Juniors in League chess

[Alex Holowczak]

I tried to arrange for a local junior team to field a team in the Wolverhampton Summer League. There were enough players to do so.

So, I phoned the person who runs the league, but we were prevented from entering on the following counts:
1) They arranged the fixtures last week. My proposal to arrange the fixtures privately was rejected. The league has not started yet, and nor will it for a few weeks.
2) They already have 5 matches in this division, and they're happy with that. The players won't want more games over the summer, apparently.
3) They have to work around the World Cup, because people don't want to play on those nights. This makes the window to play the matches smaller.
4) The deadline was last weekend, which OK I've missed, but it's a group of 9-13 year-olds who could hardly be expected to know this.

So, you try to get juniors involved in League chess, and this happens. Crazy.

Any advice?

[David Shepherd]

Try contacting the clubs in the league and tell them what happened and see what their views are, if they support your entry to the league then your chances of playing will increase, and at worst you may be able to arrange some friendly matches.

[Alex Holowczak]

I think I'm just going to go down the organising-friendly route, while mentioning that the Wolverhampton Summer League wouldn't let us play.

[J T Melsom]

A pity - there are genuine challenges associated with juniors playing in a predominantly adult league, and it is also true that all clubs should adhere by entry deadlines. But we all know deadlines are often bent for established clubs, and although there may be some administrative inconvenience one might hope that the leasgue might grasp the opportunity for chess promotion as a worthwhile reward fot their efforts.

[Neill Cooper]

I have found local clubs very supportive and encouraging of our 'junior' team playing in the Surrey (and Croydon) leagues.
It did take me a long time to decide that it was appropriate to enter a junior team in the adult leagues, in particular because matches finish late.
For the first year younger players (under 14) mainly played in a league with a rate of play of 65 minutes for all moves, and therefore matches were over by 10pm.

[Paul Bielby]

I agree with Neill Cooper - most grown ups are keen to encourage even some very young players to take part in competitive games.

My own full time teaching career was in secondary schools. The first time I entered a school team was in the Halfax League back in the early '60s and when I moved North I was able to field a school team from Sunderland in the Durham League with some success. There was no problem some clubs even offering to change venues to avoid the boys having to play in licensed premises.

More recently, and now well retired, I have been coaching primary school children in Newcastle and at first I thought they would be too young to enjoy playing in the Northumberland League. Not so, the Jesmond "Pawns" Junior Chess Team is now well established about half-way up the second division of the League.

We are lucky in having a number of helpful parents who are prepared to extend bed-times and provide transport on the occasional evening. Our home games are arranged on Fridays which is helpful as there is no school early the next morning. We have had problems with one adult club which objects to playing on a Friday - hopefully next year our matches with them can be arranged on some other day; and with our children having to play away at Hexham (The Tynedale CC meets in a local sporting club which only opens at 7.30 in an evening) when we had a parents strike on our hands at the thought of their children possibly not getting back to Newcastle before 11.00pm (NB No objections from the children!) Tynedale very generously agreed to play at our place on a Friday to try to solve the problem. The ages of the Pawns children vary from 15 - 7, the average age of the team being about 12. Win or lose the children really enjoy the chance to play adult competitive chess. The only snag - the better players get snapped up all too soon by the Jesmond adult teams in Division 1!

[William Metcalfe]

Darlington chess club has only had 3 juniors while i have been a member of the club i have played all of them in league chess the youngest started aged 8 years old.They have all been great team mates and it has done them all a lot of good as people and as well as improving there chess.We had a new junior join this season he played 12 league games this season first in our weakest team but by the season end he was playing in our 3rd strongest team.But just as important he is a great kid who has loved being involved with a team.

[Alex Holowczak]

I contacted several clubs trying to get friendlies. Only one is interested. The League records secretary made the following comments when I asked if his club was interested: "You'll struggle to get a team now, it's the end of the season." I said that I was happy to play in the season as long as they wanted a game. He said that "then it'll be even harder, because of the league games." So when exactly am I supposed to get it arranged?

I'm getting totally fed up with the Birmingham League. (You may have noticed...)

[William Metcalfe]

The only junior in our club has just won the minor section in our club championship a great result for him as he has only been playing seriously for 12 months.Hopefully this will be a good boost to his confidance as he beat players that were all graded higher than himself.

[Alex Holowczak]

Thought I'd update this for those who are interested:

I applied to join Division Five of the Birmingham League. This was rejected. Instead, the Management Committee have put us in Division Four. Cue a season-long relegation battle. It means I have to play for them now to bump them all down a board, and that I can't rotate the players around as I'd initially hoped. This is being remedied by entering a team into the Dudley League, to give those players games too. Worryingly, we only drew 2-2 with a strong Division Six side last night, but I'm assured my top two boards were winning - until one tried a sack for no reason that didn't work, and the other just left his Queen en prise. That was their first competitive game that lasted longer than an hour though, so there's a lot for them to get used to. I was surprised that my bottom two boards were so good, apparently they won easily.

So, all's well that end's well!

[Andy McCulloch]

Bit of a shame that someone who states, "I find posts with literary mistakes complaining about others' literary mistakes tiresome" does not know that sacrifice is spelt without a 'k'.

[Rob Thompson]

but be fair, he wasn't complaining about a literary mistake this time

[Alex Holowczak]

Well, if it is a mistake (and I'm not convinced it is!), then Rob is correct.

People make mistakes, which is fair enough. You'd have thought if they were complaining about others making one particular mistake, they'd do their best to avoid making the same mistake when pointing it out.