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1 Attendance
and apologies
Present
were: A. Soames (Macclesfield, President), I. Bates (Holmes Chapel,
Vice-President), D. Lobo (Macclesfield, Fixtures Sec.), P. Cattermole
(Macclesfield, Treasurer), D. Taylor (East Cheshire, Secretary), M.Tunstall
(Stockport, Grading Officer), R. Warhurst (Wilmslow, Auditor), J. Barlow (Marple),
A. Beresford (Chorlton), P. Cawley (Denton), T. Cowling (Marple), A. Doust (Marple),
A. Flynn (Wilmslow), M. Hancock (Holmes Chapel), S. Hewitt (East Cheshire), K.
Hodgson (Bramhall), D. and S. Holt (Denton), K. Holton (East Cheshire), D.
Hughes (Altrincham), D. Kierman (Chorlton), G. Laurence (Macclesfield), S.
Murray (Stockport), D. Pardoe (Stockport), C. Pinel (High Peak), P. Ramsey (East
Cheshire), V. Rushworth (Stockport), G. Smith (Bramhall), D. Toole (Denton) and
I. Vaughan (East Cheshire). Apologies for absence were received from M. Taylor
(Stockport) and A. Walker (East Cheshire).
2 Minutes of
the 2009 AGM
These
were accepted by the meeting with one correction and signed by the President.
3 Matters
arising
There
were no matters arising.
4 Officers'
reports
4.1
The President
(A. Soames) said that he had been in contact with the Dr J Barber of the
Manchester League regarding the setting of dates for fixtures, and had received
assurances that (i) the Manchester League would be more prompt in setting its
fixture dates in future and (ii) that it would try to allow any pre-set
Stockport fixture dates to stand. This particularly affected clubs (Altrincham,
Chorlton, Denton Stockport & Urmston) who played in both leagues. He went on to
appeal for calmness and goodwill between individuals and clubs, particularly in
the use of email to resolve any differences of opinion. He confirmed that he was
standing down after several years as President, and was warmly thanked and
applauded by the meeting.
4.2 The Secretary (D. Taylor) said that his year as Secretary had been uneventful. In contrast to the previous season, there had been no contact from the English Chess Federation (ECF), and so the League’s proxy votes had not been exercised. He asked that any League member who might be interested in attending ECFCouncil deliberations would contact him.
He reported on highly commendable activities by individual clubs in the League, including Denton (Simultaneous Display by Nigel Short attended by ca. 30 players), East Cheshire (Simultaneous Display by Keith Arkell, attended by 14 players), and promotional activities such as new blogs and websites (Bramhall, Chorlton, East Cheshire).
4.3 The Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager (D.Lobo) reported that the move of the League’s website from Geocities to 110.com had proved successful with almost 7000 hits this season. Registered players listed on the website would be deemed by the Fixtures Secretary to be the official list for grading and playing order, unless a club informed the Fixtures Secretary prior to any match played using adjusted grades. He asked that an updated list of registered players should be provided by all clubs at the Fixtures Meeting, annually. He reminded clubs that both captains should send results promptly to the Fixtures Secretary after each match. There had been only three defaulted matches, fewer than in the previous year, and only minor disruption had occurred resulting from the bad winter weather.
He reported that Denton had won the Charnley Cup, Holmes Chapel had won Division 1 (runners-up: Stockport Blues), Chorlton had won Division 2 (runners-up: Marple A), and Altrincham had won Division 3 (runners-up: Wilmslow A). Eligible for relegation from Division I were: Denton and East Cheshire A. Eligible for relegation from Division 2 were: Bramhall and East Cheshire B. Best performance had been achieved by Karl Lockett (100% from 6 games), closely rivalled by Dennis Owen (95.5% from 11 games).
4.4 The Grading Officer (M. Tunstall) reported only the usual minor problems with gradings for the current season. He reminded clubs that if a new player has played for another club previously, only the ECF registry number is required (old grades not to be used) but if a new player has no previous ECF registration, then full name (inc. middle initials), sex and d.o.b. are needed. He appealed to clubs to use the ECF online database (copy and paste club list from the ECF database into Excel) when compiling their registration list for the Fixtures Meeting annually, and offered to provide such a club list if asked.
4.5 The Treasurer (P. Cattermole) presented accounts for 2009-2010, which had now been audited. There was a surplus of income over expenditure of £251.68, largely because ECF registration fees had been less than the previous years (fewer teams). All clubs had paid their fees promptly: there has been an income of £909.50 (previous year: £1,078.96) almost entirely from subscriptions. Expenditure had been £657.82 (previous year: £1,042.83), of which £627.82 was for ECF game fees. Current assets were £1,148.16 (previous year: £896.48). The accounts were accepted by the meeting.
5 Team Fees
The Treasurer recommended that team fees should remain unchanged at £48 (£45 if paid before Oct 31st 2010). The ECF grading fee would increase from 50p to 54p per player per match, but this increase would be covered by the increased cash balance. This was accepted by the meeting, nem con.
6 Presentation of trophies
The awards were made as follows.
Division 1
Champions:
Homes Chapel. The Cup was presented.
Division 2 Champions: Chorlton. The Cup was unavailable for
presentation(ACTION: Denton to pass cup to Chorlton a.s.a.p.)
Division 3 Champions: Altrincham & Hale. The Cup was presented.
Charnley Cup Winners: Denton. The Cup was presented.
Vic Knox Trophy: Karl Lockett (Altrincham & Hale; 100% from 6
games): the Cup was presented to an Altrincham representative in Karl’s absence.
Eric Harrison Trophy: James Wei (Bramhall, currently ECF177, 66.7%
from 12 games). The Cup was not available for presentation (ACTION:
Altrincham to locate and bring to Fixtures Meeting!), which was deferred
to the Fixtures Meeting.
7 League Handbook
After discussion of the role and merits of the Handbook, not produced last season, it was decided (17 for, 3 against) to resume production of a League Handbook in a similar format to previous seasons, although suggestions for change, including its replacement by an online pdf file or omission of League constitution and rules, were aired at the meeting.
8 Election of
officers
The
following officers were elected without opposition
President: Robin WARHURST (Wilmslow).
Vice President: Stuart MURRAY (Stockport).
Treasurer: Phil Cattermole (Marple) to continue in office.
Secretary: David Taylor (East Cheshire), to continue in office (retiring in 2011).
Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager: Dennis OWEN (Chorlton) was elected in his absence, after the retiring President indicated that Dennis had expressed a keen interest in the post.
Auditor: Ian VAUGHAN (East Cheshire).
Deputy Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager: Mike Tunstall (Stockport) to continue.
Handbook Editor: Andrew WALKER (East Cheshire) was elected in his absence, after the League Secretary confirmed Andrew’s willingness offer to accept this appointment.
Grading Officer: Mike TUNSTALL (Stockport) to continue.
Disputes Panel:
five members (two Sub-Committee Members & three Deputies, in addition to the
Fixtures Secretary) were re-elected by the meeting: I. Bates (Holmes Chapel),
A. Doust (Marple), D. Holt (Denton), T. John (Bramhall), and M. Taylor
(Stockport).
7 Changes to League Rules
Those affecting
the constitution
A
proposal (S. Murray, D. Holt) to change Rule 11 to read: “Any item for the
Agenda of a meeting must be submitted in writing or by email, by either a Club
Secretary or Officer of the League, to the League Secretary not less than 21
days before the meeting. The League Secretary shall send to all officers and
club secretaries, not less than 14 days before the meeting, the agenda together
with a notice of the meeting giving its date, time and location.” was
adopted by 14 to 7, the minimum requirement of a two thirds majority.
A proposal (D.Pardoe) to change Rule 4a to read “The officers shall be elected annually at the Annual General Meeting (AGM). A steady turnover of officials is desirable but there shall be no maximum consecutive tenure in any single office.” was not seconded.
Those not affecting the constitution
A proposal ( D. Pardoe, D. Kierman) to replace the Fide Rule 12.3 regarding electronic devices in matches by: “A warning shall be given to any player whose mobile phone rings during a match. If this should happen a second time for the same player, then the game being played by that player will be recorded automatically as lost.” was carried by 15 votes to 4.
A proposal ( D.Pardoe, I. Vaughan) to require estimated grades to be revised in January annually was defeated by a large majority.
A proposal (D. Pardoe) to amend Rule 21 to read: “The playing season extends from the Annual Fixtures Meeting to the 30th April, and all matches shall be arranged to be played and completed on or before 30th April. No team should schedule more than 3 league matches in the final five weeks of the season.” and an amendment (D. Lobo, A. Soames) that the sentence in Rule 21 beginning “No team …” should be replaced by “Team captains should leave the last three weeks in April free when agreeing fixture dates at the start of the season.” affecting the setting of fixture dates in April were both defeated by a large majority, although the meeting recognized that some clear dates are necessary in April for postponed matches or late matches such as the Charnley Final.
A proposal (D. Pardoe) to require clubs to replace analogue clocks by digital equivalents was not seconded.
A proposal (D.Pardoe, D. Kierman) to increase the number of clubs in Division 1 to 8 and to only play one match against each other team (in Division I) was defeated by a large majority.
A proposal (A.Doust, T. Cowling) that promotion and relegation across both of the inter-divisional boundaries should be restricted in the 2010-2011 season to one team (not two as at present) was carried by 14 for to 8 against. Rule 23 is therefore amended to read: The Annual Fixtures Meeting shall assign teams to divisions. Ordinarily one team shall be relegated and one promoted at each interface between divisions, but the Executive Committee may modify this.
8 Any Other Business.
A. Flynn (Wilmslow) informed the meeting that Wilmslow’s board 3 (David Mowat) had been elected Member of Parliament.
The Secretary reminded all clubs that matches were officially intended to commence at 7.30 p.m. and that this implied that club premises should be open at least 10-15 minutes prior to this. He advised clubs to delegate the responsibility for this to a reliable club member.
The meeting
closed shortly after 9.45 p.m.
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Minutes of the 2009 Annual General Meeting
1 Attendance
and apologies
Present were: A. Soames (Macclesfield, President), I. Bates (Holmes Chapel,
Vice-President), D. Lobo (Macclesfield, Fixtures Sec.), P. Cattermole
(Macclesfield, Treasurer), D. Taylor
(East Cheshire, Secretary), A. Lowndes (Marple, Handbook Editor), A. Beresford (Chorlton),
P. Cawley (Denton), D. Cook (Denton), T. Cowling (Marple), A. Doust (Marple), M.
Furlong (Denton), K. Hodgson (Bramhall),
D. and S. Holt (Denton), D. Hughes (Altrincham), T. John (Bramhall), D. Kierman
(Chorlton), R. Lancashire (Denton), M. Taylor (Stockport), and D. Toole
(Denton). Apologies for absence were
received from C. Pinel (
2 Minutes of
the 2007 AGM
These were accepted by the meeting and signed by the President.
3 Matters
arising
There were no matters arising.
4 Officers'
reports
4.1 The
President
(A. Soames) said that his year had been uneventful due to the smooth work of the
other officers. He reminded the
meeting that Denzil Lobo had been in hospital at the start of the season, and
his place had been efficiently taken by Dave Risley, whom he thanked warmly for
his efforts during the first half of the season.
He concluded with three points of note during the past year.
(1) There had been a large number of defaulted matches.
(2)
4.2 The
Secretary
(D. Taylor) said that his first year as Secretary had been uneventful.
He apologised for his absence at the
Annual Fixtures Meeting last September, for which Carl Pinel had acted as Deputy
Secretary, and on behalf of the League wished to convey best wishes to Carl who
was unwell at the moment.
As requested at the last AGM he had contacted the English Chess Federation (ECF)
to ask about the League’s voting rights at ECF Council Meetings. As a result, he
had received papers for two such Council Meetings and had exercised votes by
proxy at one of them on the League’s behalf.
The papers for the most recent Council were available if any member
wished to consult them. The
Secretary noted that ECF planned to increase Game Fee from 48p to 50p for the
coming season, to increase their revenue by £2800.
The need for this had partly arisen from a £10K additional to budget
overspend on the British Championships.
Since the total Game Fee income to ECF per annum amounted to over £54K,
i.e., around one third of ECF’s annual total income and about 50% of their
management costs (mainly salaries), it was clear that without the Game Fee
income the ECF would cease to operate in its present form.
The Secretary concluded by reporting that he had achieved savings on our room
hire expenses by using East Cheshire’s home venue in September, and persuading
the Ladybrook Hotel to allow us to use their function room without charge on
this occasion. He hoped that members
would permit the use of different days of the week for the annual meetings, to
minimise inconvenience to clubs for which Wednesdays were clubnights.
4.3
The Treasurer (P. Cattermole) presented
accounts for 2008-2009, which had now been audited.
There was a surplus of income over expenditure of £36.13.
All clubs had paid their fees
promptly: there has been an income of £1,078.96 ( previous year: £1,043.34)
mainly from subscriptions. Expenditure
had been £1,042.83 (previous year: £981.17) , of which £874.56 were game fees to
the ECF. Current assets were £896.48
(previous year: £860.35). The accounts
were accepted by the meeting.
4.4 The
Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager (D. Lobo)
reported that
Stockport had won the Charnley Cup, Stockport Blues had won Division 1
(runners-up: Holmes Chapel), Denton had won Division 2 (runners-up: Macclesfield
Reds), and Bramhall had won Division 3 (runners-up: Macclesfield C).
Eligible for relegation from Division I were: Chorlton and Marple A.
Eligible for relegation from Division 2 were: Wilmslow A and Altrincham
A. Best performances had been
achieved by C. Lewdanski (
There had been 9 defaulted matches, a large increase over the previous year.
After discussion, it was decided that no action would be taken, other than to
urge clubs to leave time free at the end of the season when making fixtures in
September, so that postponements were possible.
The website will have to move from Geocities in the summer, and an alternative
host was being tested. An
announcement of the new website would be made in time for the start of the new
season.
Registered players on the website will be deemed by the Fixtures Secretary to be
the official list for grades and therefore playing order, unless he is informed
of changes to a club’s list prior to any matches played according to the changed
order/grade. He also asked that
clubs inform him quickly if they wish to re-grade a newly registered player, and
that captains agree all board results at the end of the match, and that both
captains submit the result independently, to ensure that no errors arise.
He finally pointed out that a new Deputy Website Manager and a new Grading
Officer were required for the coming season.
4.5 The Handbook
Editor
(A. Lowndes) said that he had issued Handbooks on the basis of 8 per team, with
occasional additional copies for clubs who seemed to need them.
The Handbook had appeared on time and was well received.
However, he would be unable to continue in his role next season.
The meeting thanked him for his efforts and decided that the Handbook had
been excellent and useful, and should be continued.
Talks about a mechanism for his succession would continue after the
meeting.
4.6 The Grading
Officer
(E. Wood) had reported no problems with gradings for the current season. He was
standing down after many years in the role, and his efforts were warmly
appreciated by all present. No nominations were received for a replacement, so a
decision was deferred to the Fixtures Meeting.
5
Presentation of trophies
The awards were as follows.
Division 1
Champions:
Division 2 Champions:
Division 3 Champions:
Bramhall.
Presentation deferred to Fixtures Meeting.
Charnley Cup Winners:
Vic Knox Trophy:
C Lewdanski (
Eric Harrison Trophy: there were two
nominations (see above). After
discussion between the President, the Secretary and the Fixtures Secretary, as
laid down by the rules, the Trophy had
been awarded to Joris Gerlagh (Altrincham; age 9) and it was presented to D.
Hughes on his behalf.
6 Election of
officers
The following officers were elected without opposition
President:
A. Soames (Macclesfield) to continue in office.
Vice President:
Ian Bates (Holmes Chapel) to continue in office.
Treasurer:
Phil Cattermole (Marple) to continue in office.
Secretary:
David Taylor (
Fixtures
Secretary/Website Manager:
Denzil Lobo (Macclesfield) to continue in office.
Auditor:
Robin Warhurst (Wilmslow) to continue in office
Deputy Fixtures
Secretary/Website Manager:
Mike Tunstall (
Handbook Editor:
deferred to Annual Fixtures Meeting.
Grading Officer:
deferred
to Annual Fixtures Meeting.
Disputes Panel:
five members (two Sub-Committee Members & three Deputies, in addition to the
Fixtures Secretary) were elected by the meeting:
I. Bates (Holmes Chapel), A. Doust (Marple), D. Holt (
7 Team fees for 2009-2010
The Treasurer’s recommendation that fees
should remain unchanged at £48 per team, or £45/team if paid before 31 October
2009, was accepted.
8 Any Other
Business.
8.1 Rule
change. It was agreed by a
majority vote that the following new rule should be added to the list in the
Handbook, in the event that FIDE includes a rule to exclude all forms of
notation other than algebraic.
“Players may use any clear form of chess notation to record their moves during a
match.”
Following the AGM, the following revised version of
Rule 17 was drawn up by the President for ratification at the Fixtures Meeting;
it incorporates minor changes to clarify rates of play, as well as the
introduction of the rule about notation.
17(a) Rate of Play (not a quickplay finish)
The rate of play shall be at least 36 moves in the
first 75 minutes, at least 52 moves in the first 105 minutes, at least 68 moves
in the first 135 minutes, and so on. The clocks shall be set back at each time
control, i.e. after black's 36th, 52nd, 68th moves, etc. All games are to be
played to a finish, through adjournments if necessary.
17(b) Rate of Play (quickplay finish)
If both captains agree to a quickplay finish before
play starts, the provisions of Rule 39 (ii) may be adopted. If a quickplay
finish was agreed in the first match that season between the same teams, there
must be a quickplay finish in the second match.
17(c) Recording moves
Moves must be recorded; any clear notation may be
used.
8.2
Summer chess league.
Bramhall raised the issue of the potential for a Summer League to be organized
by
held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday May 14th 2008 at the Ladybrook Hotel, Fir Road, Bramhall
1 Attendance and apologies
Present were: A Soames (Macclesfield, President), D. Lobo (Macclesfield, Fixtures
Sec.), P. Cattermole (Macclesfield, Treasurer), E. Wood (Bramhall, Grading Officer),
K. Hodgson (Bramhall), C. Murfin (Bramhall), A. Beresford (Chorlton), D. Kierman
(Chorlton), D. Taylor (East Cheshire), I. Bates (Holmes Chapel), J. Turner (Holmes
Chapel), T. Cowling (Marple), S. Murray (Stockport), J. Burns (Wilmslow) and
A. Flynn (Wilmslow).
Apologies for absence were received from C. Guffogg (Secretary), A. Lowndes (Handbook Editor) and R. Warhurst (Auditor).
2 Minutes of the 2007 AGM
These were accepted by the meeting and signed by the President.
3 Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
4 Officers' reports
4.1 The President (A. Soames) said that his year had been uneventful due to
the smooth work of the other officers. He reported that Urmston had written
requesting membership of the League with the introduction of a team into Division
3. This was approved and the Secretary was instructed to write to Urmston accordingly.
4.2 Secretary's Report
There was no report from the Secretary (C. Guffogg), who had indicated his intention
to stand down.
4.3 Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer (P. Cattermole) presented accounts for 2007-2008, which had now
been audited.
There was a surplus of income over expenditure of £62.17, although it was noted
that only one payment for hire of the meeting room had occurred in the period
covered.
All clubs had paid their fees promptly: there has been an income of £1,043.34
( previous year: £897.93) mainly from subscriptions. Expenditure had been £981.17
(previous year: £1,054.84) , of which £755.32 were game fees to the ECF.
Current assets were £860.35 (previous year: £798.18).
The accounts were accepted by the meeting.
It was decided to investigate the possible use of alternative venues for the
AGM and Fixtures Meetings with a view to reducing costs.
The Secretary was instructed to consider the use of Cheadle Hulme Institute
and The Ship Inn Wilmslow as alternatives for the Fixtures Meeting in September.
4.4 Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager's Report
A vote of thanks was given to D. Lobo for all his hard work in this post for
the past year.
He reported that High Peak had won the Charnley Cup, Stockport Blues had won
Division 1 (runners-up: Homes Chapel), East Cheshire A had won Division 2 (runners-up:
Marple B), and Altrincham A had won Division 3 (runners-up: East Cheshire B).
Eligible for relegation from Division 1 were: Macclesfield A and Marple A. Eligible
for relegation from Division 2 were: Bramhall and High Peak B. There had been
22 defaulted boards, a slight increase over the previous year.
E. Wood suggested that a deputy, able to take over from the Fixtures Secretary
should the need arise, ought to be identified. D. Lobo agreed to do this.
4.5 The Handbook Editor (A Lowndes) did not present a report.
The meeting decided that the Handbook had been excellent and useful, and should
be continued.
4.6 The Grading Officer (E Wood) reported no problems with gradings
for the current season. He asked that new players' registrations should always
be accompanied by sufficient details (previous affiliation/date-of-birth) to
enable unique registrations to be made.
Discussion of a letter, received by E. Wood from the ECF Grading & Rating Manager
(Chris Majer) and attached to the Agenda, was deferred to Item 8.
5 Presentation of trophies
The awards were as follows:
Division 1 Champions - Stockport Blues. The Cup was presented.
Division 2 Champions - East Cheshire A. The Cup was presented.
Division 3 Champions - Altrincham A. Presentation deferred to Fixtures Meeting.
Charnley Cup Winners - High Peak. Presentation deferred to Fixtures Meeting.
Vic Knox Trophy - Alan Luo (Stockport; 91.7% from 6 games). Presentation to
be made at Stockport when the Cup was returned by A. Flynn.
Eric Harrison Trophy - there were two nominations. After discussion between
the President, the Secretary and the Fixtures Secretary, as laid down by the
rules, the Trophy was awarded to James Wei (Bramhall; age 14, team record in
the season 2007-8: 3.5 from 6 games). The Cup was currently held by Miss V.
John (Stockport) who should be asked to return the Cup in time for it to be
presented at the Fixtures Meeting.
6 Election of officers
The following officers were elected without opposition
President: A. Soames (Macclesfield) to continue in office.
Vice President: Ian Bates (Holmes Chapel) to continue in office.
Treasurer: Phil Cattermole (Macclesfield) to continue in office.
Secretary: David Taylor (East Cheshire), on the resignation of Chris Guffogg.
Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager: Denzil Lobo to continue in office.
Handbook Editor: Andrew Lowndes (Marple) to continue in office.
Grading Officer: Edwin Wood (Bramhall) to continue in office. Edwin indicated
that this would be his final year. He was asked to identify a successor in time
for the AGM 2009.
Auditor: Robin Warhurst (Wilmslow) not being present, this election was deferred
until the Fixtures Meeting. Disputes Panel: this should involve the selection
of five members (two Sub-Committee Members & three Deputies, in addition to
the Fixtures Secretary). Since several of those involved were not present, and
their willingness to continue in office was not known, the selection of a Disputes
Panel was deferred to the Fixtures Meeting.
Existing Disputes Subcommittee
Fixtures Secretary
Tony Doust (Marple)
David Taylor (East Cheshire)
Deputies
Richard White (Altrincham) (1st)
Chris Guffogg (Wilmslow) (2nd)
Edwin Wood (Bramhall) (3rd)
7 Team fees for 2007-2008
The Treasurer’s recommendation that fees should remain unchanged at £48
per team, or £45/team if paid before 31 October 2008, was accepted.
8 Grading Fees Reorganization
The letter which had been received from Chris Majer, the ECF Gradings and Ratings Officer, was discussed. The letter refers to options that the ECF were to consider at their April 2008 Meeting for a universal membership scheme, whereby instead of payment via clubs of a fee per game for all players to be graded, there would instead be a requirement of annual membership of the ECF for any player whose grade was to be calculated. It was decided that E. Wood should respond that the League was in favour of retaining the current arrangements for grading and match fees, and that the Secretary should write to the ECF to enquire why the League no longer received notices of meetings and agendas from the ECF, and whether we were still entitled to cast votes on motions discussed by the ECF.
9 AOB
None.
The meeting closed shortly after 8.30 p.m.
held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday May 9th 2007 at the Ladybrook Hotel, Fir Road, Bramhall
1 Attendance and apologies
Apology for absence was received from Denzil Lobo
2 Minutes of the 2006 AGM
These were accepted by the meeting.
3 Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
4 Officers' reports
4.1 The President (E Wood) said that his year had been extremely quiet due to
the smooth work of the other officers.
4.2 Secretary's Report: There was nothing exceptional to report this year.
4.3 Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer (P Cattermole) presented accounts for 2006-2007. All accounts had
now been audited.All clubs payed there fees promptly there has been an income of £897.93
mainly from subscriptions with expenditure of £1,054.84 , of which £799.65
were game fees leaving a deficit of £156.91 and current assets of £798.18.
4.4 Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager's Report
A vote of thanks was given to D.Risley for all his hard work in this post.
4.5 The Handbook Editor (A Lowndes) said that next season's handbook would be likely to cost more than the current season's.
4.6 The Grading Officer (E Wood) said the League’s results had been sent to the ECF.
5 Presentation of trophies
The awards were:
Division 1 Champions - Stockport Blues
Division 2 Champions - Macclesfield B
Division 3 Champions - Bramhall A
Charnley Cup Winners - Stockport
Vic Knox Trophy - C Jackson (Wilmslow)
Eric Harrison Trophy - no award made this year
6 Election of officers
The following officers were elected without opposition
President: Tony Soames to replace Edwin Wood (retiring)
Vice President: Ian Bates to replace Tony Soames (retiring)
Treasurer: Phil Cattermole
League Secretary: Chris Guffogg
Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager: Denzil Lobo to replace Dave Risley
(retiring)
Handbook Editor: Andrew Lowndes
Grading Officer: Edwin Wood
Auditor: Robin Warhurst
Disputes Panel
(election of five members in addition to the Fixtures Secretary who is an ex
officio member and the designation, among the panel, of the other two members of
the Disputes Subcommittee and of first, second and third deputies)
Existing Disputes Subcommittee
Fixtures Secretary
Tony Doust (Marple)
David Taylor (East Cheshire)
Deputies
Richard White (Altrincham) (1st)
Chris Guffogg (Wilmslow) (2nd)
Edwin Wood (Bramhall) (3rd)
7 Team fees for 2006/7
The Treasurer in his presentation had recommended fees per team of £45 or £42
if paid before 31 October 2007. The meeting decided by a majority vote that
there should be a modest increase and approved an alternative suggestion of £48
or £45 if paid before 31 October 2007.
8 Rule change proposals
8.1 Agreed
to tidy up and make the rules easier to read by splitting long rules and
providing brief explanatory headings to all the rules - the choice of the rules
to be split into sub-rules and the wording of the headings to be left to the
League President (changes to all Rules).
8.2 Agreed
to broaden the wording to cater for clubs not based in Greater Manchester or
Cheshire (Rule 2 change).
8.3 Agreed
to delete the offices of match captain and individual competition secretary; to
create a new post of website manager (Rule 3 change). Agreed to formalise, as a
listed officer of the League, the post of grading officer.
8.4 Agreed
to change the number of auditors from two to one (Rule 4(c) change).
8.5 Proposal failed
to tighten up the penalty for late payment of team fees by requiring that the
fees should be paid to the Treasurer before the end of September; any late
payment shall be subject to a penalty fixed by the AGM. Failure to pay before
the end of October will result in that team being expelled from that season's
competitions (Rule 7 change).
8.6 Agreed
to bring the rules up to date by formally permitting email to be used to notify
agenda items for meetings (Rules 11 and 12 change).
8.7 Agreed
to bring the rules into line with current practice by requiring the Disputes
Panel to be elected by the delegates at the AGM (Rule 15 change).
8.8 a ) Proposal withdrawn
to tidy up the wording by describing the time controls of quickplay finish (QPF)
as the usual time controls and having additional description for matches played
under adjournment rules play (ARP). (Rules 17, 20, 34 and 39 change).
8.8 b ) Proposal withdrawn
It is proposed to make QPF the playing method for all games.
If the 8.8(b) proposal succeeds then subsidiary proposals 8.8(c) - 8.8(d) will
not be needed.
If the 8.8(b) proposal fails then subsidiary proposals 8.8(c) and 8.8(d) will be
put to the AGM.
8.8 c ) Proposal withdrawn
It is proposed that a match may only be played under ARP if both team captains
wish it. (If there is a dissenting captain the match must be played under QPF.)
If the 8.8(c) proposal fails then the status quo will remain in force - that is,
a team captain can insist on ARP.
8.8 d) Agreed
that we should have an accelerated time limit for second and subsequent time
periods under ARP. For each half hour after the first time control 16 moves
shall be played. To clarify this, the wording of rule 17 will become:
'The rate of play shall be at least 36 moves in the first 75 minutes, at least
52 moves in the first 105 minutes, at least 68 moves in the first 135 minutes,
and so on. The clocks shall be set back at each time control, i.e. after black's
36th, 52nd, 68th moves, etc. All games are to be played to a finish.'
8.9 Proposal deferred for consideration at the Annual
Fixtures Meeting in September 2007
to reduce the number of players in teams playing in divisions other than
division 1 and 2 to five (Rule 22 and Rule 30 changes).
The origin of this proposal is the difficulty some division 3 team captains have
had in finding drivers for away teams.
8.10 Proposal rejected
that one team should normally by relegated/promoted between adjacent divisions
rather than the present two teams (Rule 23 change).
One reason for this is given as Division 1 being rather small in total number of
teams but, unlike the past, now containing a larger number of strong teams.
8.11 Agreed
that the penalty for an inadmissible team order is changed to adding half a
point to the non-offending team's score and deducting half a point from the
offending team's score but match results would be limited to 6-0 wins if
necessary (Rule 25 change).
This is because a simple default of games may not be adequate penalty if the
offending team has lost those games anyway.
To clarify this, all games in a match will be scored and results passed for
grading. For each infringement each team's match score will be adjusted by plus
or minus half a point as appropriate. The final adjusted match score will be
limited if necessary to a 6-0 win.
8.12 Agreed
that, during the registration of players at the start of the season, the club
just provides a list of players. The list will be roughly in grade order but
need not be in strict grade order provided that no player who is more than 15
grading points stronger than another player appear in the list below that weaker
player (Rule 25 change).
This will give secretaries of multi-team clubs some flexibility to arrange the
order so that enthusiastic players can be listed lower and play for an extra
team and players who do not want to play a lot can be listed higher so that they
are eligible for one less team than they might have been.
During the season, on match days, team captains will have the flexibility to
play their players in an order that they prefer provided that no player who is
more than 15 grading points stronger than another player appear in the team
order below that weaker player (Rule 26 change).
This will enable team captains to play a group of players who have approximately
the same grade in any order they wish.
8.13 Agreed
that the preferred method of sending match results to the Fixtures Secretary be
defined as email. Notification by letter will still be allowed but the reference
to results cards will be deleted as the League no longer provides these to match
captains (Rule 32 change).
8.14 a) Proposal rejected
that Charnley Cup matches be played under rapidplay time controls.
8.14 b) Agreed
that there be an additional rapidplay competition (organised either as a league
or a knockout). The method of play will be two matches being played during the
evening and the overall result determined by the sum of the game scores. Each
player would play two games (one as white and one as black). Entry for each
League club and team will be entirely voluntary.
David Risley volunteered to organise the competition.
8.15 Agreed
to tidy up the wording for the Eric Harrison Trophy (minor changes to what will
become Rule 46)
8.16 Agreed
that there be a new rule (Rule 45) to guide the awarding of the Vic Knox Trophy.
9 AOB
a) No 10 email petition noted.
b) The meeting noted with sadness that two players in the League had died during
the season: S Shaylor (Denton) and S Trewick (East Cheshire).
to be held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday May 9th 2007 at the Ladybrook Hotel, Fir Road, Bramhall
1 Attendance and apologies
3 Matters arising
4 Officers' reports
4.1 The President (E Wood)
4.2 The Secretary (C Guffogg)
4.3 Treasurer's Report (P Cattermole)
4.4 Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager's Report
(D Risley)
4.5 The Handbook Editor (A Lowndes)
4.6 The Grading Officer (E Wood)
5 Presentation of trophies
The awards are:
Division 1 Champions - Stockport Blues
Division 2 Champions - Macclesfield B
Division 3 Champions - Bramhall A
Charnley Cup Winners - Stockport
Vic Knox Trophy - C Jackson (Wilmslow)
Eric Harrison Trophy - no award will be made this year
6 Election of officers
President: Edwin Wood (retiring)
to date only Tony Soames has been proposed for the office
Vice President: Tony Soames (retiring if he is elected as president)
to date nobody has been proposed for the office
Treasurer: Phil Cattermole
League Secretary: Chris Guffogg
Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager: Dave Risley (retiring)
to date only Denzil Lobo has been proposed for the office
Handbook Editor: Andrew Lowndes
Grading Officer: Edwin Wood
Auditor: Robin Warhurst
Disputes Panel
(election of five members in addition to the Fixtures Secretary who is an ex
officio member and the designation, among the panel, of the other two members
of the Disputes Subcommittee and of first, second and third deputies)
Existing Disputes Subcommittee
Fixtures Secretary
Tony Doust (Marple)
David Taylor (East Cheshire)
Deputies
Richard White (Altrincham) (1st)
Chris Guffogg (Wilmslow) (2nd)
Edwin Wood (Bramhall) (3rd)
7 Team fees for 2007/8
8 Rule change proposals
8.1 It is proposed to tidy up and make the rules easier to read by splitting
long rules and providing brief explanatory headings to all the rules - the choice
of the rules to be split into sub-rules and the wording of the headings to be
left to the League President (changes to all Rules).
8.2 It is proposed to broaden the wording to cater for clubs not based in Greater
Manchester or Cheshire (Rule 2 change).
8.3 It is proposed to delete the offices of match captain and individual competition
secretary; to create a new post of website manager (Rule 3 change). There is
a further proposal to formalise, as a listed officer of the League, the post
of grading officer.
8.4 It is proposed to change the number of auditors from two to one (Rule 4(c)
change).
8.5 It is proposed to tighten up the penalty for late payment of team fees by
requiring that the fees should be paid to the Treasurer before the end of September;
any late payment shall be subject to a penalty fixed by the AGM. Failure to
pay before the end of October will result in that team being expelled from that
season's competitions (Rule 7 change).
8.6 It is proposed to bring the rules up to date by formally permitting email
to be used to notify agenda items for meetings (Rules 11 and 12 change).
8.7 It is proposed to bring the rules into line with current practice by requiring
the Disputes Panel to be elected by the delegates at the AGM (Rule 15 change).
8.8
a) It is proposed to tidy up the wording by describing the time controls of
quickplay finish (QPF) as the usual time controls and having additional description
for matches played under adjournment rules play (ARP). (Rules 17, 20, 34 and
39 change).
Proposal 8.8(a) does not affect the status quo. Any of the next proposals, if
passed, would change the status quo.
b ) It is proposed to make QPF the playing method for all games.
If the 8.8(b) proposal succeeds then subsidiary proposals 8.8(c) - 8.8(d) will
not be needed.
If the 8.8(b) proposal fails then subsidiary proposals 8.8(c) and 8.8(d) will
be put to the AGM.
c ) It is proposed that a match may only be played under ARP if both team captains
wish it. (If there is a dissenting captain the match must be played under QPF.)
If the 8.8(c) proposal fails then the status quo will remain in force - that
is, a team captain can insist on ARP.
d) A proposal has been made that we should have an accelerated time limit for
second and subsequent time periods under ARP. If this is approved the nature
of the accelerated time limits will have to be discussed and decided upon.
8.9 It is proposed to reduce the number of players in teams playing in divisions
other than division 1 and 2 to five (Rule 22 and Rule 30 changes).
The origin of this proposal is the difficulty some division 3 team captains
have had in finding drivers for away teams.
8.10 It is proposed that one team should normally by relegated/promoted between
adjacent divisions rather than the present two teams (Rule 23 change).
One reason for this is given as Division 1 being rather small in total number
of teams but, unlike the past, now containing a larger number of strong teams.
8.11 It is proposed that the penalty for an inadmissible team order is changed
to adding half a point to the non-offending team's score and deducting half
a point from the offending team's score but match results would be limited to
6-0 wins if necessary (Rule 25 change).
This is because a simple default of games may not be adequate penalty if the
offending team has lost those games anyway.
8.12 It is proposed that, during the registration of players at the start of
the season, the club just provides a list of players. The list will be roughly
in grade order but need not be in strict grade order provided that no player
who is more than 15 grading points stronger than another player appear in the
list below that weaker player (Rule 25 change).
This will give secretaries of multi-team clubs some flexibility to arrange the
order so that enthusiastic players can be listed lower and play for an extra
team and players who do not want to play a lot can be listed higher so that
they are eligible for one less team than they might have been.
During the season, on match days, team captains will have the flexibility to
play their players in an order that they prefer provided that no player who
is more than 15 grading points stronger than another player appear in the team
order below that weaker player (Rule 26 change).
This will enable team captains to play a group of players who have approximately
the same grade in any order they wish.
8.13 It is proposed that the preferred method of sending match results to the
Fixtures Secretary be defined as email. Notification by letter will still be
allowed but the reference to results cards will be deleted as the League no
longer provides these to match captains (Rule 32 change).
8.14 A proposal has been made that the League should provide rapidplay games
either by modifying the conditions of the Charnley Cup or by establishing a
new competition.
a) It is proposed that Charnley Cup matches be played under rapidplay time controls.
Two matches would be played during the evening and the overall result determined
by the sum of the game scores. Each player would play two games (one as white
and one as black). Each player would have 40 minutes (say) to play all their
moves in each game. A player's two games could be against the same opponent
or an opponent whose first game was on an adjacent board. (Rule 39 change).
Thus the maximum playing time would be 160 minutes plus a few minutes for a
short break between the two matches.
If the 8.14(a) proposal succeeds then the actual time control period will need
to be determined and subsidiary proposal 8.14(b) will not be put to the AGM.
If the 8.14(a) proposal fails then subsidiary proposal 8.14(b) will be put to
the AGM.
b) It is proposed that there be an additional rapidplay competition (organised
either as a league or a knockout). The method of play will be as described under
8.14(a). Entry for each League club and team will be entirely voluntary.
8.15 It is proposed to tidy up the wording for the Eric Harrison Trophy (minor
changes to Rule 45)
8.16 It is proposed that there be a new rule (Rule 46) to guide the awarding
of the Vic Knox Trophy.
9 AOB
a) No 10 email petition
held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday May 17th 2006 at the Ladybrook Hotel, Fir Road, Bramhall
[Additional notes not part of the official minutes are in brackets "[ ]" ]
1 Attendance and apologies
Fifteen members from nine clubs attended. There were apologies from Roy Taylor,
Phil Cattermole, Geoff Clarke and Chris Guffog, the latter unavoidably detained
in Dumfries!
2 Minutes of the 2005 AGM
These had been put on the website and were accepted by the meeting with the
deletion of the word 'unanimous' in para 4.3.
[The minutes of the 2005 AGM on this website have been so amended.]
3 Matters arising
All actions from both the 2005 AGM and the Fixtures Meeting had been completed.
There were no other matters arising.
4 Officers' reports
4.1 The President (E Wood) said that his year had been extremely quiet due to
the smooth work of the other officers.
4.2 Secretary's Report: In the unavoidable absence of the Secretary (C Guffogg) there was no Secretary’s report.
4.3 Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer (P Cattermole) had put a summarised account for 2005/6 onto the
website. There had been an income of £911, mainly from subscriptions,
with an expenditure of £783 (of which £752 was Game Fee) leaving
a surplus of £128 and current assets at £955. The accounts were
at present unaudited.
Action: Treasurer and Auditor
4.4 Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager's Report
The Fixtures Secretary (D Risley) had put a summarised account for 2005/6 onto
the website. There was a brief discussion on flexibility of board order in matches.The
President suggested that this was adequately covered in Rule 25 and could be
changed by match captains during the year provided advance warning and explanations
were given to the Fixtures Secretary. The meeting agreed that this was satisfactory.
4.5 The Handbook Editor (A Lowndes) explained the reasons amd apologised for
the absence of the 2005/6 Handbook. He now had the master ready and the 2006/7
version could be produced without difficulty.
4.6 The Grading Officer (E Wood) said the League’s results had been sent to the ECF and had been accepted. There had been no major problems but he reminded the meeting of Rule 25 which required a minimum of full name and whether male or female for all new entrants to the League.
5 Presentation of trophies
The Division 3 (held by Denton), Eric Harrison (B Topper) and Vic Knox (J Lysons)
trophies had not been returned so could not be presented. The awards were:
Division 1 Champions - Stockport Blues
Division 2 Champions - Macclesfield A
Division 3 Champions - High Peak B (to be awarded at the Fixtures Meeting)
Charnley Cup Winners - Stockport
(click to go to photos of the Charnley Cup final)
Eric Harrison Memorial Trophy - Vicky John of Stockport (to be awarded at the
Fixtures Meeting)
Vic Knox Trophy - Roger Edwards of High Peak (to be awarded at the Fixtures
Meeting)
6 Election of officers
Roy Taylor, the Vice President was retiring and Tony Soames of Macclesfield
had volunteered to serve. All the other officers were willing to stand again
and, since no other candidates offered themselves, the following were unanimously
elected to serve for 2006/7:
President: Edwin Wood
Vice President: Tony Soames
Treasurer: Phil Cattermole
League Secretary: Chris Guffogg
Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager: Dave Risley
Handbook Editor: Andrew Lowndes
Grading Officer: Edwin Wood
Auditor: Robin Warhurst
Disputes Committee:
The following volunteered to serve on the Disputes Committee:
Tony Doust (Marple)
David Taylor (East Cheshire)
Dave Risley (ex officio, Macclesfield)
Deputies
Richard White (Altrincham) (1st)
Chris Guffogg (Wilmslow) (2nd)
Edwin Wood (Bramhall) (3rd)
7 Handbook for 2006/7
The question was whether to produce this at a cost in the region of £150
less returns from advertisements or to rely on the website. After discussion
it was agreed by a majority of those present to produce the Handbook. The Handbook
Editor was actioned to obtain a firmer estimate of costs against numbers produced
for presentation at the Fixtures Meeting.
Action: Handbook Editor
8 Team fees for 2006/7
The Treasurer in his presentation had recommended fees per team of £45
or £42 if paid before 31 October 2006. The meeting declined this by a
majority vote feeling that there should be some rebate in lieu of the non-appearance
of the 2005/6 Handbook. An alternative suggestion of £45 or £40
if paid early was agreed by a comfortable majority.
Note: all clubs
9 AOB
9.1 Charges for website information
The Website Manager had asked what the League would charge if the database and
website software were sold to other leagues. After discussion it was agreed
that a charge of £50 would be asked by the League for these programs on
the understanding that the League would not provide any continuing maintenance
and would give no guarantee about the fitness of the programs for the use to
which the recipient would put them.
9.2 Extending the playing season
It was pointed out that with more clubs moving to a Thursday for their club
nights there was some congestion particularly for larger clubs who also played
in the Manchester League. Starting the season earlier was problematic due to
early September holidays and an extension to April 30th suggested. This was
agreed by the meeting but it was recognised that this involved a change in the
Rules and clubs had not had prior warning (Rule 12). Consequently it was agreed
to bring the matter to the Fixtures Meeting. The President said clubs should
come to that with a clear mandate so that a decision could be reached without
discussion. The item would be added to the Fixtures Meeting agenda.
[This section is a consequence of the above:
Proposed changes of rules for the Fixtures Meeting 2006
It is proposed that Rule 21 be amended to read "The playing season extends
from the Annual Fixtures Meeting to the 30th April, and all matches shall be
arranged to be played and completed on or before 30th April. All results should
be submitted to the Fixtures Secretary as soon as matches are completed but
in any case not later than 1st May. If a dispute is submitted in the 14 days
prior to 1st May its adjudication will be expedited."
It is proposed that Rule 36 be amended to read "The draw for the whole
of the competition is made at the annual Fixtures Meeting. The completion dates
for each round are as follows: round 1 before 1st November, the quarter-final
before 25th December, the semi-final before 1st March and the final before 30th
April. For the fixtures after the initial draw the Fixtures Secretary shall
determine the home team so as to minimise the occurrence of sequences of home
venues in successive rounds or of away venues in successive rounds accruing
to teams. Team captains are responsible for agreeing the actual playing dates."]
Note: Secretary and all clubs
There being no further business the meeting ended at 8.45 pm.
E Wood
May 18th 2006
|
|
David Hulmes (white) and Alex Longson are shown towards the end of their board 1 encounter. |
Mike Taylor (white) and Andy Jenkins fight out their board 5 draw. |
|
|
Francis Moan (white) and Stuart Murray during their board 6 game. |
A general view of the match. |
Item 4.3 Treasurer's Report 2006-2007
Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 9 May 2007
2005/2006 2006/2007
INCOME
891.00 Subscriptions 880.00
20.13 Interest received 17.93
0.00 Adverts in Handbook 0.00
------ 897.93
EXPENDITURE
751.61 ECF Registration Fees 799.65
0.00 Handbook + Game Records 147.84
32.00 Trophies (Engraving and Rapidplay) 57.35
0.00 AGM Room Hire 50.00
------ 1,054.84
--------
Deficit of Expenditure
over Income 156.91
========
Balance Sheet as at 9 May 2007
Current Assets
Bank Balance 798.18
Accumulated
Fund
Opening Balance
(21/5/2006) 955.09
Deficit of Expenditure
over Income -156.91
------
798.18
======
Item 4.4 Report of Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager (Dave Risley) for 2006-2007
1. Team captains and club secretaries
This is my last report as Fixtures Secretary. Thanks to all the team
captains for reporting results promptly over my three year period in office
and to club secretaries for letting me know in good time about player registrations.
2. Results
Division 1
Stockport Blues are League champions.
Marple A and Macclesfield A have finished in the relegation places.
Division 2
Macclesfield B are divisional winners. High Peak B are runners up (in the other
promotion place).
Altrincham A and Macclesfield C have finished in the relegation places.
Division 3
Bramhall A are divisional winners. Denton are runners up (in the other promotion
place).
Charnley Cup
Stockport beat Chorlton 3.5-2.5 in the final to win the Cup.
3. Teams' and players' grades and performance
I show below a table of the average grades of players in teams.
| Division 1 |
|
Division 2 |
|
Division 3 |
|
Cup |
|
| Team |
Grade |
Team |
Grade |
Team |
Grade |
Team |
Grade |
| Stockport Reds |
158 |
Altrincham A |
122 |
Bramhall A |
106 |
Stockport |
175 |
| Stockport Blues |
156 |
East Cheshire A |
115 |
Denton |
104 |
Chorlton |
150 |
| Chorlton |
154 |
Marple B |
114 |
East Cheshire B |
95 |
High Peak |
150 |
| Holmes Chapel |
150 |
Macclesfield B |
113 |
Wilmslow |
93 |
Holmes Chapel |
150 |
| High Peak A |
149 |
Stockport C |
112 |
Stockport D |
88 |
Marple |
145 |
| Marple A |
145 |
High Peak B |
107 |
Altrincham B |
85 |
Macclesfield |
129 |
| Macclesfield A |
133 |
Macclesfield C |
92 |
Bramhall B |
82 |
Altrincham |
124 |
|
|
|
|
|
Marple C |
82 |
East Cheshire |
121 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Denton |
101 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wilmslow |
97 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bramhall |
96 |
It will be seen that the final league tables are generally in accordance with
the teams' strengths.
The exceptions are: Macclesfield B and High Peak B have produced some excellent
results; and the Altrincham A and East Cheshire A teams have not done as well
as their players’ grades would indicate.
The table shows that the teams tend to group into: six strong teams; Macclesfield
A and Altrincham A who are intermediate in strength between typical division
1 and typical division 2; seven intermediate strength teams (which group includes
Bramhall A and Denton); and seven weaker teams (which group includes Macclesfield
C). This may be of interest when considering, at the Annual Fixtures Meeting,
which division should have eight teams and the allocation of teams to divisions
including which teams should be promoted and which relegated.
The outstanding individual match performances of the season included two matches
in the Wilmslow Cup run. This saw them beat Bramhall 3.5-2.5 while outgraded
by 61 grading points and beat East Cheshire 3.5-2.5 while outgraded by 86 grading
points. In division 2 Marple B produced a fine result on 08/11/2006 by beating
East Cheshire A 4.5-1.5 while outgraded by 60 grading points.
The outstanding individual percentage performance of the season was that of
C Jackson (Wilmslow, ECF grade 72) who scored 8 game points from 9 games against
7 different opponents producing a performance equivalent to that of a grade
of 121. This percentage was only bettered by a number of players who played
one game which they won and by T Hart (High Peak, no ECF grade) who won all
three of his games. The highest grading performance of the season was that of
D I Hulmes (Stockport, ECF grade 201) who scored 12 game points from 15 games
against 10 different opponents producing a performance equivalent to that of
a grade of 211.
4. Defaults
There were two double defaults in the season - each occurring on board 6 of
the two matches between Bramhall A and Bramhall B. Apart from that there were
19 defaults during the season: Altrincham A, Altrincham B (5), Chorlton, Denton
(6), East Cheshire B, Macclesfield A, Marple C, Stockport Reds (2), Wilmslow.
This is an increase over last season.
5. Disputes and queries on rules
Apart from the usual mistakes over board order by team captains the season has
generally been free of controversy and disputes. Because none of the incorrect
board orders affected the results of matches I did not apply any penalties.
The rules require adjournments to be resumed within 28 days. They are silent,
however, on what should happen if the game cannot be resumed within this period
and this did occur on one occasion.
6. Charnley Cup fixtures
Some clubs had difficulties in arranging fixtures for the later rounds of the
Charnley Cup. Perhaps, when arranging the League fixtures, we should try to
keep one or two weeks free for the Cup fixtures.
7. Ghost players
A ghost players arises when a multi-team club registers a player for a team
other than their lowest team who eventually never actually plays for any of
the club's teams. The club gains an advantage because each of its teams other
than the first team have a larger pool of eligible players than they should
have. The situation generally arises by accident because club secretaries sometimes
have to guess about the availability of some club members when they register
their club players at the start of the season. I have sympathy with their difficulty.
I checked who had played in the middle of the season and found a handful of
ghost players. The ghosts were removed by agreeing with the clubs about revising
their registration orders.
8. Membership Schemes
The change in officers of the ECF has resulted in a change of policy on its
membership schemes. It is now likely that such schemes will be allowed to expire.
The NCCU's Northern Membership Scheme is, however, still in operation and may
continue next season.
9. Providing software to other leagues
It was agreed at the last AGM to make a small charge if another league wanted
a copy of the software that controls the League's database. This season there
have not been any enquiries from other leagues for the software.
10. Player registration
Of course registering a player during the season does entail a lot of work shuffling
around playing order in a club. Some clubs have been helpful by checking their
current playing order on the website and then telling me, when they register
the new player, what his playing order number is and how they wish the other
players to be ordered. At other times I have had to do this work for the club.
Next season can club secretaries remember that, when they register a new player,
apart from the details for grading (ECF number, previous clubs, date of birth
etc.) they should say what their new playing order will be.
I am glad to say that this season no team has played an unregistered player.
11. Playing order rules
A number of clubs contravened the rule (rule 25) about playing order in matches.
None of the contraventions affected the result of any match and so I did not
regard it as worthwhile applying any penalties. However it did cause me a lot
of time and trouble to investigate whenever rule 25 was contravened.
As so many team captains seem to have trouble remembering the registered playing
order of their players I have proposed a rule change which would allow team
captains to play their players in any order provided that no player whose grade
is more than 15 grading points higher than another is ever played below the
weaker player.
12. Website
Thank you to Martin Cruickshank, David Hughes, Darren Jones, Karl Lockett and
Dave Pardoe who notified me of updates needed and errors on the website and/or
gave me comments about the website. A number of people have complimented me
on the website for which I thank them. Apologies and thanks to any others whose
contributions I may have forgotten.
I hope you will all provide the same level of help and support to the new website
manager.
David Risley
Fixtures Secretary and Website Manager
OLD MINUTES AND REPORTS
held at 7.30 pm on Wednesday May 11th 2005 at the Adswood Hotel, Adswood Lane West, Stockport
[Additional notes not part of the official minutes are in brackets "[ ]" ]
1 Attendance
Twenty members from nine clubs attended. There were apologies from Altrincham
and Hale Club and from Chris Guffogg (auditor).
2 Minutes of the last AGM
These had been distributed and were accepted by the meeting.
3 Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
4 Officers' reports
4.1 The President (E Wood) said that his year had been extremely quiet due to
the smooth work of the other officers for which he sincerely thanked them.
4.2 The Secretary (R Warhurst) reported that his had largely been a quiet year. He had, as actioned by the 2004 AGM, written to the BCF expressing the League’s anger at the recent increase in Game Fee. This had been acknowledged by the BCF who had offered to send an officer to the next League meeting to explain how the BCF budget was built up. After discussion with the President it had been decided not to take up this offer unless there was a BCF proposal to increase the Game Fee further.
4.3 Treasurer's Report
The Treasurer (P Cattermole) summarised the accounts for 2004/5. There had been
an income of £883, mainly from subscriptions, with an expenditure of £805
(of which £600 was Game Fee) leaving a surplus of £78. As the opening
balance was £750 this meant that the current assets were £828. The
Auditor (C Guffogg) had ratified these accounts.
It was reported that the BCF Game Fee for 2005/6 would revert to 44p per half
game from the 43p for 2004/5. Since the 2004/5 team fees of £45 or £42
for early payment had been set on the basis of a 44p Game Fee, it was agreed
to retain these fees for 2005/6.
Clubs note
It was also reported that the NCCU were proposing a membership scheme by which players could join by paying £10 per year and would then receive a discount against the Game Fee. After a brief discussion it was felt that for the small numbers of games most League members played during the year the scheme would give no advantage. Therefore, no further action was taken.
4.4 Fixtures Secretary's Report
The Fixtures Secretary (D Risley) started by thanking the previous fixtures
secretary (Mike Tunstall) who originally designed the database and set up the
website.
For the 2004/5 season (relegations subject to division changes):
Stockport Blues are Division 1 champions with Chorlton and Macclesfield A relegated.
Division 2 was won by Altrincham with East Cheshire A runners up and Macclesfield
B and High Peak B relegated.
Division 3 was won by Denton with East Cheshire B runners up.
The Charnley Cup was won by Stockport who beat East Cheshire in the final. Below
is a photo from the final taken by David Taylor and placed on the East Cheshire
website. (There are other photos from the night on the East Cheshire website.)
There were two 6-0 defaults during the season. Apart from these there were 26
defaults (including one double default).
He was still awaiting a report from the Stockport Rapidplay. [This was subsequently
received.]
There were some minor problems over playing order rules as a result of which
there is a proposed rule change later with a view to clarification.
The constitution of the league, competition rules and match advice were now
on the website which also contains a more detailed report from the Fixtures
Secretary.
After his report the Fixtures Secretary was accorded a unanimous vote of thanks
for his very prompt and extremely useful work in keeping the website up to date
and in expanding its data.
4.5 The Handbook Editor (J Wain) was not present but was known to be standing down after several years in post. The question was then raised as to whether the Handbook should be kept going in 2005/6. In order to have it produced a new Editor would be needed. If it was not produced there would be a saving of about £155. Views for and against were presented but no decision was reached. It was agreed that Clubs would come to the Fixtures Meeting with their decision as to whether to retain the Handbook or not. If the decision was to retain it, then a volunteer Editor would be needed.
Action: Clubs4.6 The Grading Officer (E Wood) said that all results for the League and for the Charnley Cup had been processed and sent to the BCF who had accepted them. In general, processing had been trouble-free particularly due to the excellence of the web site for which he heartily thanked Dave Risley.
New players did cause some problems of identification and, while most club secretaries had been very helpful when approached for information, one or two had not even replied. The BCF would like to have dates of birth to avoid mis-identification but, where members were unwilling to supply these, he was proposing a slight rule change which would be put forward later.
5 Presentation of trophies
The Division 1 Cup had not been returned by Holmes Chapel so it could not be
presented to Stockport Blues.
Holmes Chapel should produce it to the Fixtures Meeting.
Action: Holmes Chapel
The Division 2 Cup presentation was held over in the absence of the winners,
Altrincham.
The Division 3 Cup was presented to J Wood on behalf of Denton.
The Charnley Cup was presented to S Murray on behalf of Stockport.
There were three players with an 83% score during the season. Of these most
games had been played by JSM Lysons and the meeting unanimously agreed that
the Vic Knox Trophy should be awarded to him. J Wood accepted it on his behalf.
No junior had been put forward for the Eric Harrison Memorial Trophy (held by
J Lobo) but there were two who might qualify, B Topper and J Lobo. Their clubs,
East Cheshire and Macclesfield were actioned to consider whether to put their
names forward before the Fixtures Meeting. [Subsequently East Cheshire proposed
Ben Topper be awarded the Trophy and Macclesfield Club agreed with this. Macclesfield
will need to bring the trophy to the Fixtures Meeting so that it can be presented
to Ben.]
Action: Macclesfield
6 Election of officers
President: E Wood was returned unopposed
Vice President: R Taylor was returned unopposed
Treasurer: P Cattermole was returned unopposed
League Secretary: in the absence of a volunteer the post was temporarily vacant
Action: Volunteer neededFixtures Secretary: D Risley was returned unopposed. It was also agreed that he should be webmaster in addition.
Action: Volunteer neededGrading Officer: E Wood was returned unopposed
Action: President
7 Proposed Revisions to the League Rules
7.1 Rule 9 (b) was unanimously agreed to be amended to read
“The Annual Fixtures meeting of the Executive Committee shall normally
be on the 3rd Wednesday in September – but the Executive Committee may
appoint the nearest convenient date for this meeting. The officers have the
power to call additional meetings of the Executive Committee should the need
arise.”
7.2 It was agreed by majority vote to retain Rule 16 unchanged i.e. “…If a player fails to turn up for a match, his game shall be forfeited when 30 minutes have elapsed on his clock
7.3 Rule 25 was unanimously agreed to be amended to read
“…If players are new to the League (i.e. players not on website
grading list), clubs should provide details of their previous club(s)/country
and their BCF registration number (or date of birth) upon registration. If date
of birth is not available, full name and whether male or female shall be supplied”
7.4 Rule 26 to be amended to read
"When a club enters more than one team, the players numbered 1 to 4 shall
not play for any team below the first team, players 5 to 8 shall not play for
teams below the second team, and so on for each successive group of four players.
Players may be bracketed together on one number, but these restrictions will
apply to all players so bracketed.
An overlap in playing strength is permitted only where a club declares its intention
to have two teams of similar strength playing in the same division. Such teams
must then remain distinct entities throughout the season with six players nominated
for each of the similar strength teams. The lowest ranked two players of each
team may play for the club's third team. The twelve players in the equal strength
teams and the players ranked 13 to 16 inclusive may not play for the club's
fourth team and so on for successive teams and groups of four players. Any of
the players ranked 13 and below may play for either or both of the equal strength
teams..."
7.5 Rule 39(iii) was unanimously agreed to be amended to read
“Players can only play in the semi-final or final if they have played
at least twice for the club in either the Stockport League or the Charnley Cup
during the last two seasons.”
8 AOB
8.1 The Secretary said he had received a circular letter from Stockport
Council saying that fly posting by organisations would not be tolerated. The
meeting did not consider this to affect the League.
8.2 D Taylor and P King said that a junior club was being held regularly at
the Stockport Club venue on Thursdays between 6 and 7 pm, not specifically for
the benefit of the Stockport Club but for the area generally. Numbers varied
between one and four dozen and the organisers were seeking assistance and advice.
To remain viable they needed reasonable numbers of juniors but those numbers
required more helpers. [Any who wish to do so should contact David Taylor at
davidandstella at tiscali dot co dot uk .]
In the discussion the question of Child Protection rules was raised.
The meeting was asked to take the request back to the clubs.
8.3 A revision of the Laws of Chess coming into force on July 1st 2005 required
a move to be made before it was recorded. The President agreed that this should
apply to League games but hoped that it would be applied in a friendly manner
in keeping with the ethos of the League.
On a similar note it was asked whether recording moves was essential. It was
generally agreed that this was true and, if there were a case of non-recording
in the League, the player affected could use the League’s disputes procedure.
8.4 In answer to a suggestion that a reduced team fee might result if the Handbook
was dropped, the President agreed to a discussion of this at the Fixtures Meeting.
Action: President
The meeting closed at 0910 hours.
E Wood May 13th 2005
Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 11 May 2006
2004/2005 2005/2006
INCOME
843.00 Subscriptions 891.00
15.35 Interest received 20.13
25.00 Adverts in Handbook 0.00
------ 911.13
EXPENDITURE
601.44 BCF Registration Fees 751.61
155.00 Handbook + Game Records 0.00
49.00 Trophies (Engraving and Rapidplay) 32.00
------ 783.61
------
Surplus of Income
over Expenditure 127.52
======
Balance Sheet as at 11 May 2006
Current Assets
827.57 Bank Balance 955.09
Accumulated
Fund
749.66 Opening Balance (21/5/2005) 827.57
77.91 Surplus of Income over Expenditure 127.52
------
955.09
======
Notes
1. All clubs paid their due subscriptions for the year.
2. Slightly higher surplus this year (£127 cf to £77, primarily
due to not having a handbook)
3. My recommendation for the subscriptions next year would be no change on this
year, ie £42 per team per year if paid before 31st October, and £45
if paid after 31st October.
Report of Fixtures Secretary/Website Manager (Dave Risley) for 2005-2006
1. Help from team captains and club secretaries
Generally my work has been made relatively easier than it could have
been by most team captains reporting results promptly and club secretaries letting
me know in good time about player registrations. Thank you to all who helped
me in this way.
2. Results
Division 1
Stockport Blues are League champions.
East Cheshire A and Altrincham are relegated (subject to division changes).
Division 2
Macclesfield A are divisional winners. Chorlton are promoted as runners up.
Bramhall A and Denton are relegated (subject to division changes).
Division 3
High Peak B are divisional winners. Macclesfield C are promoted as runners up.
Charnley Cup
Stockport beat Marple 4.5-1.5 in the final to win the Cup.
3. Defaults
There was one double default in the season - in the match between High Peak
B and Marple C. Apart from that there were 15 defaults during the season: Chorlton
2; Denton 2; Macclesfield C 2; Stockport D 2; Altrincham 1; Bramhall B 1; East
Cheshire A 1; High Peak B 1; Marple C 1; Stockport C 1; and Wilmslow 1. This
is a considerable improvement over last season.
4. Recording moves in quickplay finishes
There was a dispute during the season as to whether players had to record moves
once a quickplay finish was in operation (the final 15 minutes of the game).
Apparently there is a widespread League practice of abandoning scoresheet updating
in quickplay finishes presumably on the grounds that any loss on time in the
future will not depend on the number of moves played. However, it is incorrect
to immediately stop recording moves after the first time control. Moves have
to be recorded up to the 85th minute of the 90 minute game. Just to emphasis
the point the only periods of play when you do not have to record moves are
those periods in the last 5 minutes before the first time control or in the
last 5 minutes before the end of the game. Also note that immediately after
the first time control, if you have not been recording moves in the run up to
that time control, the scoresheet has to be brought up to date.
5. Northern Membership Scheme
Below is a summary of information as at 16/04/2006 of players in the League
who I know to be members of the Northern Membership Scheme (NMS).
Fee
per game |
|||||||
£0.44 |
|||||||
| Club |
Player | ECF Ref |
NMS no |
Stockport
League Games |
Game
fees effectively already paid by club |
Refund
due from ECF to club in Summer 2006 |
Saving
to be passed on by club to player |
| Altrincham | Bryan D K | 107560D |
CN0012 |
12 |
£5.28 |
£5.28 |
|
| Altrincham | 12 |
£5.28 |
|||||
| Chorlton | Owen D P | 194001G |
LA0296 |
12 |
£5.28 |
£5.28 |
|
| Chorlton | Vassiliou C | 120826D |
CN0017 |
8 |
£3.52 |
£3.52 |
|
| Chorlton | 20 |
£8.80 |
|||||
| Denton | Boulden D | 105395E |
CN0057 |
11 |
£4.84 |
£4.84 |
|
| Denton | 11 |
£4.84 |
|||||
| East Cheshire | Vaughan I | 220005D |
CN0003 |
2 |
£0.88 |
£0.88 |
|
| East Cheshire | 2 |
£0.88 |
|||||
| Holmes Chapel | Blackburn J E W | 178103A |
CN0006 |
1 |
£0.44 |
£0.44 |
|
| Holmes Chapel | Roberts M A | 118034E |
CN0041 |
4 |
£1.76 |
£1.76 |
|
| Holmes Chapel | 5 |
£2.20 |
|||||
| Macclesfield | Laurence G | 114116J |
CN0111 |
12 |
£5.28 |
£5.28 |
|
| Macclesfield | Risley D A | 247174H |
CN0054 |
10 |
£4.40 |
£4.40 |
|
| Macclesfield | 22 |
£9.68 |
|||||
| Marple | Walton A | 121082J |
LA0143 |
14 |
£6.16 |
£6.16 |
|
| Marple | 14 |
£6.16 |
|||||
| Stockport | Curr P V | 176212G |
CN0123 |
2 |
£0.88 |
£0.88 |
|
| Stockport | 2 |
£0.88 |
|||||
| Wilmslow | Regan M | 241479L |
CN0035 |
1 |
£0.44 |
£0.44 |
|
| Wilmslow | 1 |
£0.44 |
My understanding of the operation of the NMS is that at the end of the 2005-2006
season each club should send a list to the treasurer of the ECF of the number
of games played by their NMS players in non-NCCU leagues. I think that the Stockport
League is a non-NCCU League. In summer 2006 each club gets a refund from the
ECF in respect of the games of NMS members.
Each club is supposed to pass the refund on to each NMS member – either
by refunding the amount there and then or by reducing the member’s 2006-2007
club subscription.
6. Providing software to other leagues
I have had an approach from Richard Vann and Alan Walton of the Manchester League
enquiring about the Stockport League’s database and website.
What should be the policy on providing technical information and software? Should
we attempt to charge for it? An item (9.1) has been included on the agenda for
this to be discussed.
7. Player registration
Of course registering a player during the season does entail a lot of work shuffling
around playing order in a club. Some clubs have been helpful by checking their
current playing order on the website and then telling me, when they register
the new player, what his playing order number is and how they wish the other
players to be ordered. At other times I have had to do this work for the club.
Next season can club secretaries remember that, when you register a new player,
apart from the details for grading (BCF number, previous clubs, date of birth
etc.) you should say what your new playing order will be.
Occasionally teams have played unregistered players. This involves me in a lot
of work as – rather than applying the rules strictly – I prefer
to contact the opposing team captain to ask them if they wish to claim the game.
Can I remind team captains who intend to put a player in their team that they
have not played previously to check their club’s registered players on
the website.
See the next section (playing order rules) for another approach to these problems
.
8. Playing order rules
Five clubs contravened the rule (rule 25) about playing order in matches. None
of the contraventions affected the result of any match and so I did not regard
it as worthwhile applying any penalties. However it did cause me a lot of time
and trouble to investigate whenever rule 25 was contravened.
A survey of other chess leagues’ rules collected from the internet shows:
League Playing
Order Rule
Darlington strict
grade order - grades written on results slip
Essex grade
order but current club champion may play on board 1
Manchester a
player not nominated for the team may play above up to two players who have
been nominated for the team
Merseyside playing
strength
Middlesex playing
strength
Mid Sussex playing
strength but some possibility of variation by reference to current form
Stoke playing
strength but can swap players no more than 15 grading points different
Worcestershire playing
strength
(Other leagues either did not have their rules on the internet or, with the
quick survey that I did, the playing order rule appeared to be absent from the
internet information.)
As so many team captains seem to have trouble remembering the registered playing order of their players I wonder whether it would be better to change the rule to use: (for graded players) ECF grade; or (for ungraded players) grade as estimated at registration or as adjusted later by reference to their results. If players cannot remember their playing number order in the club they should be able to remember their current grade! Thus we could merely require each team’s players to be placed in a playing order such that no player who is 15 grading points (say) or more higher than another is ever played below the weaker player.
9. Website
Thank you to Phil Colville, Terry Cowling, David Hughes, George Kolbusz and
Dave Pardoe who notified me of errors on the website and/or gave me comments
about the website.
As usual I am appealing for contributions to the website. Please send me any
articles of a general chess nature or any interesting games or part-games (including
positions) to my email address as given on the website.
David Risley
Fixtures Secretary and Website Manager
Stockport and District Chess League
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting
held on May 12th 2004
at the Ladybrook Hotel, Bramhall
1. Attendance
Ian Bates (Holmes Chapel)
David Biddulph (Stockport)
Phil Cattermole (Holmes Chapel)
Kris Chesters (Macclesfield)
Geoff Clarke (East Cheshire)
Terry Cowling (Marple)
David Hughes (Altrincham)
Andy Jenkins (Marple)
Shirley John (Bramhall)
Denzil Lobo (Macclesfield)
Chris Murfin (Bramhall)
Carl Pinel (High Peak)
Dave Risley (Macclesfield)
Roy Taylor (Bramhall)
Mike Tunstall (Stockport)
John Turner (Holmes Chapel)
John Wain (Stockport)
Robin Warhurst (Wilmslow)
Richard White (Altrincham)
So 19 members representing 10 clubs were present. There were no representatives
for South Manchester or Chorlton.
Apologies: Edwin Wood (Grading Officer, Knutsford)
2. Minutes of the Last AGM
The minutes of the last meeting were accepted.
3. Matters arising from the last AGM
There were no matters arising.
4. Officer’s Reports
President (John M Turner)
After 10 years service to the Stockport Chess League, John announced that he
felt he could no longer provide the necessary attention to carrying out the
responsibilities of the League President, given that he has a new job in Wolverhampton
and is home very late in the evenings if at all.
John congratulated the league and cup winners and reported that there were no
disputes in the previous season.
John thanked the committee for their services to the league, the club representatives
for their regular attendance of, and contribution to, meetings.
Secretary (Robin Warhurst)
Reported on Harry Lamb’s (Greater Manchester League) suggestion that leagues
send him their votes against BCF’s game fee increases so that he could
attend the BCF meeting and cast them. However since we currently only have one
business meeting per year and since we are able to vote postally, Harry’s
offer was not taken up.
There was general outrage at the BCF’s vote to increase the half game
fee to 44p from 36p.
Treasurer (Philip Cattermole – information conveyed by Secretary)
Phil had passed on a copy of the accounts for the year to the Secretary which
was distributed.
All clubs had paid with the exception of South Manchester who are no longer
competing within the Stockport Chess League. There was a small deficit of £63
on the year, giving a balance in the building society account of £729,
with the approximate total estimated to be £664 due to outstanding transactions.
The accounts were accepted subject to audit.
A proposal to increase the annual fee to club teams to £45 with a £3
discount for early payment was carried.
A proposal to make a representation to the BCF to let them know that the Stockport
and District Chess League felt that the game fee increase was too high was carried.
Action Secretary and Ian Bates.
The accounts were accepted subject to audit. Note to Secretary, Auditor, Treasurer.
Fixtures Secretary (Mike J Tunstall)
Mike Tunstall reported that:
Division A.
Won by Holmes Chapel. Altrincham and East Cheshire A are down.*
Division B.
Won by Marple A. Chorlton are also promoted. Macclesfield B and East Cheshire
B are down.*
Division C.
Won by Bramhall A. Marple B are also promoted.*
*subject to possible division changes.
Teams with more than 1 defaulted game are:
Stockport C = 9, Wilmslow = 6, Denton = 2.
Mike distributed copies of his website report for the AGM, the key points of
which were:-
Administration for teams is made much easier by those which have a website and
an email contact address.
Please send in all results by email next season.
Please can we have dates of birth for new players.
Mike reported that Chorlton took up more of his time than any other team, through
non registration and having 32 players registered rather than approximate limit
of 20. – Action on secretary to write to Chorlton.
The only nomination for the Eric Harrison trophy was James Lobo of Macclesfield.
Handbook Editor (J Wain)
John began by saying that after many years of service to the league as handbook
editor, he would like to step down from the post.
The cost of the handbook, which was issued earlier this year, has risen slightly
to 68p per copy, due to an advertiser pulling out.
After a discussion, Dave Biddulph proposed and Roy Taylor seconded a motion
to include a cross table of results in future editions. The proposal was carried
and John was happy to make the change for this coming year.
Grading Officer (Edwin Wood – Edwin’s statement read out by John
Turner)
"First, my apologies. I will be away on May 12th and will miss the meeting.
Second, I have had less than the usual problems with the grading this year,
mostly due to Mike Tunstall's web site which has been a godsend and, hopefully,
will be kept up next year in some way at least. As of May 1st all results have
been processed ready to go to the BCF with the exception of those from the Charnley
Cup final. If I don't get these by the third week in May, they will have to
be held over until next year as I cannot delay sending all the rest in.
Third, if no-one else wants to grade next year, I'll be happy to continue."
5. Presentation of Trophies
5 out of 6 trophies were presented.
The Vic Knox trophy was presented to Alex Longson of Marple.
The Eric Harrison memorial trophy was won by James Lobo of Macclesfield and
presented to Denzil Lobo.
All cups were presented with the exception of Division C, which was previously
with Chorlton. Action Secretary.
Division A Trophy was presented to Ian Bates of Holmes Chapel.
Division B Trophy was presented to Andy Jenkins of Marple.
Division C Trophy was won by Bramhall but not presented - see above.
The Charnley Cup was presented to Dave Biddulph of Stockport.
6. Election Of Officers
John Turner is to step down as president. John to contact Edwin Wood to see
if he knows of a volunteer. John to continue as acting President until the fixtures
meeting in September 2004.
Robin Warhurst stated that he would like to step down as secretary, but in the
light of longer serving officers stepping down and for reasons of continuity,
that he would be willing to act as secretary for another year. This was proposed
and carried unopposed.
Mike Tunstall stepped down as Fixtures Secretary due to changing job circumstances.
Phil Cattermole was happy to continue as treasurer and take on responsibility
for the website with assistance from Mike. This proposal was carried, unopposed.
In the absence of volunteers, John Wain said that he would act as Handbook Editor
for another year. This proposal was carried, unopposed.
Edwin Wood was reported as happy to continue as grading officer. This was carried,
unopposed.
Chris Guffogg was reported as happy to continue as auditor. This was carried,
unopposed.
Roy Taylor was willing to continue as Vice President. This was carried, unopposed.
Dave Risley of Macclesfield volunteered, and was elected as League Fixtures
Secretary.
That leaves the Stockport and District Chess League looking to fill the following
posts immediately:
President
And to fill the following next year:
Handbook Editor
Secretary
7. AOB
Dealing with default boards – raised by Andy Jenkins
After some discussion, there was a proposal from Dave Biddulph, seconded Andy
Jenkins to deduct two points from the league score of a team for each defaulted
match. An amendment proposed by Dave Risley and seconded by Carl Pinel that
a 6-0 loss by a team should result in an extra point being deducted. The amendment
was defeated narrowly and the un-amended proposal was also defeated. So the
status quo persists.
Adjournments/quickplay finish home vs away – raised by Carl Pinel.
After some debate, there was a proposal to amend the rules to say that “If
a quickplay finish is agreed in the first match in a season between two teams,
then a quickplay finish will also be played in the second match.” This
proposal was carried.
East Lancs Summer League – raised by Dave Pardoe
As a point of information only, the secretary informed club representatives
of the existence of an East Lancashire Summer League, and gave the contact email
address for those clubs who might be further interested:
chris dot proffitt at btopenworld dot com
Treasurer's Report for 2004-2005
Income and Expenditure Account for the year ended 11 May 2005
2003/2004 2004/2005
INCOME
703.00 Subscriptions 843.00
9.21 Interest received 15.35
25.00 Adverts in Handbook 25.00
------ 883.35
EXPENDITURE
554.08 BCF Registration Fees 601.44
160.00 Handbook + Game Records 155.00
46.90 Trophies (Engraving and Rapidplay) 49.00
20.00 AGM Room Hire 0.00
------ 805.44
------
Surplus of Income
over Expenditure 77.91
======
Balance Sheet as at 11 May 2005
Current Assets
Bank Balance 827.57
Accumulated Fund
Opening Balance (21/5/2004) 749.66
Surplus of Income over Expenditure 77.91
------
827.57
======
Report of Fixtures Secretary (Dave Risley) for 2004-2005
1. Previous fixtures secretary
I am starting this report by thanking the previous fixtures secretary
(Mike Tunstall) who designed the database for results and set up the website.
2. Help from team captains and club secretaries
During the season I had to chase some results – mostly from division 3.
The culprits know who they are and so I won’t name them here. Sometimes
chasing results brought the response that the match was postponed. Please remember
to let me know if you have agreed to postpone a match. That will save wasted
correspondence.
Generally my work has been made relatively easier than it could have been by
most team captains reporting results promptly and club secretaries letting me
know in good time about player registrations. Thank you to all who helped me
in this way.
3. Results
Division 1
Stockport Blues are champions.
Chorlton and Macclesfield A are relegated (subject to division changes)
Division 2
Won by Altrincham; East Cheshire A are runners up.
Macclesfield B and High Peak B are relegated (subject to division changes)
Division 3
Won by Denton; East Cheshire B are runners up.
Charnley Cup
Won by Stockport who beat East Cheshire in the final.
4. Late players
Rule 16 says that “…If a player fails to turn up for a
match, his game shall be forfeited when 30 minutes have elapsed on his clock...”
Chorlton forfeited three boards in their away match against Marple A when three
players turned up about 45 minutes late. Other leagues have more flexible time
limits. The Manchester League and Stoke League allow players to arrive up to
60 minutes late. A rule change is proposed so that the meeting can discuss this.
5. Playing order rules
Chorlton were not happy about me querying their board order on some matches.
They actually contravened the rule about playing order in several matches but
as it did not affect the result of any match I did not regard it as worthwhile
applying any penalties. Following this I had an email from Chorlton asking that
the Stockport League change its rules on playing order to be similar to those
in the Manchester League (a system of “seeded players” who may be
played in any order plus unseeded players who are restricted as to where they
may play). I pointed out that this would require extensive changes to the rules.
This would be needed to deal with the situation of the two top Stockport teams.
Also there is the matter of the overlap of players who are eligible for more
than one team. Chorlton were not willing to produce the necessary draft for
the revised rules.
Assuming the AGM wants the playing order rules to remain basically the same,
the rules relating to Stockport are not quite satisfactory from the point of
view of trying to implement them. A rule change is proposed so that the meeting
can discuss this.
6. Charnley Cup player eligibility
Rule 39(iii) says that “Players can only play in the semi-final or final
if they have played at least twice for the club in either the Stockport League
or the Charnley Cup during the season.”
Holmes Chapel could not raise a team for their semi-final against Stockport
because of this rule. Stuart Murray of Stockport wonders whether the AGM should
reconsider the rule.
East Cheshire were unable to put one player in their team for the final against
Stockport because of this rule.
A rule change is proposed so that the meeting can discuss this.
7. Player registration
Of course registering a player during the season does entail a lot of work shuffling
around playing order in a club. Some clubs have been helpful by checking their
current playing order on the website and then telling me, when they register
the new player, what his playing order number is and how they wish the other
players to be ordered. At other times I have had to do this work for the club.
Next season can club secretaries remember that, when you register a new player,
apart from the details for grading (BCF number, previous clubs, date of birth
etc.) you should say what your new playing order will be.
Occasionally teams have played unregistered players. This involves me in a lot
of work as – rather than applying the rules strictly – I prefer
to contact the opposing team captain to ask them if they wish to claim the game.
Can I remind team captains who intend to put a player in their team that they
have not played previously to check their club’s registered players on
the website.
8. Defaults
There were two 6-0 defaults during the season: High Peak A defaulted their away
fixture against Chorlton; and Holmes Chapel defaulted their away fixture against
Stockport.
Apart from these there were 26 defaults (including one double default game):
Wilmslow 7; Chorlton 5; Denton 3 (including a double default in the match with
East Cheshire B); Bramhall A 2; East Cheshire B 2 (including a double default
in the match with Denton); Stockport D 2; East Cheshire A 1; High Peak A 1;
High Peak B 1; Holmes Chapel 1; Stockport Blues 1; Stockport Reds 1.
Occasionally I have had results reported that contain defaults on boards other
than the lowest possible boards. If I only have one team reporting the match
result (which is the usual case) I do not know if the default has been accepted
by the opposing team captain. In that case I have to query any unexplained default
on boards other than the lowest. To save unnecessary correspondence can I remind
everyone to tell me why there is such a default when they send in the result.
9. Website
Thank you to Terry Cowling, David Hughes and George Kolbusz who notified me
of errors on the website.
I have put the constitution of the league, competition rules and match advice
on the website. If you do not have a copy of the printed handbook you can now
access this information from the internet. Can I ask anyone thinking of querying
the application of a rule to check the text before contacting me. I have had
some queries that could have been avoided if the person concerned had checked
the rule first.
The meeting might consider if it is possible to save on the costs of the handbook
by not publishing a handbook but conveying information via the website instead.
I am always looking for interesting games and part-games (including positions)
for the website. If you send them to me with your own notes you can avoid having
your brilliancies annotated by me!
Several people have asked me if they (or I) should get permission from their
opponent before publishing the game. My policy is not to do this as it would
involve a lot of correspondence. In any case it has been ruled (I can’t
remember where though) that games are not copyright and so there is no legal
requirement to do so. I will not publish notes that are humiliating to losers
– but so far everyone has been very polite…
