Not the banner headline that I had hoped for! Macc C started the season with Man with Hat and Marc with a rendition of `the B6 appreciation society` joined by Tony with a confident King’s Gambit. Boards 4 & 5 were much quieter. Marc belted the moves out before accepting Steve K’s draw offer and fleeing into the night like a vampire with only half of his opponent’s blood. Board 2 was pivotal with my former sparring partner Tony enjoying a slice of good fortune. My eyes and ears on the ground suggested that Tony also had a slice of vanilla cake plus a lemon bun from Brassingtons with a cherry on top! When the battle stopped and the smoked cleared there was thunder from the throne and Steve Mac realised that he had thrown away too much material. Tom looked to be equal before dropping a piece and despite throwing his pawns forward to get some counterplay time pressure meant that the draw eluded him and Dave H was able to steer the ship home. 1½ : 1½ and I am making a pigs ear of my game (again). Man with Hat is getting badly beaten by Nick an opponent of similar strength who meted out a beating to MWH last March. When and where will this stop?! It’s a good job that John A came to the rescue on Board 5 using his time advantage to great effect to wear down his opponent Cath S.
Well played to East Cheshire, outgraded by a mean average of just over 10 points and perhaps unlucky not to go away with more than the draw. Mrs Hat would like to point out that one of the Hat Family has opened her account recently and that’s really not helpful
Last week saw the Autumn Quickplay tournament contested. This was well organised by Tony Soames.(Report below)
“ The turnout for the Autumn event was down on last year; only 14 players made it out into the balmy evening. Maybe the new handicap system was seen as too stringent for some, but it worked.
Two tied for first prize with 110 Marc sharing the honours with 156 John-Paul.
Two also tied for third spot with the stalwart Ant and newcomer James sharing the rest of the cash.
There were a number of quick mates but also some long intricate endings that ought to help those involved in the forthcoming season.
As there were so few people the food on offer was too much for even the trenchermen present. Unfortunately this will be binned, as the landlady informed me her dogs are already too fat.”
Thanks to Tony for organising this and thanks to everyone who took part.
The club’s standard time limit competitions started in September 2017 and finished in May 2018.
In the club championship (CC) there were 42 games in the preliminary all-play-all leagues: 37 were wins, four were draws plus one win by default. There were four wins in the semifinals. The final had one win and one draw.
In the Pomeroy cup (PC) there were 20 games scheduled for the preliminary all-play-all leagues: 17 were wins and there was one draw. Two games were not played because playing them would not have affected the semifinal qualifiers. There were four wins in the semifinals. The final had two draws. Two wins in the rapid play games followed to produce the PC winner.
To avoid bias, players were allocated to the preliminary leagues randomly but this did result in some imbalance between the pairs of groups. The average grades (using January 2018 grades) were: CC group A 119, CC group B 145, PC group A 99, PC group B 116.
Before the competitions started, extensive consultations were made about how they should be organised. Consequently, during the season, most were generally happy with the way things were run but there were some adverse comments. The main one of these was that there were too many games.
Club members were allowed to enter both the CC and the PC and for those who chose to do so this added to the ‘workload’. Well done to Phil (Colville) and Denzil who completed 16 and 15 standard time limit games and four and two rapid play games respectively.
So many games were tiring for many competitors and fitting club games in on available club nights caused problems. Also team captains occasionally found that would-be team members were unavailable because of the internal club competitions. Phil Colville suggested that in future players should not be allowed to enter both CC and PC.
Whoever organises next season’s competitions might bear the players' comments in mind.
In conclusion thanks to all the club members who took part in the club’s competitions, helping me by playing their games as soon as they could and sending in their results promptly.