AGM, 2 September 2013

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 17^th and 18^th 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.