave Risley: In Dave’s absence it was reported that James Heppell won the club championship by winning 2 rapidplay tie-breaks. Francis Moan won the Pomeroy Cup by beating Ant Brough 1.5-0.5 in the final.

Pollard Cup: Tony Soames: As usual we had three competitions. I was a little disappointed with the turnout for the first; perhaps the weather was too balmy or the competition was too soon. Nevertheless the new handicap worked well and Marc shared first place with John-Paul. Too much food was on offer and it was decided to drop this feature.

The turnout of fourteen in December was identical to that in September, but as this event has had an even lower turnout on some occasions I looked upon this as a success. The handicap did not hold back Robert, from whom only Geoff was able to extract a draw. After two events, however, it was Phil Colville who had a hand on the trophy.

The final event drew in twenty-one players, perhaps a record, but also notable for the strength in depth. The numbers meant that some analogue clocks had to be used and these often proved inadequate. A tight contest with Robert, Kieran, James and Martin leading the pack, resulted but they had to keep in check those out to cause upsets. Kieran and Martin took first place. Despite this relative setback Robert retained the Pollard Cup.

Presentation of Trophies

Club Championship – James Heppell, Pomeroy Cup – Francis Moan, Pollard Trophy – Rob Shaw,

Most Improved Player – Richard Murphy.

No of Teams and Election of Captains

The secretary had entered teams into both leagues (and cups) as the deadlines for doing so are now both before the start of our season. Rob Shaw, John-Paul Taylor, Richard Murphy and Phil Cattermole were re-elected but no-one came forward to fill the role of 3rd team captain. It will be a great shame if this team has to be dropped. The Secretary will fill role for the first match if necessary.

Election Of Chaiman, Secretary, Treasurer and Membership Secretary, Website Manager, Club Championship Organiser, and Pollard Trophy Organiser:

Anthony Brough (who indicated this would be his final season in the role), Geoff Laurence, Roy Gray, Denzil Lobo, and Tony Soames were re-elected. Phil Colville agreed to take on the role of Club Championship organiser.

Club Competitions

Phil said he didn’t intend to make any sweeping changes to the format of the club championship and commented on the good work done by Dave Risley – a view that was echoed across the room. Tony indicated that the rapidplays would be held broadly in line with the now established routine.

Possible Macclesfield Congress (Phil Colville) Phil was interested in finding out whether such an idea would have any support. Tony Soames, who along with Peter Caulkett and Robert Furness organised a 1980 (approx) congress was able to comment on the difficulties and hard work needed. Phil Cattermole commented on his experience of playing the mini-congress at Newcastle and thought the small scale was a good place to start. As Crewe have recently started up running congresses, contact with them would certainly be beneficial.

Subscriptions

These remain at £15 and £8

Meeting Closed at 8;47pm