Thank you Lara and staff

[JustinHorton]

and the timeline which appears in relation to the CAS case

Blimey, has a timeline appeared and I've missed it? it is Sunday and I have nothing to do...

[Mike Gunn]

Andrew Z wrote: "This could have an impact on her professional career. They asked for the board's help and support with this. The board refused."

This is not true. The board issued more than one statement indicating our support of Lara. Both Andrew and I offered to write to employers making clear that the charges of homophobia made against Lara were groundless. What the board declined to do was get drawn into a slanging match with a 3rd party.

For the record there has been more than one attempt to bring together the disputing parties, at least one was rejected by one side another was rejected by the other.

One the question of who is indispensable for the future of English chess, the answer is that none of us is. If every single one of us disappeared today then others will step forward to take our places.

Finally I would just that as an attendee at the British Championships this year (although I always seem to be absent from the hall when anything controversial happens) Lara did a great job and the event ran very smoothly.

[Roger de Coverly]

What the board declined to do was get drawn into a slanging match with a 3rd party.

Which was the whole point of course, given that the 3rd party was the surprise guest at the opening ceremony of the Sheffield British and claimed involvement in securing some or all of the financial support for the top players.

[Peter D Williams]

[quote="Ernie Lazenby"

Ernie Lazenby-Financially I am very well placed to help chess and do so locally. I did so for this years British, providing a prize for a junior and financial support for a player(a private matter between myself and him) I did it not because it's the ECF event but because it was up here in an area where I live and to help support Lara and her team.(in a small way).

Sponsors are hard to find, particularly those willing to offer substantial amounts, and until we stop the infighting between over inflated egos with their own agendas we will continue to be treated as a minority hobby played by strange individuals.[/quote]

That was very good of you Ernie to provide a prize for a junior chess player and financial support for a chess player. Sponsors are very hard to find so your donation is i am sure really appreciated by the majority of chess players and fans of chess.

[RayRyan]

This is the second time that I have posted on this forum within the past few years.

I have a positive outlook on life and am saddened to read negative and off topic comments in a thread that is titled “Thank you Lara and staff”!

I wish to start the ball rolling again.

Firstly a declaration of interest – I was a member of Lara’s team at North Shields.

Secondly, I received an email from Lara (as expected from a manager) with a few attachments of praise and thanks from people stretching from Northumberland to Sussex. It was truly a British Championships with competitors coming from Inverness all the way to Brighton. I have copied a selection below, omitting the comments that are already on this forum or twitter.

I wish to personally thank Lara and Alex in a public forum for allowing me to participate as an official this year – my first British (hopefully not my last) I consider it an honour to assist arbitrating in a position of trust at the highest level of play on British soil. Furthermore, taking charge of the Under 9 section for the Sunday session was also an honour (despite me losing to Blake Fisher in a friendly!). Overall an excellent experience under the guidance of an excellent manager.

I will be making further postings on the appropriate threads.

Hi Lara & Team
Now we have arrived home I just wanted to say what a great job you all did.
Fantastic venue, fantastic area of the country that I had never been to before & definitely want to come back.
Easy to get to from a point of travelling from all areas of the UK.
Every aspect of the two weeks seemed to run smoothly & well (I guess you guys had your moments behind the scenes when maybe that wasn’t
So but it wasn’t on view to anyone else if that was the case).
Congratulations to all for making it special
Regards
Thomas family

Dear Lara,
I want to thank you and your team for organising the tournaments. The playing conditions were absolutely superb and I had a great time. It was my first holiday in the North East and I really enjoyed that too and will visit again sometime for non-chess activities as well.
All the best,
Richard Webster

Thanks to everybody concerned for a marvellous couple of weeks from the BCC and despite apparent evidence to the contrary everybody's efforts are much appreciated by this party.
The commentary from Andrew and Ravi was as usual and the visit by Stephen Gordon an extraordinary insight into the experience "on the board"
G

Hi Lara,
Kanwal tagged you in a post.
Kanwal wrote: "Very enjoyable British (despite my own results). Well done Lara Barnes!"

I think it's really gone well, and you've done a great job.
Jack

Hi there
My name is Andrew Clark and I was playing in the Yates Weekender in the the British Championships… just wanted to say thank you and congratulations for organising such an excellent tournament.
Thanks and regards
Andy

Dear Lara
great championship.I'm glad to see Gawain doing well too.
Regards, Brent.

Dear Lara
Having just got back from our first British I just wanted to thank you for a fantastic time – the organization, venue, staff were great. My son, Amardip, loved the experience of his first National event and on the train home was already pestering me about next year!
Once again thank you and I hope that this will become an annual event for us.
Good luck with this week and I hope you get some rest after everything is finished.
All the very best
Balvinder Ahluwalia

Hi, I'd like to thank Andrew & his pal for an excellent commentary of the top boards! I enjoyed it online and live! all the best,
Sigrun

Hello Lara,

I am sorry that we had to leave early after Devdoot's game ended..I would like to thank you for the excellent way you have run the tournament, especially the U120 section and also for the respect and kindness that you showed us during the event. Devdoot is pleased that he was able to come amongst the group of 2nd placed players in the British Championships, (which is an achievement as he has only been playing chess since Feb 2011).
I would like to commend yourself and the team, especially Alex for the very professional way in which you have organised and run the event. My very best regards to yourself and I hope to meet you again in the future at another event.
Many thanks -- Supratim Barman.

Hi Lara,
David tagged you in a post.
David wrote: "is extremely impressed with the British Chess Championships, being held locally in North Shields. The facilities and playing conditions are some of the best I've seen. North Tyneside Council are providing the venue free of charge, together with free parking, free WiFi, and a great cafe. And while I'm messing about in the graded sections, there's some excellent local performances building in the championship proper, notably Jonathan Hawkins, Charlie Storey and Clive Waters. Thanks to Lara Barnes and the team for organising not only the chess, but all the social activities. Great show."

Hi Lara and BCC colleagues
First of all, i've got to say that the website is smashing - looks very well organised and full of useful info.
Many thanks and keep up the hard work - it's definitely paying off!
See you tomorrow
James Turner

Tanya Jones
Yesterday
is v. proud of Gawain Maroroa Jones and Sue Maroroa Jones for their great perfomances in the British chess championships - good luck tomorrow Ga - and many thanks to Lara Barnes and her team for making sure we could watch lots of games and commentary from the other side of the Irish Sea.

Paul Costello
Submitted on 2012/08/04 at 10:56 am
Well done the team organising the championships. Very efficient and most enjoyable – congratulations
Robert Mitchell
Submitted on 2012/08/02 at 10:27 pm
Have really enjoyed playing against friendly but ferocious opposition. Great venue and all in all swell run tournament. Thanks to you Lara and the organisers. Roll on Torbay!
Bob M
Kevin Gee
Submitted on 2012/08/02 at 2:40 pm | In reply to Championships Manager.
Excellent work! Thanks very much for non-flash version, running great on my iPad
Chris Strong
Submitted on 2012/08/01 at 7:55 pm
Really enjoying the commentary and games. The atmosphere around the playing hall is friendly too. Thanks to Lara and her team for the hard work.
Brian White
Submitted on 2012/07/27 at 10:30 pm | In reply to Championships Manager.
CM,
Just like to say that I think your doing a wonderful job with your website.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed reading the facts and figures after each days play at North Shields.
Hoping to get down there tomorrow and soak up some of that ‘thinking chess’ atmosphere.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers Brian
sigrun
Submitted on 2012/07/27 at 4:16 pm
watching the commentary of
Andrew Martin is as enjoyable as ever!
Normally I can’t hear the audience’ comments, but suddenly I can hear Stuart loud & clear!

Jamese
Submitted on 2012/07/25 at 1:19 pm
Andy Martin’s commentary is sublime
Gilbert Hall
Submitted on 2012/07/24 at 10:28 am
The under 16s live games are excellent entertainment and far more exciting than the World Chess Championship was. Of course we always want to see the games of the grandmasters but thank you for broadcasting these games too.
Andrew
Submitted on 2012/07/24 at 9:09 am
Live game service is the best ever at the British Championships! Thank you to everyone involved in putting this together – you’ve done a brilliant job.
Jim,MtnView,Ca,USA
Submitted on 2012/07/23 at 11:44 pm
Thank you so much for the live games!
Very enjoyable to view the action so conveniently, best wishes for a successful tournament.
Gordon Glover
Submitted on 2012/07/21 at 7:32 pm
Many thanks to all the organisers and helpers for their hard work in running
the Championships.
The Quiz:
Great evening where the questions were set at correct level (not too easy & yet not too hard or impossible) which made it very competitive. Well done all involved.
In fact what a great year in North Tyneside, fantastic venue & precision organising.
Thank you Lara & team.

Lara,
On behalf of the 16 Sussex junior players and their families who attended the British over the past 2 weeks, please accept our thanks for a great venue, excellent catering, friendly host staff and your team of dedicated arbiters, bulletin staff, IT wizards and unseen backroom support staff.
YOU DID A GREAT JOB!!
Kind regards,
John


Dr. John Higgs
Secretary
Sussex Junior Chess

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Agreed (written before the post from Ray Ryan). Very nice of Ernie to provide a prize and support. And having said my bit in this thread about the other matters, can I now add thanks to Lara and all who worked to provide what sounds like a wonderful British championships, and the players for their play and congratulations to Gawain Jones as champion, and all the other champions as well.

[William Metcalfe]

Thank you for posting the pics on facebook Lara here is the link
http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set= ... 453&type=1

[Judy Brown]

Just like to say a big thank you to Lara and the excellent team that organised the British Championships, for all their hard work.

It was a very good venue with free on-site parking, and handy for a beautiful coastline which, to our shame, we’d not visited before.
I’ve not known so many live games to be transmitted in the past, and this surely helped to raise the profile of the Championships, so a big well done to all involved there.
Great to see so much attention to detail with a genuine commitment to ensuring that everyone attending (whether playing Chess or not) had a good time !

Congratulations to all the prize-winners on their well-deserved success.

Well done and thanks to all.

Judy

[David Gilbert]

I had a fabulous eight days in North Shields. I didn’t meet anyone who had anything but praise for the venue and the way the competition was run. Well done to all concerned. I think the only grumble was the temperature in the packed-out commentary sauna, where Andrew and Ravi must have steamed off more than several pounds over the fortnight. Special mention for Matthew Carr for keeping all the live boards live, and for sorting out Andrew’s voice - although my goldfish appeared to prefer the fish tank instrumentation.

Probably the last two unanswered questions everyone wants answered - what happened in the cricket and did Mrs Edwards and her helpers manage to finish the jig-saw puzzle? The puzzle was a toughie, but hey it was the British Championships!

A crude count of the entries, I reckon a few more than 850 for the fortnight. Lara can hopefully provide final figures. So numbers fell just short of Canterbury in 2010, about 100 down on the excellent Sheffield Championships in 2012 and Torquay in 2009. But North Shields is up on Liverpool in 2008, Great Yarmouth in 2007 and Swansea in 2006.

All in all, my assessment is that North Shields 2012 was a great success and my thanks to all those involved in the organisation who can be proud of their contribution. So moving on, and forgetting all the distractions going on elsewhere on this Forum, who’s already planning on going to the 100th in Torquay next year? I know I am. Hope to see you there. This one will be special so tell your chess friends to come a play.

[Andrew Zigmond]

Many people will now have seen Malcolm Pein's editorial in the latest issue of Chess where he praises Lara's work in organising the tournament and (using these exact words) congratulates her on a job well done. He is however quite critical of the ECF, particularly the marketing of the event, and the overall strength of the field although he notes it was the `middle` that was missing. He also makes a few suggestions for reform of the event.

This is significant as previously Lara's most high profile public supporter was a not universally admired blogger. Hopefully this shatters the myth that Lara's support comes solely from the grassroots (or termites depending on who you're talking to).