120th AGM 2nd Sept 2012. 7.00pm in St Columba’s Church Hall, Stirling
AGENDA
1. President’s welcome.
2. Minutes of previous AGM.
3. Matters arising.
4. Officers’ reports.
5. Election of office bearers.
6. Competitions for 2013-14.
7. Notices of motion.
8. Any other business.
John Blake
Secretary
Club competitions 2012–13
Richardson Cup
The cup, and with it the
title of club champion, was again won by Paul Prescott – his seventh
consecutive success, a tremendous run. After the previous season’s relatively
close shave, Paul returned to unbeaten ways – winning five of his games
(despite dodging a bullet in his early-season encounter with Robin), and
dropping only the one draw, against debutant Bill. Steve was runner-up, a point
behind, while a further point back came Robin and Graham. Bill had a further
draw plus a win to finish on 2/6, while Tony and Dave managed only two draws
apiece, thus bringing up the rear.
With the recent influx of
fairly strong new members, it is to be hoped that this season’s Richardson will
see some new blood and an overall increase in playing strength. It remains to
be seen who can play in terms of availability, but as things stand the
following line-up is feasible: Paul, John (who has qualified courtesy of
winning the Lindsay Cup), Douglas, Jim, Steve and Graham, and one of Robin,
Neil, Bill and Tony. Even if that isn’t the eventual cast list, it is to be
hoped that at least two of the three 1800+ players can take part.
It is proposed to retain the
same format for the tournament: a seven-round all-play-all, comprising the two
by-right qualifiers (the Richardson and Lindsay winners), the next four by
grade who want to play, and one slot determined via an early-season KO made up
of the next four by grade. Last season, as on previous occasions, there was some
discussion about upping the overall number to nine – but given the difficulty
of getting everyone to play six games over eight months, and also a possible
increase in the number of league fixtures (courtesy of a Grangemouth B team in
division 2 and a second Badgers Brook team in the allegro league), there simply
isn’t space in the calendar to expand the Richardson, even assuming that was
felt desirable.
There were again issues last
season about a logjam of games towards the end of the season – and, while such
things can always happen due to illness, bereavement, work commitments etc, it would
be good if Richardson players could “get ahead of the game” by each playing at
least two (ideally three) of their six games by the turn of the year. As the
calendar stands just now, the intention is to make 14 October, 18 November and
9 December the pre-Christmas Richardson nights (but games can be played on
nights other than this), while 23 September and 14 October are the dates for
the qualifying KO games.
Lindsay Cup
This proved to be
hard-fought, with top-grader John Blake eventually taking the title, courtesy
of beating newcomer Craig Manson in a 64-move final. Nine players took part,
initially in two all-play-all groups, with Gordon and Martyn being the other
two semi-finalists. As with the Richardson, there were problems with getting
all games played by the end of the regular season, and one of the semis (which
went to a replay) and the final were carried over into June. When this happens,
whether with one game or multiple games, it works out OK in the end while not
being ideal, so again could people please endeavour to keep pace with the
calendar and play their games on a reasonably regular basis.
Partly because of the
carry-over of games, and also because the arrival of new Richardson players is
likely to cause a trickledown effect in the Lindsay, there will be a change to
the scheduling this current season. Of late, the Lindsay has started early in
the new year, but the proposal is to drag it back into the first half of the
season – ideally with the first games being played on 11 November and the group
stage being completed no later than the end of April.
Thornton Cup
This was won by Martyn Roe –
who had a good season all round, in both club and league terms. In the final –
which again went to a replay and was again carried over into the summer – he
beat David Brodie (thus continuing David’s remarkable and rather unenviable
run: in the past seven seasons, he has been in five President’s/Thornton finals
and has yet to get his hands on the silverware; he has also lost four finals –
and won one – in the Lindsay during the same period).
There was a bit of
uncertainty at the start of last season’s Thornton, as the original grading
cut-off was 1450 which allowed nine entrants and a structure of one preliminary
game followed by four quarter-finals. Two players then pulled out, however,
leaving the awkward number of seven and meaning that someone could win the cup
by playing only two games. After discussion with the seven players still involved,
it was agreed to nudge the ceiling up to 1465, thus allowing Martyn to compete
and making it a straight quarter-final etc structure. Note that the grading
ceiling has shifted in previous seasons (although not usually after the
first-round draw has been made) to allow a sensible number of players.
This coming season, the
proposal is to make the limit 1460, which would mean that the following are
eligible: Martyn, Simon, Gordon, Mick, Craig, Jono, Robert Togneri, Nick,
David, Robert Leckie, Tom, George and John Crichton. Not all of these will play
(most obviously George, given that he lives on Mull), but eight or nine
entrants looks feasible – and of course any ungraded or sub-1461 newcomers who
turn up between now and the end of September will be welcome to take part. The
plan is again to have it as a KO with at least three rounds, to be played in
the autumn and early winter with the final ideally being played fairly early in
2014.
Keddie Cup
This proved to be something
of an epic, being won by Graham Anderson after what was probably a record
number of ten games: four group-stage games, two group-stage playoff games, a
quarter-final (which needed a replay) followed by the semi and the final. To
say that the winner looked a bit frazzled by the end of proceedings would be an
understatement, and it was a tour de force, especially as the handicap favoured
him in only one of the ten games (which he lost, to Kenny McGeoch). It was the
highest-graded Keddie victory since Paul took home the cup in 2004
The runner-up was Dave
Marshall from Badgers Brook – a very welcome guest who steered a successful
course through the chaos on his first attempt at the Keddie, and who maintained
the curious sequence where several non-member visitors have reached the final
but none has yet won it. In the past six seasons, this has happened four times
– with Ethan Young (twice), Gerry Blake and now Dave Marshall having to be
content with the runner-up slot.
The most recent Keddie – as
has become the trend – saw two of the Blakes make it to the latter stages, with
John and Jono both losing in the semis. Overall, there were 18 entrants – lower
than in some recent seasons but enough for it to be an enjoyable gathering and
for a decent amount of money to be raised for club funds, via the entry fee and
the raffle. For the coming season, the Keddie date is 16 December.
October allegro
Winner: Steve Smith (4½/5), runner-up:
John Blake (4/5), 10 players
April allegro
Winner: Graham Anderson (4½/5),
runners-up: John Blake, Bill Cook, Neil Irving, Dave Hewitt (all 3½/5), 13
players
Provisional dates for this
season’s allegros (the 17th and 18th in the series): 28
October, 28 April
Season-long
all-play-all allegro
Winner: Bill Cook (8½/9), runner-up:
Graham Anderson (7½/10), 11 players (plus two withdrawals)
A fine win at the first
attempt for Bill in the all-season allegro. Although it was the first time that
the title hadn’t been won with a 100% score, he did remain unbeaten, dropping
only a draw to the eventual runner-up. Overall, in terms of allegro chess, it’s
worth noting that Stirling members are playing more of this than is the case in
most clubs – due to a combination of the allegro league, the three club
tournaments and occasional forays into external events (eg the Lothians Allegro
and the Poly Quickplay). In the latest grading list, the allegro section has
Dave placed at number five in terms of most allegro games played (49), while
Bill played 39 and Steve 33. It’s unclear quite how much this contributed
towards what was probably the season’s most notable league success – the
Stirling Bruce victory in the allegro league, when Dunfermline Minnows and
Grangemouth Tigers had been the pre-season favourites – but it does appear to
have helped.
Opening-night
blitz
Winners: Paul Prescott (4½/6),
runners-up: John Blake, David Brodie, Robin Hayles (all 4/6), 10 players
Dave Hewitt, competition secretary
A
brief report on publicity matters. In theory Graham and I share duties on this,
but in practice Graham has done all the work during the past year. The focus of
the publicity side of things is on the club website, which Graham has revamped
and moved to a new location, stirlingchessclub.blogspot.co.uk.
It is now in a blog format, which works much better I think, as it allows a
combination of news about fixtures, grades etc to be accompanied by actual
games using play-through software. This increases the club’s public profile and
conveys the idea that it’s a friendly place to play chess. As such, it’s likely
to bring in occasional new members more successfully than the old methods of
newspaper reports, posters and the like.
In
terms of actual new members, there were five during the last season (Bill,
Neil, Craig, Jim and John C), following on from Robert L whose first full
season this was. The available playing strength in league terms stands at
around 18, with a couple of others who much prefer internal club games. This is
as high a figure as it’s been in recent seasons, and of the recent additions three
are in the top half of the club’s grading split, which has a useful trickledown
effect through the various teams.
We
could still (as ever) do with some more top-end strength, but the key thing is
that the recent recruits are all keen both to play and to improve, and are
reliable in terms of turning up for matches and playing in the internal
competitions. The margins remain quite tight in that some people will always
either leave the area or quietly lose interest in chess, but as things stand
we’re probably the healthiest club in the league in terms of numbers, and the
hope is that this steady increase will continue over the coming season. If we
could get the regular playing strength up to two dozen by this time next year
that would be great.
