Living in the Past: The Chiltern League

[Roger de Coverly]

Does the issue of which method is to be used not have some bearing on the timescales?

Back in September or Octover they tested whether the Oxford Fusion system could upload results immediately after the results had been reported. It can provided someone takes responsibility for it. I believe it involves creating a file and sending it to the ECF.

Whilst writing this (at just after 10 pm) I have received a notification that the results for one of tonight's matches in the Berks League have been reported. Admittedly It was a match with an early scheduled finish.

[John Upham]

Inspecting the ECF LMS I'm struggling to find an entry for the Chiltern League

Why would you? They use Oxford Fusion.

My point is that games reported to the ECF LMS will be automagically be submitted to the ECF rating database and get rated in a timely fashion.

Games reported to the OF site are then reliant on yet more human intervention to get them submitted by means of exporting a rating file that has to be constructed. The potential for delay and error is increased.

[Roger Lancaster]

Moving a few miles to the East, the Hertfordshire League doesn't use LMS either. When the matter was discussed at the county's AGM earlier this year, it was pointed out that the bespoke system actually used also generated, taking into account various clubs' idiosyncrasies, the fixture list at the beginning of the season. LMS doesn't, as far as I am aware, offer a similar facility so it would have been necessary to retain the bespoke system for that purpose, in which case it wasn't obviously sensible to have two systems for different functions when one of those systems could combine both.

[Roger de Coverly]

Moving a few miles to the East, the Hertfordshire League doesn't use LMS either.

Bucks uses the same system as Herts. Results make it on to the ECF rating system faster than they do via the ECF's LMS. The ECF run to a timetable whereby they transfer data from their LMS to ecfrating on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th of each month. Systems capable of directly creating rating files can run to a faster timetable if their administrator desires.

[J T Melsom]

I'm happy with the Herts/Bucks system and also understand frustration with Oxford Fusion though i suspect it is a minority who are really bothered. But the output from the Herts administrator has changed over time in response to feedback through formal and informal channels. Sill seems a better approach than attention seeking threads in this place. I commend for reflection Peter Ackley's recent words on how to treat volunteers who are not modernising at the same speed. The response should be proportionate.

[Roger Lancaster]

Moving a few miles to the East, the Hertfordshire League doesn't use LMS either.

Results make it on to the ECF rating system faster than they do via the ECF's LMS.

Not entirely true. With LMS, instead of waiting for the 7/14/21/28 update, one can accelerate the results so that they're rated overnight.

[Roger de Coverly]

With LMS, instead of waiting for the 7/14/21/28 update, one can accelerate the results so that they're rated overnight.

Not a secret I had uncovered. How does it work?

[Ian Thompson]

With LMS, instead of waiting for the 7/14/21/28 update, one can accelerate the results so that they're rated overnight.

Not a secret I had uncovered. How does it work?

Not a secret at all - https://www.englishchess.org.uk/running ... ecf-rated/.

[Roger de Coverly]

This seems the relevant paragraph.

Rating your events
Set the event to auto-rating where the results will be submitted to the rating system on 7th , 14th, 21st and 28th of the month. You can also press a button to submit results whenever you want.

and from the Auto Rating tab on the LMS

Events with a status of OK will be sent to the rating system automatically. Events with results updated since 2023-12-07 will be included next time the process runs. The Resubmit button sends the event for rating immediately, although it will get sent again the next time the automated process runs anyway

[Mick Norris]

Yes Roger, surprised you didn't know that

I find once a week fine with rating the Manchester League results

[Andrew Zigmond]

I tend to use the "forced submission" if I have a round or individual game fall very late in the month but also if I have a raft of new players who I want to get into the system to generate a rating code asap.

[Phil Neatherway]

You may (or may not) be interested to know that in yesterday's Berks v Oxon match, all the clocks were analogue. We (i.e. Oxon) got absolutely hammered.

[Phil Neatherway]

And I should mention that a mobile phone rang during play and nobody batted an eyelid.

[John Upham]

And I should mention that a mobile phone rang during play and nobody batted an eyelid.

Assuming it was a Berks home match I would imagine that a qualified arbiter wasn't present who wasn't a member of either team.

As for the clocks it really does not surprise me.

As Berkshire Association Secretary I would like to apologise to Oxfordshire for these shortfalls.

I will enquire as to what happened but I can guess. Berkshire Junior Association (BJCA) has around 100 DGT 2010s timers and zero analogue clocks.

Were they BHB models out of interest?
The CL is a law unto itself.
Sigh and much eye rolling.

[Roger de Coverly]

The CL is a law unto itself.

The other question is whether the match will be rated by the end of April or May or June. But that seems to be the Oxford grader dragging his feet.