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Cumbria Chess Association |
June 2009South Lakes CongressCongratulations to Neil Jones on his joint first in the intermediate section of the South Lakes Congress, a fine result after a good season in which he won the equivalent section of the Cumbria championship and scored 4½ out of 5 for Cockermouth in the league. Well done too to the organising team of Janet and Trevor Blower and Dave Vole. The full results are in the tournament section of this website. Dr David Ball RIP Dr. David Ball died peacefully in Whitehaven hospital on Tuesday June 2nd at the age of 57. He was a former secretary of The Cumbria Chess Association and a founder member of North Copeland Chess Club, and was a member of the County Team during the late 1980s. May 2009British Land Chess ChallengeA lot of our junior chess players made their way to Poulton le Fylde on May 2nd for the north west regional megafinal of this competition and, although I don’t have anywhere near full results of our children, the ones I do know suggest they have represented us well yet again. In the boys sections Stephen Lowis finished 2nd in the under 18 and Dan Zurek and Marco Ho scored 4/6 and qualified for the gigafinal (national semi-finals). Dennis Wong won the under 16. Sam McStay won the under 15 and Thomas Liu and Clement Hung qualified. In the under 13 three from Cumbria dominated the competition. Jason Maxwell won, Camas Millar was 2nd and Jonathan Leung finished 3rd, a truly excellent result in a very competitive section. Oskar Nicholson finished 3rd in the under 11 with 4.5 and Nikhil Choudhury qualified in the under 10. For the girls Zuri Zain won the under 18 and Kate Longrigg got through to the gigafinal in the under 16 section. There were several others scored 3 and 3 1/2 out of 6 and played well but failed to qualify this time. If anyone has further details of Cumbrian performances please let me know. Syd Cassidy April 2009Cockermouth are the new league champions. The title depended on the result of the very last match of the season as Windermere went to Cockermouth to defend their title with the two teams both on 25 ½ points. Perhaps the absence of John Toothill made the crucial difference but after what I am told was a real ding-dong match Cockermouth squeezed out a 2 ½ - 1 ½ win and so end Windermere’s attempt at four-in-a-row.Austin Friars have won the Whitaker Cup, beating Barrow C in the final played at Kendal last Sunday. This was another excellent match and could easily have gone either way but eventually Austin Friars overcame their one point handicap as the stronger team to edge the match 2-1. Our agm is coming up so it’s time for you to review the way everything is going and contact our secretary Bill Hardwick if there are items you wish to raise at the agm. AGM agenda (as pdf) Minutes of 2008 AGM (as pdf) Your views wanted - The vision for English chess My name is Andrew Farthing. I was appointed ECF Strategic Planning Officer in December last year. I am seeking your help with the task of defining the desired vision for English chess and the ECF, as part of a long-term strategy document which I have to draft over the next couple of months. At the recent ECF Council meeting I committed myself to a broad-ranging consultation process as a central part of clarifying this vision. At that meeting I observed that it was an essential prerequisite of choosing the right strategy that we should have a clearly communicated, agreed picture of where we wanted to get to in the long term. At the moment, I don't think that picture is clear enough, and this is where you can help with the ideas and opinions of yourself and your members. I know that English chess relies almost completely on the goodwill and commitment of the many volunteers who support its various organisations and events, and I don't take lightly a further call upon their time. However, it would be wrong of me to attempt to draft a 'vision' without seeking as wide a range of views as possible. Broadly speaking, I wish to construct a picture of how we should like English chess and the ECF to look in, say, 10 years' time. I've picked 10 years because this is long enough for strategies to be developed and implemented but not so distant as to seem pure fantasy. The watchwords are "ambition" and "challenge" in a context of "optimistic realism" (if you see what I mean). What I'm looking for is your thoughts on what the ECF's ambitions should be for the game by the end of this period. This would include, for example: - International success / Professional chess - Domestic chess, e.g. British Championships, County competitions, other events - The standing of the game, i.e. public image, media profile, sponsorship - Junior chess - "Grass roots" chess, i.e. how much chess is played (and by whom); weekend congresses, etc.; chess clubs, and so on - Women's chess - The role and significance of the ECF - The nature of the ECF, e.g. organisation, governance - The financial status of the ECF, e.g. commercial activities; sources of funding (This is not intended as an exhaustive list, so if you have any thoughts which seem to fall outside the named items, please include them.) Please help me with this. Specifically: (1) Let me know your own views. Long or short, they will all be welcome. Comment on the issues which strike you as the greatest priority, if you prefer. (2) Please forward this note to appropriate representatives within your area, e.g. County Associations. I have tried not to be too "scattershot" in my mailing, so I've limited this note to the individuals listed in the Yearbook as Secretary of the so-called "Constituent Units of the ECF". I'd prefer to leave it to your judgement as to further distribution, but please do pass it on. I am happy to receive as many responses as possible direct to my e-mail address andrew.farthing@btinternet.com so there is no need to undertake any collation of replies (unless this is your preference). Many thanks in anticipation of your response. I am hoping that the volume of responses will be large enough to provide a challenging sifting task for me: this will be much preferable to operating in a vacuum of indifference. I'm loath to set a deadline when I'm asking for your help like this. Nevertheless, the practicalities of the timetable for producing the draft Strategic Plan mean that I'll need to pull together responses at the end of May. Obviously, from my point of view, the earlier I can get started, the better, so please feel free to reply much sooner! Thank you. Andrew Farthing March 2009Cumbria Junior Chess Championships 2009
Above: Cumbria Junior Chess Championship winners. Cumbria Championships 2009
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Don't forget to set a bookmark to this Website Send match results, articles and letters for the next newsletter to: S. Cassidy, Austin Friars - St Monica's, Etterby Scaur, Carlisle, CA3 9PB Tel: 01228 528042 Fax: 01228 810327 or by email to: SydCassidy@austinfriars.cumbria.sch.uk |
