English Chess Forum

I must admit I'm flabbergasted by some colleagues who do not seem to live on the same planet as the rest of us. And also post on this forum.

Our chess captains, organisers and Board members have been doing their best and consulting about fixtures and agreeing cancellations.
Having taken account of the conditions, weather reports, snow closures for road, rail station closures, and lack of bus services.

These are the conditions that people die in, or get stiuck without the proper winter walking survival kits, emergency rations, able to make warm drinks and food, an plenty of flasks, layers and sleeping and survival bags.

Wishing that everybody keeps warm this weekend.

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 02, 2018 7:23 pm

These are the conditions that people die in, or get stiuck without the proper winter walking survival kits, emergency rations, able to make warm drinks and food, an plenty of flasks, layers and sleeping and survival bags.

Wishing that everybody keeps warm this weekend.

And whatever you do stay well clear of Dartford. The forecast for tomorrow morning is 38F and partly cloudy, sounds like a deathtrap.

Nick - be realistic. Not all Kent players live in Dartford. And also not all Surrey players live in London. And Waterloo East is closed.

The counties have made a good decision. And so did the teams agreeing to cancel our 28th February Cup Semi-Final.

Perhaps it's too much Bermuda sunshine rather than living on another planet?

That depends on the %ages in trouble - if its just a few I'm not so sure if you should cancel a whole match. Players can't make these matches all the time for all kinds of reasons.

Next Monday the adverse weather condition rule is likely to be invoked to postpone a match in a local league where one side has already admitted to being unable to raise a full team.

All the MCCU County Matches scheduled for tomorrow have been cancelled.

The weather has been described as the worst for 50 years and one of my players says he hasn't seen anything like it since 1947! Of course there have been longer cold spells than this - the winter of 1962-63 springs to mind - but I can't remember anything as bad as this in March.

The Warwickshire Championship in Coventry is still on, admittedly with rather depleted numbers: http://chess-results.com/tnr336529.aspx ... =1&flag=30

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:17 pm

Perhaps it's too much Bermuda sunshine rather than living on another planet?

Our own planet contains major population centres where for four months of the year there is not a single day when the weather is as clement as it is likely to be here tomorrow. Chess is somehow played, and some of them even get quite good at it.

NickFaulks wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 02, 2018 10:13 pm

Nick Grey wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 02, 2018 8:17 pm

Perhaps it's too much Bermuda sunshine rather than living on another planet?

Our own planet contains major population centres where for four months of the year there is not a single day when the weather is as clement as it is likely to be here tomorrow. Chess is somehow played, and some of them even get quite good at it.

When you reliably have bad weather for four months of the year, its worth investing to combat the impacts. When it only happens for a few days every few years, it may be more cost-effective to just bear with it. I doubt that many people would be impressed with any local council that invested in expensive equipment that just lay idle for 98% of the time.

For example: https://twitter.com/JudithFlanders/stat ... 4396039168

Various SCCU captains have advised me that due to adverse weather their matches, scheduled for tomorrow, have been cancelled.

Some captains have mistakenly interpreted this as their opponents having defaulted the match. I would urge all captains to try their best to reschedule these matches, although very little time remains to complete them before the deadline to nominate teams to the ECF County Championship Finals.

I will say one thing about this - this isn't twenty years ago!
We now have very reliable one (Even two) ahead weather forecasts & full real time traffic data for free from Google & friends.

So cancelling matches *shouldn't* be based on fear, rather genuine known (potential) issues.

We're playing a York vs Sheffield match today & absolutely sure the travel will be fine. It'd have been fine yesterday, trains apart. There are also some places I definitely would have cancelled.

I was one of those 1962-1963 babies that was in a pram outside wrapped up warm.
I remember a day about 10 years ago when all the London buses were cancelled for the first time in 100 years. All the bridges were closed and despite My winter walking gear I could not do the miles to work.
I have also walked the 10 miles from where I live now to work and back (no trains or buses) because I love winter-walking.
But the conditions with the wind chill here are the worst that I have experienced in my life - even with winter walking In Snowdonia.
I'm just not sure why anyone would make a real fuss about a chess cancellation with plenty of notice under the circumstances.

It is quite clear that the suggested dates for resumption would hit either of the 2 4NCL weekends but as it is likely to affect both teams equally.

I've had 3 working from home days on the trot and that is unusual. One chess match on, one chess match off. And the main topic on the news is the snow.

Enjoy the matches if you are playing. If you are not playing because of a cancellation there are plenty of choices. Just be safe.

The wind on Thursday was, even in central Manchester, one of the coldest things I can remember feeling. 2007 and 2009/2010 were really cold winters yes. Much more so than this one I think - they stayed frozen up in the hills for months on end. This stuff will mostly all be melted off during next week.

Surely you can’t hope to hold county matches on a 4NCL weekend? It’ll affect both teams equally sure, but mostly devastate them.... Might have done better seeing what teams could be had from those people in the cities - who quite possibly can still make it. Not pretty of course.

Things were a little different in Coventry. It snowed quite badly on Thursday evening, but it was just about OK to travel on Friday. As long as there was no further snowfall! It snowed very heavily between about 4pm and 9pm last night. By then, there was no way of communicating this to most of the players who were by that point were on their way and either going to arrive or not.

I was only scheduled to arrive this morning, and I did so at 0930 for a 1000 start. The bus and train took a bit longer to get where they had to compared with normal, but in expectation of that, I countered by just getting up a bit earlier and getting on an earlier bus.

We've got about a 50% attendance rate in terms of those who entered not showing up, but I've no idea how many more didn't even try entering in the first place. Where there's a will, there's usually a way.

Michael Flatt wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 02, 2018 11:16 pm

Some captains have mistakenly interpreted this as their opponents having defaulted the match.

When the home team unilaterally cancels a match with the travelling team still keen to go, that does seem understandable.