ECF Girls’ Schools Team Championships 2025/26

[Andrew Martin]

Entries are now open for this popular event.

https://englishchess.org.uk/Schools/girls-championship/

https://englishchess.org.uk/Schools/gir ... ips-enter/

St Catherine’s will be providing a free hot lunch for all players and team managers at the Southern semi-final.

You are welcome to ask any questions here.

As usual, I will be listing the entries as they come in:

Semi Final South

U19

St Cats, Bramley 2 teams
The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls 4 teams
Brentwood School 3 teams
Denmark Rd High School 2 teams
Guildford High School 2 teams
Kings School , Bruton 1 team
North London Collegiate 4 teams
Haberdashers’ Girls’ School 1 team
St Helens School 1 team
Wycombe Abbey 1 team
Bancroft’s School 1 team
Holyport College 1 team
Lycée francais Charles de Gaulle 1 team
Nonsuch 3 teams.
Eltham College 1 team
Dr Challoner’s School 1 team
St Paul’s Girls’ School 4 teams
South Hampstead 2 teams
City of London 2 teams
Tiffin 1 team
Hinchley Wood School 1 team
The Abbey, Reading 4 teams
Henrietta Barnett 3 teams.
Wimbledon High 2 teams ( 48)

U11

St Cats, Bramley 6 teams
Jacques Prevert 1 team
Brentwood School 1 team
St Nicholas’ School Church Crookham 2 teams
Guildford High School 5 teams
Haberdashers’Girls’School 3 teams
St Helens School 2 teams
Royal Masonic School 1 team
Northwood College 1 team
St Christopher’s NW3 3 teams
Sevenoaks Prep 2 teams
St Cedd’s Chelmsford 1 team
Highgate 3=teams
City Junior 1 team
Blackheath High 1 team
St James, Twickenham 2 teams
Latchmere 2 teams
Thames Ditton Junior School 1 team
Weston Green school 1 team
Eltham College 1 team
North London Collegiate 2 teams
Bancroft’s School 2 teams
Bute House 2 teams
St Aubyn’s School 1 team
Devonshire 1 team
Wimbledon High 3 teams
Putney High 2 teams
Sutton High 1 team
Cuddington Croft School 1 team
Abbey Junior 1 team (56)

Total 105 teams



Semi Final North

U19

Nottingham HS 2 teams
King Edward's HS Birmingham 2 teams
The King’s School ,Macclesfield 2 teams
De Lacy Academy 1 team
Tytherington School 1 team
King Edward VI Grammar school 2 teams
Cheadle Hulme School 1 team
Bowen Education 2 teams


U11

Rainow School 1 team
Nottingham HS 2 teams
The King’s School ,Macclesfield 1 team
Withington High 2 teams
St Vincent’s Primary 1 team
Stockport Grammar 1 team
Landowner Community Primary 1 team
Forest Prep 1 team
Cheadle Hulme Primary 1 team
Lady Barn House School 1 team
Brabyns Prep 1 team.
Alderley Edge 1 team

[Gallowayalex]

Thanks for this Andrew.

[Andrew Martin]

Can I prompt schools to enter? Entries are building up at this early stage, but it is always nice to have more.

[John Upham]

Can I prompt schools to enter? Entries are building up nicely at this early stage, but it is always nice to have more.

I can vouch that the venue is superb, parking excellent, food tremendous and the arbiting team most friendly and modest.

Heartily recommended.

[Andrew Martin]

This year, entries will close at the southern semi final once we have reached 100 teams or 300 players.

At the time of writing, we have 62 teams

Can I therefore ask all schools who have not yet entered but wish to do so , to enter asap.

Unlike last year , I will not be persuaded to let extra teams in at the last moment , leading to overcrowding.

Latecomers can always enter the Northern event, which needs your support.

Thanks.

[Andrew Martin]

Now 95 teams entered the southern semi. Only 5 places left.

[Andrew Martin]

The southern event is now FULL

Will create a waiting list and make further decisions based on this. I can make no promises. Alternatively, travel and enter the northern semi final.

We look forward to a great event

[Chris Rice]

Really great to see so much enthusiasm from the South for this competition! I had hoped to get another girls school, besides the school that I'm already taking, into the under 11s but I have been held up by getting the information from parents required for the extra ECF membership requirements this year. I thought though that with more than two months to go there would still be loads of time for them to enter the competition only to find it full and now the school are essentially being told to go to the Northern Schools qualifier (an 8 hour round trip) which like last year clearly even the Northern Schools don't want to go to. Equally clearly that's not going to happen.

It seems odd to me that if space is at a premium and it is a national competition so it shouldn't be surprising that a lot of schools would want to enter that schools are allowed to enter as many as seven teams each. Wouldn't it be more practical and inclusive to allow schools one team each and if there is space at the end have a waiting list so that it could be filled up with second and third teams for example?

Anyway I totally accept the organisers can run the competition how they want and appreciate that it is a very hard to run and organise these competitions at all and my respect goes out to them for the efforts involved by all of them. Just a bit disappointing that this school won't get a chance to join in and somehow I've got to explain this to the parents. I'll finish off the ECF membership stuff in the next week or so anyway so at least that's in place for next year.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Could you have entered provisionally while still sorting out the ECF memberships? I suspect some schools might do that. Best of luck to the school you are taking, and hope the organisers are more flexible if for example you find a third school next year and so on. If there is more demand in the south, the organisers might consider expanding to two events. 100 teams and 300 players is very impressive.

[Chris Rice]

Could you have entered provisionally while still sorting out the ECF memberships? I suspect some schools might do that. Best of luck to the school you are taking, and hope the organisers are more flexible if for example you find a third school next year and so on. If there is more demand in the south, the organisers might consider expanding to two events. 100 teams and 300 players is very impressive.

The rules of the competition did state the organisers would only accept entries from schools with ECF membership but like you I did wonder if schools had entered provisionally and sorted the membership out later and whether I'd missed a trick there. Clearly if there were more qualifiers then the issue I described goes away but its no easy thing to find a school that you can afford, arrange a date that's convenient and get all your people and resources in place. These can be monumental undertakings at times which I've only fully appreciated when helping out in the running of junior tournaments in Kent.

[Gallowayalex]

Possibly unhelpful at this stage, but query whether you actually need to bother with the individual memberships? The children don't have to be ECF members to participate, and parents can of course sign them up directly if they wish (free for the first year). I took the view that the admin burden of trying to centralise that wasn't worth it.

On a separate note, are there any plans to promote the northern semi final a bit more proactively this year? It would be great for that to go ahead and there are plenty of schools in the north west who could put a team out. I suspect many are simply not aware of it. I run the chess at Rainow so my only interest is in having a viable competition for our girls to play in, but if anyone is leading on this at the ECF I would be happy to liaise with them and help where I can.

[Roger de Coverly]

Possibly unhelpful at this stage, but query whether you actually need to bother with the individual memberships?

Wasn't the point that the ECF demand that the school itself becomes an ECF member in order to enter? It may well be that the internal school processes for becoming a member of a national body are tortuous.

What sort of member does the school become? Does it become a guarantor or gain voting rights in some form? Is there a fee for school membership?

[Gallowayalex]

Possibly unhelpful at this stage, but query whether you actually need to bother with the individual memberships?

Wasn't the point that the ECF demand that the school itself becomes an ECF member in order to enter? It may well be that the internal school processes for becoming a member of a national body are tortuous.

The school needs to be a member but I think the issue raised was to do with the process for making the individual children members, which can be done as part of the schools membership process (hence the reference to liaising with parents), but isnt compulsory as far as I understand it.

[Andrew Martin]

Alex and Sarah Longson are organising the northern semi and I understand that they are expecting quite a few schools to enter, mostly in the U11 section though.

Frankly, with their experience running the UK Chess Challenge, if they can’t persuade schools to turn out, then who can?

[John Upham]

Alex and Sarah Longson are organising the northern semi and I understand that they are expecting quite a few schools to enter, mostly in the U11 section though.

Frankly, with their experience running the UK Chess Challenge, if they can’t persuade schools to turn out, then who can?

I suspect it will take 2-3 years for word to get around amongst northern girls schools that this is an excellent event in which to get involved. Having been involved for at least the last three years I can say it is one of the most pleasant (and yet competitive) junior events on the calendar. The sportsmanship amongst the girls is outstanding and disputes have been exceedingly rare. A real gem on the ECFs calendar.