The 2016 Annual General Meeting of
Stockport and District Chess League was held at 7.30 pm on Thursday
May 18th.
2016 at Cheadle Hulme Conservative Club, Mellor Road, Cheadle
Hulme.
1. Attendance and apologies (2015-16 Offices in brackets)
Present (18) were:
Officers and Officials:
John M Turner (Chair, President, Holmes Chapel)
Neil Dainty (Minutes, Secretary, Marple)
Geoff Laurence (Fixtures Secretary, Macclesfield)
Reg Clucas (Website Manager, Altrincham)
Phil Cattermole (Treasurer, Macclesfield)
Mike Tunstall (Grading Officer, Stockport)
Sean Hewitt (E.C.F. Representative, Marple)
Altrincham: Steve Ward
Chorlton: David Kierman
East Cheshire: Keith Hodgson, Tudor Ricketts, David Taylor.
Macclesfield: Mick Renshaw
Marple and District: Terry Cowling
Stockport: Peter Taylor, Dave Pardoe, Ian Anderson.
Wilmslow: Tony Flynn
Apologies were received from:
Ian Bates, Mike Hancock (Holmes Chapel), Jeff Barlow, Alex Longson, Glenn Truman (Marple).
2. Minutes of the 2015 AGM
These were accepted.
3. Matters arising
There were no matters arising.
4. Officers' reports
4.1 President (J Turner)
The Chairman thanked all committee members for their hard work during the year, this had enabled the League to function smoothly. He also thanked all club officials for their input. He noted with satisfaction that there had been no disputes in the season.
4.2 Secretary (N Dainty)
The Secretary thanked the members for appointing him and said the duties outlined on the website had not appeared onerous .. until he had to prepare for the meeting. He pointed out that some of the trophies had different engraving styles and suggested using the same engraver whenever possible.
4.3 Fixtures Secretary (G Laurence)
See Appendix A
4.4 Registrations Secretary (R Clucas), and
4.5 Website Manager (R Clucas)
Registrations had run smoothly and no ECF non-members had played more than three games. There were very few website issues, just a few cosmetic changes. He was pleased to have received all results promptly.
The members thanked Geoff and Reg for their contributions (following a proposal from SH).
4.6 Grading Officer (M Tunstall)
All grading was up to date and all results for the season had already been sent to ECF.
4.7 Treasurer (P Cattermole)
The accounts (Appendix B) had been audited by Alex Longson and showed a surplus for the year of £24.29, the only significant costs being for trophies and engraving. The bank balance at the end of the financial year at was £845.61. Sean Hewitt told the meeting that the ECF computer system should generate invoices for games played by unregistered players; Phil said he had not received any invoices.
The accounts were accepted as a true representation.
4.8 English Chess Federation Representative
Sean reported that the ECF Board was more harmonious since their AGM in October when there had been a change in Chief Executive. The new appointee, Mike Truran, has the required expertise being a senior financial executive at Saga. Finances are much improved and Malcolm Pein is helping with raising funds.
They have an ambitious program, particularly for junior chess. In county chess the Open competition is to be FIDE rated and U160 and U140 tournaments are to be played on different weekends rather than at the same time. The ECF is looking at software for live updating of results and grades, but this may take about three years to introduce.
5. Team and player fees for 2016
The Treasurer recommended that team Fees for 2016 be unchanged at £5 per team and this was agreed.
6. Publicity
The President explained that he had put this forward for discussion and asked if any of the clubs had had publicity in the Stockport press. David Taylor said that East Cheshire had some mention in the local press and this had mentioned the League. Sean had previous success in Leicestershire with free papers and Tudor Ricketts pointed out that parish journals are keen to help. Sean offered to write an article and Terry would approach Chris Baker (Marple) who has relevant contacts.
7. Presentation of trophies
Trophies were presented to:
Division 1 Champions: Marple A
Division 2 Champions: Stockport B
Division 3 Champions: Macclesfield C
Limit League Champions: Stockport
Charnley Cup Winners: Marple
President’s Cup: Stockport
Vic Knox Trophy: Alex Longson, Marple (86.5%, P11, W8, D3, L0) – collected on his behalf).
Eric Harrison Cup: Michael Fernandez (not presented, see below)
8. Election of Officers
The following were elected for office unopposed:
President John Turner
League Secretary Neil Dainty
Fixtures Secretary Geoff Laurence
Registrations Secretary Reg Clucas
Website Manager Reg Clucas
Grading Officer Mike Tunstall
Treasurer Phil Cattermole
Auditor Alex Longson
ECF Representative: Sean Hewitt was elected unanimously (John Reyes was also nominated).
9. Election of Disputes Committee.
The Disputes Committee members of last season were all able to continue to serve, and were appointed “en bloc”:-
Geoff Laurence (Macclesfield, Fixtures Secretary)
Robert Shaw (Macclesfield)
Mike Taylor (Stockport)
Ian Bates (Holmes Chapel)
David Holt (Denton)
Tony Flynn (Wilmslow)
10. Proposals to change League Rules:
10.1 Rule 25 Reg Clucas had proposed:
“Create a new rule 25A(vi) -
Where an estimated
grade has been assigned, or
a player has a category F grade,
that grade
shall be used for SDCL board order purposes. However, where a
player's grade in a subsequently published ECF list is significantly
different from his/her estimated grade, the
Registration Secretary may decide
the player's ECF grade shall replace the estimate or
category F grade
for the purposes of the club's registration order, board order and
Limit League eligibility. In such cases the Registration Secretary
will advise the relevant team captain(s)”.
He also recommended “to delete the final sentence of rule 25A(v) -Where an estimated grade has been assigned, that grade shall be used for SDCL board order purposes.
This was discussed and both motions were carried, with the inclusion of the amendments shown in red.
10.2 Rule 20 Geoff Laurence and David Kierman had each made similar proposals regarding the playing season. David’s proposal included a possible change to the date of the Fixtures Meeting.
After a discussion it was agreed to amend Rule 20 to read: At the Fixtures meeting the Fixtures Secretary will decide the date on which the season shall end and the AGM shall be held the week following.
The rule regarding the date of the Fixtures meeting would not be changed
10.3 Rule 26c Geoff had also proposed that rule 26c (which restricts clubs to 20 players per registered team) be deleted; as “it is disregarded - probably because it has been forgotten about!”
The motion was carried.
10.4 Rule 32 Geoff had also proposed that “Rule 32 be replaced by "The home team must submit the result to the league Fixtures Secretary by e-mail within 48 hours of the match conclusion. The away team may also submit the result (to serve as a check)."
This was considered and amended to read “Both of the team captains shall send results to the League Fixtures Secretary within 2 days of the complete match result being known.” The amendment was carried.
10.5 Rule 42(ii)
After agreeing an amendment to a proposal it was agreed that this rule will also include the words “or category F grades. The rule now reads:
Teams will be made up of 4 players graded less than or equal to 120 at the start of the season, with a team total grade limited to 400. When selecting a team, captains must take into account any estimated grades or category F grades that have been revised as specified in rules 25A(i) & 25A(vi).
11. Any other business.
11.1 Sean suggested a new individual trophy for the “most improved player” to be judged on increase in grade over twelve months (July to July) and awarded at the Fixtures meeting. There would be a minimum requirement of six SDCL games played and a real rather than estimated starting grade. The winner would not be eligible for either of the other two individual trophies. This was agreed with one vote against.
11.2 Peter Taylor produced detailed plans on behalf of Stockport for the introduction of a Rapidplay Tournament, with various possibilities for when and how it could be held. This was received with great enthusiasm and it was agreed that Peter would organise a Rapidplay League in the summer months. Peter would be left to determine the format.
Peter also reminded everyone that the Stockport Blitz would be held on Sunday July 10th. at Stockport Guildhall.
11.3 Neil asked for authorisation to buy a new trophy of good quality to replace the existing Eric Harrison Trophy which was broken. This was approved.
The President closed the meeting.
Appendix A Fixture Secretary’s Report
The 2015-16 season has seen all matches played (i.e. no match defaults) and hence all final tables and cup winners are known. Marple A once again did the double - champions of Div 1 and Charnley Cup Winners. Stockport B won div 2 and the Stockport club also won both the President's Cup and the Limit League. Macclesfield C maintained the tight Macclesfield grip on the div 3 trophy!
The low number of individual game defaults was encouraging (5 in div 1, 2 in div 2, 1 in div 3 and 5 in the limit league) as was the fact that the disputes committee wasn't needed. Clubs rigorously abided by the rules regarding board order. I would like to thank the great majority of clubs who submitted results promptly enabling Reg and myself to maintain up-to-date tables etc on the website – my hope is that all will do this next season! I have noticed a tendency of some home captains to copy in their opposing captain when submitting results and I would encourage this as good practice.
Appendix B
Treasurer’s Report