English Chess Forum

The situation for Hampshire would appear to be much simpler than for Surrey.

There are NO selectors as there are NO teams!


Please correct me should I be mistaken.

The late Joe French ran things extremely well for decades.

Sadly, the one thing which he didn't do was any succession planning.

John Upham wrote:The situation for Hampshire would appear to be much simpler than for Surrey.

There are NO selectors as there are NO teams!

Congratulations to Hampshire Chess Association!

Please correct me should I be mistaken.

I don't think there is any need to highlight this. I comment on similar topics time and again on this forum. Basically there insufficient volunteers to organise chess nationally. Their website shows a Junior Chess Secretary. This problem isn't just about junior chess, it's (so to speak) across the board. I'm sure that if we compiled a list of counties/areas without various organisers it would take up plenty of space - Hampshire will be one of many. I note, for example, that Hampshire has no county teams playing in the WECU this season - the reason I guess is that they don't have any volunteers to run that either, although they do play in the Chiltern League.

David Sedgwick wrote:The late Joe French ran things extremely well for decades.

Sadly, the one thing which he didn't do was any succession planning.

That happens depressingly often, in all walks of life.

and Hampshire have some good juniors...

Kevin Thurlow wrote:and Hampshire have some good juniors...

I feed my Hampshire juniors into the excellent Berkshire Junior Chess Association.

However, I will be sending my Berkshire Mega Final qualifiers to the Hampshire Mega Final!


How is that for confusion?

Neil Graham wrote:I note, for example, that Hampshire has no county teams playing in the WECU this season - the reason I guess is that they don't have any volunteers to run that either, although they do play in the Chiltern League.

Lack of a captain may well be a problem now, but the cause of Hampshire's withdrawal from the WECU County Championship two years ago was a lack of players.

Ian Thompson wrote:

Neil Graham wrote:I note, for example, that Hampshire has no county teams playing in the WECU this season - the reason I guess is that they don't have any volunteers to run that either, although they do play in the Chiltern League.

Lack of a captain may well be a problem now, but the cause of Hampshire's withdrawal from the WECU County Championship two years ago was a lack of players.

By the same token a proactive and motivated Captain may well be able to recruit players and build a larger squad.

If you don't ask you won't get.


I started the AMCA 4NCL squad with a pool of around 8 players and built it up to a squad of around 50.

John Upham wrote:

Ian Thompson wrote:

Neil Graham wrote:I note, for example, that Hampshire has no county teams playing in the WECU this season - the reason I guess is that they don't have any volunteers to run that either, although they do play in the Chiltern League.

Lack of a captain may well be a problem now, but the cause of Hampshire's withdrawal from the WECU County Championship two years ago was a lack of players.

By the same token a proactive and motivated Captain may well be able to recruit players and build a larger squad.

If you don't ask you won't get.


I started the AMCA 4NCL squad with a pool of around 8 players and built it up to a squad of around 50.

Yes, and look where it is now - 1st team relegated from Division 2 to Division 3 with 3 rounds still to play and the 3rd team often having to miss weekends because not enough players want to play. What went wrong?

Ian Thompson wrote:[
Yes, and look where it is now - 1st team relegated from Division 2 to Division 3 with 3 rounds still to play and the 3rd team often having to miss weekends because not enough players want to play. What went wrong?

Once I had got a team into Division One I ticked one item from my chess bucket list and decided to step down.

The hours I was putting in to manage the team, recruit new players, deal with the Hotels etc wore me down and decided to step down.