2013 Final Stage

Discussion about all aspects of the ECF County Championships.
Mick Norris
Posts: 10329
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Mick Norris » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:12 am

Liam Rabbitte wrote:My brother was stuck on the M6 for 5 hours so not the best of days for anyone travelling that way. (I think he should be down as a default rather than a loss because he never made it to the venue :? )

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article ... elays.html

I think some of the other Lancashire players were also late having been caught up on the M6, so they did well to win the match.

Congratulations to the finalists, it can't have been easy to play chess in the heat.
Another chess match afflicted by the M6 gambit, as indeed are many of our journeys in the MCCU
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Jonathan Rogers
Posts: 4640
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:26 pm

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:21 am

Unfortunately a Lancashire default did play a decisive role in the Lancashire v Essex U160 match. This M6 business happens a lot, then? It caused a mass default in a North West Eagles match in 4NCL 2009/9. The problem was exacerbated because, in that year only, defaulting three boards (at any time during the season) also triggered a match point penalty which played a large role in their later relegation. And on relegation, they then folded.

I should think the heat did affect the quality of play in the Open and Minor sections. Very hard to see a publishable game from the top ten boards from the Open.

John Hodgson
Posts: 73
Joined: Thu Jul 29, 2010 10:13 am

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by John Hodgson » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:32 am

Jonathan Rogers wrote:I should think the heat did affect the quality of play in the Open and Minor sections. Very hard to see a publishable game from the top ten boards from the Open.
I think you will just have to publish your own win then, notwithstanding the heat it was played under.

Mick Norris
Posts: 10329
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Mick Norris » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:33 am

Jonathan Rogers wrote: This M6 business happens a lot, then?
I think the last 3 times I played in a G Man v Warks match (at a neutral venue, Newcastle under Lyme) the match has started late, the last 2 times because they were held up. The previous time I arrived exactly at the start time, and found I was the only G Man player to have missed the crash that day

The point is that nearly all these problems occur after setting off, and you often arrive an hour or more early if nothing happens (unless you are Dave Pardoe, in which case you never arrive early :lol: )
Any postings on here represent my personal views

Jonathan Rogers
Posts: 4640
Joined: Tue Nov 18, 2008 9:26 pm

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Sun Jul 14, 2013 10:44 am

John Hodgson wrote:
Jonathan Rogers wrote:I should think the heat did affect the quality of play in the Open and Minor sections. Very hard to see a publishable game from the top ten boards from the Open.
I think you will just have to publish your own win then, notwithstanding the heat it was played under.
My game wouldn't merit it either, but some of the lines we then found in the cooler analysis room might!

David Gilbert
Posts: 962
Joined: Sat Apr 04, 2009 10:03 am

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by David Gilbert » Sun Jul 14, 2013 1:03 pm

Thanks to Alex for running this year’s competition and to all of those involved in organizing yesterday’s event. Well done to all the winners, particularly Shropshire who took on and beat the once mighty Kent Under-140s!

Mick Norris
Posts: 10329
Joined: Tue Apr 17, 2007 10:12 am
Location: Bolton, Greater Manchester

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Mick Norris » Sun Jul 14, 2013 2:17 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote: The winners were:
U100 - Essex
I see Essex are the only ones to have won this since the revised sections were introduced - they must be doing something better than everyone else
http://www.englishchess.org.uk/historic ... p-winners/
Any postings on here represent my personal views

David Sedgwick
Posts: 5249
Joined: Mon Apr 09, 2007 5:56 pm
Location: Croydon
Contact:

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by David Sedgwick » Sun Jul 14, 2013 3:19 pm

Mick Norris wrote:I see Essex are the only ones to have won this since the revised sections were introduced - they must be doing something better than everyone else
In my experience Essex teams, at all levels, are usually excellent at not defaulting, be it complete matches or individual games.

They put many other counties to shame in that respect.

Kevin Thurlow
Posts: 5821
Joined: Wed Apr 30, 2008 12:28 pm

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Sun Jul 14, 2013 4:05 pm

"In my experience Essex teams, at all levels, are usually excellent at not defaulting, be it complete matches or individual games.

They put many other counties to shame in that respect."

I won a game on default vs Essex many years ago, and later got an apologetic phone call from their captain, explaining that the player had suffered a car-breakdown, and the player sent his apologies to me as well. I was still a bit fed up, but it was nice of them to do that. Unusually, they did not have lots of reserves floating about.

David Pardoe
Posts: 1225
Joined: Mon Apr 16, 2007 11:29 pm
Location: NORTH WEST

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by David Pardoe » Sun Jul 14, 2013 9:01 pm

I see transport difficulties got a mention earlier. Its a long standing potential hazard for such events, and its quite common for captains to agree a delayed start where serious problems arise, certainly at the county stages.
Motorway snarlups are fairly commonplace across our networks, but I can only recall a couple of major problems during the several years I was Manchester teams captain. One of my instructions was to remind drivers to listen out for any traffic news on route. It can help if alternative options are available, and I will often try to avoid motorways for that reason.
As for punctuallity, apart from an odd occasion, I normally arrive in time for match start, although I can recall the odd time when I`ve been stuck in traffic, and the odd occasion when I`ve taken a detour, or two, which really doesnt leave you in a good frame of mind for such matches.
Those playing in the 4NCL leagues can doubtless recall similar experiences....
BRING BACK THE BCF

Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Neil Graham » Mon Jul 15, 2013 11:00 pm

Can I apologise that Nottinghamshire defaulted two boards on Saturday?

We made great efforts to ensure that we had a full team there and I have no idea why a couple of players failed to appear.

We were slightly hampered by a sporting clash with an event in Nottingham; however we lost half of our projected team as the finals clashed with the Delancey Giga-Finals at Manchester where the juniors who would have made up our team were playing. Could I appeal to the organiser(s) of the Counties Final/Chess Challenge to try and ensure that next year no such clash takes place?

Alex Holowczak
Posts: 9085
Joined: Sat May 30, 2009 5:18 pm
Location: Oldbury, Worcestershire
Contact:

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Alex Holowczak » Tue Jul 16, 2013 10:06 am

Neil Graham wrote:We were slightly hampered by a sporting clash with an event in Nottingham; however we lost half of our projected team as the finals clashed with the Delancey Giga-Finals at Manchester where the juniors who would have made up our team were playing. Could I appeal to the organiser(s) of the Counties Final/Chess Challenge to try and ensure that next year no such clash takes place?
To be fair, had we have held the event the weekend before, we'd also have clashed with the UK Chess Challenge, but this time the southern Gigafinals rather than the northern Gigafinals.

In addition to this, the ECF U18/13 County Championships are held at this time of year (end of June this year), and they avoid the UKCC Gigafinals too, because they are in direct competition with them. There aren't enough weekends to avoid everything.

Sean Hewitt
Posts: 2193
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:18 pm
Contact:

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Sean Hewitt » Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:36 pm

Alex Holowczak wrote:To be fair, had we have held the event the weekend before, we'd also have clashed with the UK Chess Challenge, but this time the southern Gigafinals rather than the northern Gigafinals.
Any idea why they don't hold the Northern and Southern events on the same day? The pools of players are mutually exclusive and it would help avoid clashes such as the one that Neil outlines.

Steve Rooney
Posts: 427
Joined: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:36 pm
Location: Church Stretton

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Steve Rooney » Tue Jul 16, 2013 1:14 pm

Sean Hewitt wrote:
Alex Holowczak wrote:To be fair, had we have held the event the weekend before, we'd also have clashed with the UK Chess Challenge, but this time the southern Gigafinals rather than the northern Gigafinals.
Any idea why they don't hold the Northern and Southern events on the same day? The pools of players are mutually exclusive and it would help avoid clashes such as the one that Neil outlines.
As far as I know, there is only one Mike Basman.

And congratulations to the Shropshire under 140s for a great victory. :)

Sean Hewitt
Posts: 2193
Joined: Sat Mar 10, 2012 8:18 pm
Contact:

Re: 2013 Final Stage

Post by Sean Hewitt » Tue Jul 16, 2013 2:06 pm

Steve Rooney wrote:
Sean Hewitt wrote:Any idea why they don't hold the Northern and Southern events on the same day? The pools of players are mutually exclusive and it would help avoid clashes such as the one that Neil outlines.
As far as I know, there is only one Mike Basman.
Sure, though he doesn't attend all events in previous rounds personally.

Post Reply