Archive: Minutes of 2004/5 AGM

Minutes of the AGM of the Mid-Sussex Chess League held in the Function Room of the Royal Oak Hotel, Lewes on Tuesday 24th May 2005

Those present were:

   RJ   Johnson (Secretary and Hassocks)   MJ   Reddie (Eastbourne)

   DP   Grant (KO Controller and Crowborough)   JG   Herbert (Eastbourne)

   DL   Roberts (Match Recorder and Lewes)  MF   Tanner (Eastbourne)

     D  Stevenson (Treasurer and Eastbourne)     B   Maufe (Lewes)            

    M   Broom (Chairman and Lewes)     R   Fletcher (Horsham)                   

      B  Denman (Brighton)     R Waddingham (Horsham)

     R   Nicholas (Aldrington)     P   Helliwell (Horsham)

     P   Batchelor (Brighton)   RJ   Almond (Hastings)

   RA   Mercer (Haywards Heath)   JA   Povey (Hastings)

   DJ   Langridge (St Francis Hospital)   RD   Hirsch (Crawley)

     N  Hawkins (Haywards Heath)     C   Brown (Hassocks)

   PR   Selby (The Holt)     G   Salmon (Crowborough)        

     P   Watson (The Holt)    M   Redman (Crowborough)

     P   Kington (The Args)     D  Collard (The Args)

    M   Card (The Args)      J   Tuck (Crowborough)

     D   Fryer (East Grinstead)

1.        Opening Remarks and Apologies for Absence

The Chairman, Mark Broom, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies for absence were received from Peter Farr (Args) and John Cannon (Horsham). A minute’s silence was held for Peter Alford of Horsham who died in May this year.

2.        Minutes of 2004 AGM

The minutes of the 2004 AGM were agreed as being a true record of that meeting. There were no matters arising.

3.        Secretary’s Report and Matters Arising

The season commenced with the traditional Champions (Brighton) versus The Rest match which was played at the Railway Club, Brighton on 15/09/04 and resulted in a 3½-2½ win for Brighton. The first time that the champions have won since at least I have been secretary.

Another reasonably smooth fixture making process this year, but there have been a fair number of changed dates, some of which have occurred very late on, mainly due to snow or the fear of snow! Although I do not want to extend the number of dates that each team can nominate as non-playing days beyond the current 15 it would be better if all team captains could advise me of any days outside those 15, if there are any, when they could imagine potential problems. As pre Christmas is often a time when fixtures get rearranged I intend for next season to start the Christmas shut down one week earlier than normal. In addition I will not schedule fixtures to occur on November 5th or February 14th. I must stress that the more days are ruled out as potential playing days the more difficult fixture arranging becomes, so please take that into consideration when electing which dates that you cannot play or would rather not play. All of this will be communicated in the letter that I send out at the start of the next season.

As a guide I would say that having some of your best players unavailable should not be a reason for looking to postpone matches. It happens in all walks of life that your best people are unavailable from time to time. That’s why Liverpool, and not Chelsea, is in Istanbul tomorrow night.

Disputes and interesting incidents

As last year there has been the odd issue surrounding defaults. Rule 5.3 clearly states that you default on the bottom board, but, if a team expects say their board 3 to turn up who doesn’t, then obviously they have no choice but to either default board 3 or use a substitute if possible after the match has started. In such incidents there is sometimes the suspicion of sharp practice but we take it that all clubs operate with the highest integrity unless there is clear proof to the contrary.

One team was forced to withdraw from the league this year – HH 1; they had little choice as 3 of their expected regular first team players left the club. It would have been extremely difficult, for their second team, being a fourth division side, to have played out their first team’s fixtures given the very significant disparity in grading that would have existed.

One issue that has caused a degree of consternation is very strong players playing in lower divisions. I should stress here that no-one has infringed any rules in doing this, nor do I think that there are any reasonable rules that could be set up to prevent it happening again. My club, Hassocks, will be in division 3 next year. If a player graded 200+ turned up and was happy to play for us, are we going to say no - of course not. One point that I will make is in reference to Crawley. It appears to some that they get some good players, zoom up to division one crushing many teams on the way. Once in the first division, they lose their good players, drop down 2 divisions, get their good players back and the circle starts again. The fact is that Crawley acted in good faith when they disbanded their first team, and had no idea that some strong players were going to return or join their club. The point that I will make, should Crawley look to disband their first team again, is that the League Officers will look at the situation very carefully indeed given their recent history.

4.        Treasurer’s Report and Matters Arising

The Treasurer presented the meeting with a set of accounts. In view of the healthy state of finances Doug proposed the following fees for the 2005/6 season: £20 for division 1 (down from £22); £18 for divisions 2, 3 and 4 (down from £22); no change for the Knock Out Competition (£5).

The fee changes were accepted and the treasurer’s report was agreed.

5.         Match Recorder’s Report and Matters Arising

The Match Recorder reported that the season had run with few problems. Owing to David now having moved to Gloucestershire, he will no longer be able to keep the posts of Match Recorder and Grader. No volunteers had stepped forward*

6.         KO Cup Organiser’s Report and Matters Arising

The Organiser reported that the KO Competition had proceeded reasonably smoothly although both Crawley and Worthing had withdrawn. The winners were Crowborough who narrowly defeated Holt in the final..

7.         Results and Tables

The Secretary presented the League Tables, announcing the winners. 

8.        Presentation of Trophies

After the disappointment of last season when only four of the ten trophies to be presented were brought in for the AGM, it was pleasing to see all but one brought in this year. The Chairman handed out those trophies available to the league’s divisional team winners and to the individual’s with the best scores in each of the divisions. Hastings 1 received the Mowatt Cup (division 1 champions), Worthing the Gregory Cup (division 2 winners), Crawley 1 the Division 3 Cup, and Eastbourne 3 the Division 4 Cup. Bernard Cafferty of Hastings and Jim Graham of Crawley shared the overall Best Player Tankard with a score of 7/8. Jim Graham generously agreed that Bernard Cafferty could hold the tankard arguing that Bernard’s performance in division one outranked his in division 3.The tankard for division 1 was won by Bernard Cafferty of Hastings; Chris Jones of Worthing and Peter Farr of the Args shared the division 2 trophy; division 3 was won by David Cork of Crawley and division 4 by Edward Hamlyn of Eastbourne.

10.       Election of Officers

All the current officers, with the exception of the Match Recorder who is standing down were

re-elected unanimously:

            Chairman                      Mark Broom

            Secretary                     Richard Johnson

            Treasurer                     Doug Stevenson                    

            Auditor                          Paul Selby

            KO Cup organiser            Don Grant               

10.        County Secretary’s report

The county secretary, Paul Watson, reported that the game fee would not change for the forthcoming season.

The county teams were not enjoying a great season with no team going past the quarter-finals.

11.       Adjudication Secretary’s report and matters arising

The adjudication secretary, Robert Elliston, had not sent a written report, but Paul Watson informed the meeting that only 6 positions had been sent in, 1 of those being trivial, but no issues had arisen (e.g. opposing sides sending in different positions from the same game).

12.       Champions versus the Rest

Richard Almond of Hastings undertook to inform the Secretary of the date for the Champions versus the Rest match at the earliest opportunity.

13.        Any Other Business

Rule changes:

East Grinstead proposed an addition to rule 1.2: However, the number of teams in the 1st division to be increased to 11.

East Grinstead produced a typed paper detailing their arguments to support the above motion.

Points raised mainly surrounded the possible impacts on the other divisions, in particular how small other divisions may get. Richard Almond pointed out that the proposal may be unenforceable if one year one or two teams wish to take relegation from the first division but no team wants promotion to the first.

After much debate David Roberts suggested that the proposal should be amended so that the aspiration is that the first division should have 11 teams. This should take into account the impact on other divisions.

Amended Motion was carried 17–4

The chairman duly declared the meeting over at 9.20 p.m.

Immediately after the meeting David Fryer volunteered to maintain the website and Don Grant agreed to undertake the job of processing the match results. The combination of these tasks in effect means that the Match Recorder role is now filled, albeit by two people.