2012 Annual Meeting

Page published 18 June 2012

EVENTS DIRECTOR'S REPORT

Cyril Johnson

I would like to start by thanking Ray Collett for his invaluable assistance with the Grand Prixs. Theses were won by Tomasz Syngowski (West Bromwich) on 11 points in the Grand Prix and the Rapidplay GP was won by Steve Crockett of Redditch with 22½ points from 5 events.

I would like to expand the prizes in the Rapidplay to the first three places, unless there are any objections. I would also like to examine the possibility of another section in the Rapidplay for those graded Under 110.

I would also like to examine the prizes for the Open GP. I propose that the winner of the GP gets £100 irrespective of whether they enter the British or use our nomination. A bursary of £100 to the player who uses our nomination to enter the British, and a further £50.00 to the highest placed Junior.

I do see the Counties Controller quite often. I would like to place on record my thanks to her for her smooth running of the event. I hear from other sources that we have far fewer problems than any other union.

I would like to have organised a Junior Championship this year, but repeated requests for Junior Dates have not met with any details. Next years event will be June 1st 2013, venue to be announced at the meeting.

Something which has concerned me for some time is the shortage of qualified arbiters. We do have some running around claiming to be BCF Arbiters or ECF Arbiters who are not. Unfortunately, id cards are no longer being printed by the ECF. To remedy the shortage of arbiters, we are running a course at Syston on July 14th and 15th. To make this more attractive, anyone wishing to brush up on the Laws can attend on the Saturday at a reduced fee. We still have places on this course. My thanks to David Welch for offering to run it.

The changing face of the postal services is brought home to Julie and myself when we get mail deliveries after 6.30 in the evening. Not so much "Please Mr Postman!" as "Midnight Rambler". The MCCU Correspondence championship does allow someone to insist on using the postal service for their moves. I think this contributed to the reluctance of many to enter the event and the current hiatus in the event. I append suggested rules.

I would like to ask for someone to organise an email only correspondence event on the basis of a low fee collected by their county associations and remitted with the county entry fees and initially vouchers for prizes from CHESS DIRECT.
Your thoughts please.

One final thank you to all those who volunteer to run county teams. Having run them for some 15 years, I know how unrewarding it can be with eleventh and a half hour withdrawals!

My thanks to all.

Cyril Johnson