County Championship Finals

Discussion about all aspects of the ECF County Championships.
Neil Graham
Posts: 1938
Joined: Thu Apr 12, 2007 8:36 pm

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Neil Graham » Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:14 pm

Here are the results from today's Finals

Open Yorkshire 8 Lancashire 8* Lancashire on Board Count 45-54
Minor Surrey 9 Lincolnshire 7
U180 Yorkshire 8.5 Warwickshire 7.5
U160 Yorkshire 5 Lancashire 11
U140 Yorkshire 6 Nottinghamshire 10
U120 Warwickshire 5 Norfolk 7
U100 Leicestershire 7 Lancashire 5

MartinCarpenter
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by MartinCarpenter » Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:59 pm

Well done Lancashire (a few times it seems.). Also Yorkshire U180 - that's down to our old U175 captain having a grade that qualified him for U180 this year!

NickFaulks
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by NickFaulks » Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:30 am

Neil Graham wrote:
Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:14 pm
Minor Surrey 9 Lincolnshire 7
I'm home and my individual trophy already has pride of place in the display cabinet. Perhaps people with loads of these things get blasé about them, but I'm thrilled with mine. Thanks to Surrey, the ECF and everyone involved.
If you want a picture of the future, imagine a QR code stamped on a human face — forever.

David Sedgwick
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by David Sedgwick » Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:24 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:30 am
Neil Graham wrote:
Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:14 pm
Minor Surrey 9 Lincolnshire 7
I'm home and my individual trophy already has pride of place in the display cabinet. Perhaps people with loads of these things get blasé about them, but I'm thrilled with mine. Thanks to Surrey, the ECF and everyone involved.
One of the ECF's more lamentable decisions in the last ten years or so was to scrap these individual mementoes. Until yesterday I had no idea that they had been restored.

Thank you to whoever was responsible for the decision to do that.

Alan Walton
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Location: Oldham

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Alan Walton » Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:46 pm

I have to admit I was quite glad to get away after the game this weekend (not just because I lost); the conditions in the playing area for the Open were most probably the worst I have ever played at; with no air conditioning the heat was very oppressive; I had players coming from the main room actually turn back around as they walked through the door due the excessive heat

Nick Ivell
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Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Nick Ivell » Sun Jul 08, 2018 1:53 pm

Playing conditions for the Open were a disgrace. A typical example of what has made me fall out of love with county chess over many, many years.

Jonathan Rogers
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Jonathan Rogers » Sun Jul 08, 2018 3:37 pm

Sounds like a repeat of 2013 then - was it at the same venue near Leamington Spa? From my CHESS report on Surrey v Middlesex in 2013:

"The two sides were each graded in the mid 190s. When such closely matched sides produce such a close result, there is a temptation for the reporter to utter something profound, which explains why the winners were in fact destined to win all along. No such luck with this match. Middlesex could also have won, and in the first half of the match they seemed the more likely to edge it.

Most of the wins in the match were reasonably convincing (though on board six the players took turns to blunder a rook) but none was especially impressive. It did not help that the weather was oppressively hot and the Open section (as well as the Minor) was played in a smaller (but separate) room from the other sections. This gave the stronger players more room to walk around but it also deprived them of the air conditioning, and it was this that gave the more important comfort to the masses in the large playing hall. You don’t get maximum resistance in bad positions under such adverse conditions, and accordingly those who won games didn’t have to show their absolute best."

Nick Ivell
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Joined: Wed Aug 31, 2011 6:33 pm

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Nick Ivell » Sun Jul 08, 2018 4:37 pm

I wasn't there in 2013 but it does indeed sound like the same venue. We actually stopped at Leamington Spa for a spot of lunch - an inspired idea. There was certainly no benefit of air con in the side room set aside for the Open event. It was also rather a cramped room. Same old story. I turn out for Lancs once a year out of a residual loyalty, but can anyone be surprised that more and more people are preferring 4NCL?

As I get older I get more like Robert James Fischer. No, not in terms of playing strength. But if I am to spend more time in a day travelling than playing, I demand decent conditions for play.

Nick Ivell
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Nick Ivell » Sun Jul 08, 2018 6:13 pm

Why do we do it, knowing what we can almost certainly expect? I've been turning out for more than 40 years. I even remember the uncongenial surroundings, the endless corridors of Aston University. I offer a few reasons:

Residual loyalty. The most important reason in my case.

A chance to meet up with colleagues and friends. People like Jeff Horner have been enduring these conditions for even longer than I have.

A feeling that one might pull a rabbit from a hat and play an excellent game. I can't recall the last time I did this - conditions do not promote excellence.

It's not enough. It's quite clear that change is never going to happen.

Richard Bates
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Joined: Fri Nov 14, 2008 8:27 pm

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Richard Bates » Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:07 pm

From memory the excuse given in 2013 was that the Open needed a separate room for the live boards, and as it was a new venue the problems were unanticipated. I think a subsequent year we were still in a (different) side room, which was still extremely cramped, but the heat problem seemed to have been solved. Obviously not...

From a personal perspective i’m all for making the Minor conditions intolerable, as a disincentive, but the Open should be treated properly ;)

MartinCarpenter
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Joined: Tue May 24, 2011 10:58 am

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by MartinCarpenter » Sun Jul 08, 2018 9:15 pm

Sounds right to me :)

Many chess players seems to be creatures of stoic habit and (as you say) considerable residual loyalty, which I think is enough to explain why people do it. Otherwise how many would put up with evening league playing conditions?

Mike Truran
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Mike Truran » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:06 pm

I was there to present the prizes, and I agree the playing conditions weren’t great. No promises (money is tight as always), but we’ll see if anything can be done for next year.

Peter Shaw
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Location: Wakefield

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Peter Shaw » Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:50 pm

I've never had a problem playing in that room in previous years (2014-2017, I'm sure some of those had equally hot weather) but it was awful yesterday. I regularly had to go into the other room just to try and cool down, and I was closest to the door. I don't know how the Lancashire bottom board could keep his tie on when he was stuck right in the corner.

Alan Walton
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Location: Oldham

Re: County Championship Finals

Post by Alan Walton » Sun Jul 08, 2018 11:45 pm

Mike Truran wrote:
Sun Jul 08, 2018 10:06 pm
I was there to present the prizes, and I agree the playing conditions weren’t great. No promises (money is tight as always), but we’ll see if anything can be done for next year.
Can we award you the ECF prize for biggest understatement of the year with this comment; you could have just said conditions were awful, they were so far off being great that word should not be there

IanCalvert
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Re: County Championship Finals

Post by IanCalvert » Mon Jul 09, 2018 12:07 pm

NickFaulks wrote:
Sun Jul 08, 2018 12:30 am
Neil Graham wrote:
Sat Jul 07, 2018 10:14 pm
Minor Surrey 9 Lincolnshire 7
I'm home and my individual trophy already has pride of place in the display cabinet. Perhaps people with loads of these things get blasé about them, but I'm thrilled with mine. Thanks to Surrey, the ECF and everyone involved.
Congratulations Nick!

Surrey isn't really a minor county : you will be playing against Richard, Captain A and the Middlesex teams again next year :)

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