PLAYING CONDITIONS - NOT THE WORSE? SURELY?

[Alex Holowczak]

Towards the end of the match, someone noticed we were locked in, for reasons I forget.

A few years ago, there was an inter-school junior event held on a Saturday at Solihull School. The venue was magnificent. At the end of each round, the players retired to their team room. I was there in my role as non-playing captain, and when the last of the games finished, I walked back to the room with my player. When we arrived, we saw people from our school banging on the windows to get people's attention; one of them had managed to break the lock on the inside when they closed the door behind them, and as such, everyone else in the team was locked in!

I then had to run back to the Master from our school, and get him to come and have a look. Not believing the situation, he told them to stop messing around etc. When he was convinced they weren't stringing us on, we then had to go back to the hall to speak to the tournament's main organiser, who then had to phone the porter - at the time shopping in Solihull - to come and do something about the lock. Eventually, they were freed, but not without a bit of a delay to the tournament...

In our defence, the porter diagnosed a faulty lock as the reason. I was quite aggrieved that the notices before the next round apologised for the delay, and warned us about messing about in the rooms.

[Peter Ackley]

The Hounslow venue was probably one of the worst I played in (again, though, I do appreciate the difficulty in finding suitable venues):
-Several players played there once, then added clauses to their membership involving the words 'never again'
-Some of my team refused to buy their beer there; instead going to the Weatherspoons between moves
-Fly infestations during the winter. This got more worrying when, after squashing one, it proceeded to produce a red substance looking rather like blood (rather than the usual 'mush'). What were these bugs?

The venue wasn't always this bad. When I first played there in 2000 it was a decent pub that did excellent steaks.

In 15 years of chess, though, I have played in other strange venues, or strange circumstances. Top, though, comes Greenford away, c. 2005. After a triple booking at the venue the only room left was offered to us. Described as 'a disused changing room' it was in fact a long-disused gents. A five-board match was still played, with no early draws.

[David Shepherd]

When I was a junior our home venue was in the upstairs of a pub in Northampton. We had a match one night and when we started the match all was in order. When we left I doubt there was a single item of glass left intact downstairs (including windows beer glasses .... and yes there was a reasonable amount of that red stuff around ) Can't remember if we won or lost the match but it was hard to concentrate when it all kicked off. I remember someone suggesting we baricade the door which was duly done. The venue was shut for months after, not sure if we ever played there again.

[David Pardoe]

Interesting points...makes you wonder when they will `moderate` the mobile phone rule for events other than major tournaments, congresses..etc.
I played in the Northern 4NCL at Crewe last weekend. The De Vere`s location was very well presented...but unfortunately there was a squeeky door leading into the playing area. Every time someone openned the door it made a low whistling sound that lasted several seconds...amusing or what....?

But, on a serious note John Carltons reports of the first two w/e 4NCL North events are an excellent read, for those wanting a real flavour of what these w/e events are all about. Check the references on http://www.4ncl.co.uk/index.htm for these and pictures.... AND.. it would be great to have more Northern entries next year....Northern clubs/leagues/players, can you give this some thought...I believe at least one North East team are considering joining next season... It offers some great w/e of chess for Northern players...

And yes, league venues can be tricky.....Our local club at Stockport play in a typical function room. Last year I can remember Karioki evenings taking place in the bar....and there were some pretty ropey sounds at times. But it was tolorated.

Horses for courses........

PS I only read page 1 of these comments before posting, so might have `duplicated something.

[Michael Jones]

I once had a club match brought to a premature end by getting kicked out of the building - I was the home captain and had booked the room on the understanding that it was available until 11pm, but for reasons unknown they decided to close early that night and we were ejected at 10.15 with two games out of four unfinished. No-one particularly fancied finishing them off outside, so we just agreed them drawn.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"I wonder if it was this pub?

http://www.hounslowchronicle.co.uk/west ... -25251688/"

Interesting to see people were selling "heroine" - Jane Eyre perhaps? Thank God it wasn't heroin.

I recall a weekend event at Chess and Bridge, where the refreshments were in the basement, so one player got the lift down, got his cup of coffee, got back in the lift, which then stopped... I was training to be an arbiter and it was an event where Eric Croker was watching me in action. I stopped the clock and explained the situation to the opponent, who wanted the clock restarted of course; luckily Eric was on hand to agree with me. The Fire Brigade arrived and freed the player. Then one of the firemen asked if he could have a look at the games, so we agreed. He wandered round the room in full gear, including an axe, so one or two players were a bit surprised.

An old Streatham venue was awful. Our Porsche-driving captain made sure he took his wife's car to that one! There were rickety stairs going on forever and rickety furniture. One of our well-built players broke three chairs in an evening, merely by sitting there and thinking. Their current venue is 1000 times better. And to save people the effort of retaliating, the previous Redhill venue was frequently on the cold side. The home side had enough sense to play in gloves and thick coats when necessary.

[Jonathan Bryant]

An old Streatham venue was awful. Our Porsche-driving captain made sure he took his wife's car to that one! There were rickety stairs going on forever and rickety furniture.

The Sultan? Otherwise, perhaps before my time. I didn't think The Sultan was great but not that bad though - we had it free as many nights of the week as we wanted which probably was why we were there for so long.

I didn't like the one after that - the one in Stockwell - because the tables were just a bit too small for two boards to go on them in comfort and there wasn't enough room for one table each so you had to just squeeze in and make do.

Our current venue is pretty comfortable, although it does have a drawback. The doors are all 'safety doors' to prevent fire spreading. They swing back very quickly and make a huge bang whenever anybody goes out of the room.

[Kevin Thurlow]

"The Sultan?"

Yes - that was it. And one of the subsequent ones was horrible as well. The current one is a great improvement, if you can find your way through the one-way streets etc.

Obviously finance is a serious issue for clubs. Redhill's old venue was justifiably inexpensive, so we put up with it for too long really.

[Jonathan Bryant]

The current one is a great improvement, if you can find your way through the one-way streets etc.

It is true that the entrance to the tennis club where we play has a rather unique feature in that you can be standing virtually next to it and not realise you are anywhere near - especially in the dark.

On the upside, I walk past where Howard Staunton used to live every time I go to the club. To be fair this is not an advantage for anybody but me.

[Michael Jones]

The current one is a great improvement, if you can find your way through the one-way streets etc.

That's a new debate we could start - the worst club to get to. I'll nominate Rugby - although the venue itself is fine, the one way system in the town centre makes driving to it a pain in the proverbial; I can't remember ever having been on time for a match there.