ECF Junior Counties Championship

[Paul McKeown]

Hi, does anyone know who is running the U13 and U18 counties championships this year, how does one get in touch and get an entry form and when are the events due to be held?

[Neill Cooper]

I think Sussex are hosting it on Sunday 26th June.
Details will be sent out to counties soon.

[Paul McKeown]

Hi Neill,

Thanks for the reply. Another question... is the ECF competition strictly for "counties" only? Richmond Junior Chess Club participates in the SCCU (Southern Counties Chess Union) U14 Counties Championship and the U14 and U18 Jamborees as a Non-County Member, and also in the National Youth U12 and U14 Inter-association Championships. Is that possible for an equivalent ECF non-county member? I am informed understand that RJCC did play in this event in decades past, but would like to clarify current rules and the views of the organisers. I am seeking as many opportunities as possible to give our older members the opportunity to play team chess.

Paul

[Neill Cooper]

I think it will be counties only, as in recent years.
The list of past winners at http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/cham ... -counties/ only mentions counties.

[David Shepherd]

The fact that it is restricted to counties (assuming that is the case), shouldn't prevent the Richmond JCC players from playing. I am sure if you circulate their details to the relevant team organisers they stand a good chance of playing (also to the adult county teams).

[CarolGraham]

Sussex are looking forward to hosting this event on 26th June in Brighton.

We have just received the event specification and are currently working on the budget and fine details. Once this has been approved by Traci Whitfield the entry form and rules will be sent out to County contacts and posted here.

[CarolGraham]

Sussex are pleased to be hosting the ECF Junior County Championship on Sunday 26th June in Brighton.

The format will be very similar to last year run as a jamboree in 4 sections:

U18 Open – 12 boards
U18 Minor – 6 boards, all grades < 130
U13 Open – 6 boards
U13 Minor – 6 boards, all grades < 110

Full details are attached.

Brighton is a great place to visit with plenty of history, shopping, and family friendly attractions within walking distance of the venue for non-playing siblings.

It would greatly assist our planning if teams could email me with expressions of interest/intent – the form and payment can follow on later.

Once entries start coming in I will post updates here.

[CarolGraham]

Thank you to everyone who has been in touch so far.

Still plenty of time to enter but here is an update of the teams who have either confirmed or expressed interest:

U18 Open: Herts, ?Kent, Middlesex, Surrey, Sussex
U18 Minor: ?Kent, Leicestershire, Surrey x 2, Sussex
U13 Open: Berkshire, Herts, ?Kent, Middlesex, Sussex x 2
U13 Minor: ?Kent, Leicestershire, Sussex

It would be good to be able to announce the host for next year – so if any County is interested in hosting please get in touch with Traci Whitfield ([email protected]) – recent hosts were Lincs (2015), Surrey (2014), Herts (2013), and Berkshire (2011 & 12).

There are many Counties who haven't responded to emails so it is very possible I have out of date contact lists. If you know who the current junior organiser for your County is please either draw their attention to this thread or pm me.

[John Higgs]

Sussex hosted the ECF Junior County Championships in Brighton this Sunday, and capitalised on home advantage to secure U18 Minor, U13 Open and U13 Minor titles plus 2nd place on tiebreak in U18 Open.

For the headline results:

http://www.sussexjuniorchess.org/Result ... 18U13.html

[Michael Flatt]

I have been looking on the ECF website trying to find a report on the ECF U13/U18 County Championships at Brighton 2016. Nothing to be found!

I did find tables of final standings on the Sussex Junior website (they were the hosts, u18 runners up & u13 winners!): http://www.sussexjuniorchess.org/Result ... 18U13.html

In previous years the detailed results used to be posted on the oxford fusion website, but not this year: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/epsca.

The games were ECF graded so I have been able to track down results for individual players by selecting the event cross-table from the grading database.
U18 Open: http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/menu.p ... 16&month=6
U18 Minor:http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/menu.p ... 16&month=6
U13 Open: http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/menu.p ... 16&month=6
U13 Minor: http://www.ecfgrading.org.uk/new/menu.p ... 16&month=6

Given the likely disappearance of the Delancey UK Schools Chess Challenge, shouldn't some attention be giving to saving the ECF's own Junior event?

Does anyone have any information on the 2017 event?

[Neill Cooper]

I can't help on the Counties event but the ECF National school championships are still thriving.

[CarolGraham]

A summary did appear on the ECF website: http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/7719-2/

The oxford fusion site is designed to publish results where the event has been run using their spreadsheet templates. While the U18 sections did use the oxford fusion templates, the U13 sections did not. I took the view that it was inappropriate to publish full results for 2 sections out of 4.

Full results were circulated to the managers and primary contacts of all Counties who participated for checking prior to submitting for grading.

In the run up to the event I appealed several times for a host to come forward for 2017.

[Michael Flatt]

Carol, thank you for the link. Being posted as a news item it obviously fell off the front page a long time ago.

The Sussex team did a fantastic job organising the 2016 event and as you mention the results were circulated to the county teams that participated in the event. Unfortunately, I no longer have that email.

My mistake was to try and use the menus on the ECF Junior pages where previous years' competitions were reported:
a. http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/coun ... ties-main/
b. http://englishchess.org.uk/Juniors/coun ... /counties/

In fact, those particular ECF pages are rather a mess since other events unrelated to the County Championships seem to be taking them over. Having two pages in which content is randomly distributed between them only adds to the confusion.

It should be possible to locate the correct page of the website using the menu system. The question arises, "Is the ECF website sufficiently well structured and navigable to provide a reliable and accessible historic record of ECF events?"

[Neill Cooper]

Michael, if you send suggestions, comments and constructive criticism of the ECF website direct to the ECF Webmaster, Andrew Walker, he normally responds quickly. Email [email protected]

[Michael Flatt]

Michael, if you send suggestions, comments and constructive criticism of the ECF website direct to the ECF Webmaster, Andrew Walker, he normally responds quickly. Email [email protected]

Thank you, Neill.
I have tried that in the past but Andrew seems rather overloaded. I have every sympathy with him as he appears to have to do everything himself and has to prioritize tasks to make the best use of his time.

Interestingly, the ECF Senior Chess pages are managed independently by another person - they have an entirely different look to the rest of the ECF website. It might be worth considering the same approach with the ECF Junior pages.