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.