Hey kids

Just to keep you in the loop…

Andrew has very kindly offered his services to do the Simul. (quite a feat!)
2. I am in touch with ‘Mrs. Dave’ Toft regarding the Gala Dinner Dance, and…..

WOODSEATS FESTIVAL!

This took place last weekend, you may have seen Peter waving the ‘Flag of Camelot’ in the Parade on Look North (or then again, I might just be making that bit up)

The next one is tentatively pencilled in for Sunday, July 14th 2019

I would like us to enter the Festival in some way or other, both as a means of a dry run for the Golden Anniversary, and as a means of further embedding us in to the Woodseats’ consciousness.

I am thinking…

A 30 player simul.
Schedule the Crabb Shield (which will almost certainly be held at the Red Lion) to coincide with the Festival weekend.
A 30 player ‘Woodseats vs. The rest’ match

No Gala dinner dance scheduled, but possibly a curry wouldn’t go amiss?

Going back to the Golden Anniversary, a word about the cost. Obviously we should think about offering Pam some recompense for room hire etc. I also thought that we could donate £50 first prize and £50 for other prizes to the One-Day tournament. I also wondered about subsidising the Gala Dinner Dance, perhaps £5 or £10 per person, up to a maximum of £200?? What do you all think?

These things are all very tentative and also a long way away, which gives us time to plan and prepare (but don’t fall into the trap of thinking that two years is a long time, look what happened with Brexit!!)

Finally, the biggest challenge is to locate and track down all the old B&J/Cross Scythes/Woodeats members! Peter suggested I should make a list, I’m already doing it.

It’s a massive undertaking, but not out of our reach. Please give whatever help in doing all these things that you can, and don’t be shy in suggesting new ideas.

The main reason behind all this, is of course, to attract as many new members as possible. Links with libraries, links with local schools, all of these couldn’t be a bad idea.

WOODSEATS GOLDEN ANNIVERSARY!
In the summer of 1970, a group of gentlemen met in the Batemoor & Jordanthorpe Community centre and established the B.& J. Chess Club, 50 years on, in the year 2020, we hope to celebrate that anniversary! We are trying to contact anyone who has played for, or been a member of the club in that time. Anyone who has had a connection with B.& J./Cross Scythes/ Woodseats Chess Club and is not in regular contact, could they please get in touch with me.

Bill Ward

Special General Meeting

Notice is hereby given that a Special General Meeting of the Sheffield & District Chess Association will take place on Monday 21st May, 2018, at Stradbroke Community Centre (in the grounds of Stradbroke Primary School), Richmond Road, Stradbroke, Sheffield, S13 8LT, starting at 8.15 p.m.

The meeting has been called at the request of the Executive to vote on the proposition

that the Sheffield & District Chess Association submit for grading by the English Chess Federation the results from the S&DCA leagues (winter & summer), its team knock-out competitions (Richardson and Haystead Cups), and the Sheffield Championship. To apply starting August 31^st 2018.

Cost Implications

 This has cost implications in that at the end of the grading season the ECF would charge to the S&DCA a sum fixed annually (currently £16) for each player who has more than three games included, but was not (by the end of the season) a member of the ECF at Bronze level or above. The present cost per person of Bronze ECF membership is £16.

Such fees charged by the ECF to the S&DCA would then be charged to the member clubs concerned.

Thus S&DCA league players would need to be ECF members, or else the S&DCA would pass on to their clubs the fee (currently £16) charged by the ECF to the S&DCA per such non-member.

 Operational Considerations

 Whereas league secretaries currently enter results into “Chessnuts” (which will cease to produce “Yorkshire” grades after June 2018), they would (from 31^st August) enter their results in a similar manner into the ECF’s similar web-based “League Management System” (LMS), which provides the same kind of on-line result reporting as “Chessnuts”.

LMS provides for generation of the half-yearly ECF grading-data submissions, which would then be signed off and submitted to the ECF by an ECF Grader such as Phill Beckett or Steve Mann.

Having narrowly lost at Rotherham earlier in the season, we were out for revenge in the return match at the Red Lion.  A good start was made by winning the toss!  Peter faced the French defence from Andy but decided not to play the much discussed Reti gambit.  A draw was soon agreed.  Both myself and Dave C had not made the most of our openings and were down material.  I had hints of an attack but once that was rebuffed by Ed, I played a shocker of a move to lose, albeit being 2 pawns down at the time.  Dave had also got a good attack going against Phil.  However, one accurate capture of a pawn by Phil proved crucial and we were losing 2.5-0.5.

Over on the other side of the room, Michael was playing well against Michael and found a mating attack to win, maintaining his 100% record for the B team this season.  David M was also on top against Mick and once he got his rook and Queen surrounding his opponents King it was just a matter of time.  A neat mate with a pawn won the game and left the match score all tied at 2.5-2.5.

As all of the other games had finished relatively quickly, Martyn and Colin played for around half an hour with a big crowd of players watching.  Plenty of pressure!  A tense endgame resulted with Martyn defending well with a knight against bishop, down a pawn.  Both players were running short of time and when Martyn managed to swap his knight for Colin’s last dangerous pawn, a draw was agreed.

Two 3-3 draws in a row now and our season is looking up!  Next up is a trip to face Nomads C later this month.