The above photograph is courtesy of Gunner Mallon. It was taken during a match played at the time Dore and Totley Golf Club was our home venue.
Minutes of Ecclesall Chess Club's AGM held at The Abbey
on Wednesday 9th August 2023, commencing 7:45pm
Present: Peter Cooper, Ewan Cormack, John Eddershaw, Phill Ellis, Tim Gollins, Peter Hempson, Peter
Hoare, Mick Howarth, James Marley, Alan McIntosh (secretary), Ken McIntosh, Dan Morgan, Elliott
Spencer, Norman Wragg (chairman).
Apologies: David Burn, Jim Burnett, John Clark, Martin Hoare, Ivan Basarab-Horwath (treasurer), Colin
Reid, Roger Swindell, Mark Walker.
Before the meeting started, we held a minute’s silence for the sad passing of Chris Marley.
The Minutes of the last AGM were agreed and there were no matters arising. However, the secretary
pointed out that it was mentioned in the minutes that another one or two digital clocks would be handy
and that we now have 14. At the Doncaster Chess Congress in February, the secretary purchased two
‘second hand’ clocks, that are the same as all our other digital clocks, for just £60. Despite being ‘second
hand’ they have been fine and although we may not need to use all 14 at the same time, these two extra
clocks may prove useful.
The Secretary's report pointed out that at our last AGM we said we could do with a few more members
and that we could do with more members attending our chess club. It was thought that the lack of
members attending our chess club, particularly over the summer months, was hindering our uptake of
new members, that it was perhaps putting our continued use of the venue at risk and, that it was making
us more like a collection of teams rather than a chess club. This year however, with regular summer
league games, we have made much more all year-round use of our venue. On non-match club nights, we
have usually had a few members turning up and we have added a few more members to our pool of
players. We have gained Mark Walker and Martin Hoare (who both played in five summer league
matches) and Dennis Johns. Dennis only played in one summer league game, but he hopes to be more
available when the winter league starts up again. Also, although some members have still not returned
since Covid, Elliott Spencer made a come-back and he played in five matches. The secretary therefore
thought that it had been a much more positive year for our club. He still felt we should be running the
odd training session and the occasional internal competition, like we used to, but he said he could see
that things were improving. The secretary pointed out a further improvement, that Ewan had updated
our website. It was mostly a case of just deleting unwanted pages, but the secretary had provided Ewan
with information to update some sections, such as the: Home page, History page and Honours page. The
secretary also said that, despite few members probably even realising this has been done, he would like
to thank Ewan for his work on the website. Although the secretary thought we should make more use of
the website, he was content that if an outsider looked at it now, they would no longer see an outdated
website that could put them off joining us.
The Treasurer's report was a written report from the treasurer, given by the secretary, in the treasurer’s absence.
It said that we started the ‘year’ with £209.69. We collected £270 in (18) club subscriptions and
£140 in donations (£135 from John Clark and £5 from Peter Hoare). We spent £250 on venue fees, £60
on two digital clocks and £44.80 on entry fees for the winter league competitions. The income was
therefore £410, and the expenditure was £354.80 so our balance increased by £55.20 to £264.89. The
secretary added that without the donations we would be £85 worse off, but without spending £60 on
the two clocks and the fact that he could have collected three more subscriptions (£45) following the
summer league, we would then be £20 better off. Therefore, he agreed with the treasurer that club
subscriptions could again remain at the flat rate of £15 for all those who play more than just a few games
for our club throughout the winter and summer leagues. This was voted on and unanimously accepted
by the membership.
The Captains’ reports began with James Marley giving the winter league A team report. He said that the
A team exceeded his expectations. He thought they would be in a battle to avoid relegation, but they
finished third equal only two points off second place. This, he said, was due to the top two boards (Jim
and Ewan) both scoring 50% and some strong performances on the bottom boards. In particular, John
Clark’s 10 wins from 12 games were a major contribution to the team’s success.
The winter league B team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that the B team finished mid table
in division 2 with 10 points from 12 matches. He thought they might have gained a few more points if
Tim (their board 1 player) had not missed half the matches, but he did think they would still have
finished fourth as third placed Barnsley had eight more points than them. Ken, John Clark and Alan
played in all 12 matches. John was top scorer with 7/12, Alan scored 6½ and Ken scored 5½. Peter
Cooper only missed one match, he scored 5 points, and Peter Hoare scored 4/7.
The winter league C team report, in the absence of Colin Reid the captain, was given by the secretary.
He said that the C team had found it quite difficult playing in division 3 and they had finished bottom
with only 4 points from 14 matches. The secretary said we knew it was going to be a challenge, but to
give more players a game we thought it would be better they play in division 3 rather than in the four-
board division 4. As it turned out, many of the division 4 matches were by consent played over 5 or 6
boards and, there was one more team in that division. Also, to give our team a chance in the 3rd division
matches, Peter Cooper was playing regularly (a B team player) and John Clark (an A team player) played
on four occasions. Peter Cooper was top scorer with 5/14 along with Colin Reid, but his 5 from 9 gave
him a better percentage score.
The Richardson cup 1st team report was given by James Marley. He said that they narrowly defeated
Hillsborough in the first round, they had a bye in the second round, then came up against Nomads 1 in
the semi-final. Nomads fielded a complete team of 2000+ players and won 5-1. James drew on three
against Sam Milson and John Clark drew on six against Chris Shephard.
The Richardson cup 2nd team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that in the first round they
were drawn against Nomads 1, the eventual winners of the competition, and that they got whitewashed
6-0. Nomads had four 2000+ players. Our top four boards were: Ken, Alan, David Burn and Mick
Howarth. Then, in the Plate competition (which 1st round losers can play for), we got drawn away to first
division Worksop, where Alan’s draw against Phil Griffiths avoided another whitewash.
The summer league A team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that the A team finished third
out of five in division 2, with 8 points from 8 matches. Ken, Alan, Peter Hoare and Peter Cooper played in
all eight matches. Peter Cooper and Alan were joint top scorers with 5/8.
The summer league B team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that the B team finished fourth
equal out of six in division 4, with 9 points from 10 matches. Twelve different players were used. Colin
played in all but the last two matches and was top scorer with 6/8.
Some overall statistics were then given by the secretary. He said he was top scorer with 19 points from
33 games (58%). Ken and Peter Cooper both scored 15½ from 34 games (46%). Dennis Johns finished on
100% but played only one game. Mark Walker finished on 70% from five games, but members agreed
with the secretary that John Clark should be named Player of the Season. He scored 18 points from 29
games overall, that gave him a percentage score of 62%, but his performance for the A team of 10 wins
and 2 losses was an outstanding 83%. There was, however, some discussion on how the Player of the
Season should be decided. The chairman thought we had always used a player’s percentage score but
added that they had to play a minimum of five or six games to qualify. This was thought to be a more
definite method, but members agreed that the qualifying number of games should be ten. The secretary
said that this method of calculation made John the Player of the Season and that he would use the
method in future.
Under Internal competitions the secretary mentioned he had hoped to run the club championship. But
he pointed out that it takes a fair amount of organising, that the number of club members who take part
is usually limited and, that because he would also enter the event, it could be quite difficult for him to
run. Also, because there had been regular summer league matches and other external events taking
place, there was no real need to run our own event. The secretary did think, however, that it was a
shame we had not continued to run the competition, that we no longer ran the under 140 tournament
and that we no longer had any lightning events. But, at present, he said there just wasn’t enough interest
for them.
A 15-minute drinks break was taken at this point.
For upcoming External competitions the secretary pointed out that we had used 22 players in the winter
league (for an 8 board and two 6 board teams) and that 16 players took part in the summer league (for
two 4 board teams). Following the survey of intention that went out with the invite for the AGM he said
we had a similar number of players available for the winter league and therefore thought that we could
again run three teams under the current system of 8 boards in division one, 4 boards in the bottom
division and 6 boards in the other divisions. If division one became a six-board division, we would have
to consider entering four teams. The teams would need to be in different divisions however, and we
would need another captain.
The Election of officers and team captains resulted in Norman Wragg (the chairman of 27 years), Alan
McIntosh (the secretary for 9 years), and Ivan Basarab-Horwath (the treasurer for 5 years), all being
re-elected. Colin Reid had agreed to continue as the club's new members' contact and Ewan Cormack
said he would continue as our website coordinator. Colin and Ewan were both re-elected, as were the
captains: James Marley A team and Richardson 1 team captain, Alan McIntosh as B team and Richardson 2
team captain, and Colin Reid as C team captain.
Under the Consideration of S&DCA rule change proposals it was decided that at the S&DCA AGM the
club should vote against the proposal to reduce the number of boards in division 1 from eight down to
six. Some members disagreed with the decision, as it was hindering some clubs from accepting
promotion and this was reducing the number of teams in division 1 and having a knock-on effect on the
make-up of the divisions below. Others, however, thought that teams should be made to accept
promotion. Some didn’t like the idea of fewer games, and some were worried that it could possibly lead
to fewer points being gained by our A team. As a result, the vote went 10-4 against reducing the number
of boards.
The proposal to allow the home team to decide whether the time limit should be 70 minutes plus 6
seconds per move, or the existing 75 minutes per player, was also opposed. Members were not against
the idea of increments but didn’t like the idea of having more than one time control. After considering
what we would choose if the rule change was passed, we realised that we couldn’t do that because one
of our team’s may prefer a different control to another of our teams and that the same team (but with
different players) may change its mind from match to match! This then reinforced our decision to vote
against the proposal.
The proposal that a team who refused promotion, who then went on to win the division they stayed in,
be prevented from being awarded the division trophy was quickly opposed. It was thought that S&DCA
would be better discussing the issue of promotion and relegation rather than the issue of awarding a
trophy to a team that didn’t top their division.
Finally, although not a proposal that was going to be considered, the S&DCA were going to discuss the
issue of mobile phones. We thought it would therefore be useful if we had a discussion on the topic. It
was pointed out that under the section Mobile Phones on the S&DCA’s website, there was guidance that
said a warning should be given to an opponent if their phone (which was not exempted) went off during
the game. However, because this was dated back to 2014 and had not been incorporated in the rules a
player claimed one of his summer league games on the basis that the FIDE law applied. It was pointed
out that we don’t follow the FIDE law as most players have their phone on their person during a match,
so a bespoke rule was needed. Members thought that a mobile phone ringing was not sufficient
distraction to warrant a loss and that it was the ability to use a phone to cheat that was the real issue. It
was suggested that mobile phones should be placed on the table beside the chessboard. Although some
said they wouldn’t want to leave their phone out and that on some occasions space could be at a
premium, there was a consensus that a modification of the FIDE law was required which would allow
mobiles in the venue but limit the chances of players using them inappropriately.
There not being Any other business the meeting closed at 9:40pm.
on Wednesday 9th August 2023, commencing 7:45pm
Present: Peter Cooper, Ewan Cormack, John Eddershaw, Phill Ellis, Tim Gollins, Peter Hempson, Peter
Hoare, Mick Howarth, James Marley, Alan McIntosh (secretary), Ken McIntosh, Dan Morgan, Elliott
Spencer, Norman Wragg (chairman).
Apologies: David Burn, Jim Burnett, John Clark, Martin Hoare, Ivan Basarab-Horwath (treasurer), Colin
Reid, Roger Swindell, Mark Walker.
Before the meeting started, we held a minute’s silence for the sad passing of Chris Marley.
The Minutes of the last AGM were agreed and there were no matters arising. However, the secretary
pointed out that it was mentioned in the minutes that another one or two digital clocks would be handy
and that we now have 14. At the Doncaster Chess Congress in February, the secretary purchased two
‘second hand’ clocks, that are the same as all our other digital clocks, for just £60. Despite being ‘second
hand’ they have been fine and although we may not need to use all 14 at the same time, these two extra
clocks may prove useful.
The Secretary's report pointed out that at our last AGM we said we could do with a few more members
and that we could do with more members attending our chess club. It was thought that the lack of
members attending our chess club, particularly over the summer months, was hindering our uptake of
new members, that it was perhaps putting our continued use of the venue at risk and, that it was making
us more like a collection of teams rather than a chess club. This year however, with regular summer
league games, we have made much more all year-round use of our venue. On non-match club nights, we
have usually had a few members turning up and we have added a few more members to our pool of
players. We have gained Mark Walker and Martin Hoare (who both played in five summer league
matches) and Dennis Johns. Dennis only played in one summer league game, but he hopes to be more
available when the winter league starts up again. Also, although some members have still not returned
since Covid, Elliott Spencer made a come-back and he played in five matches. The secretary therefore
thought that it had been a much more positive year for our club. He still felt we should be running the
odd training session and the occasional internal competition, like we used to, but he said he could see
that things were improving. The secretary pointed out a further improvement, that Ewan had updated
our website. It was mostly a case of just deleting unwanted pages, but the secretary had provided Ewan
with information to update some sections, such as the: Home page, History page and Honours page. The
secretary also said that, despite few members probably even realising this has been done, he would like
to thank Ewan for his work on the website. Although the secretary thought we should make more use of
the website, he was content that if an outsider looked at it now, they would no longer see an outdated
website that could put them off joining us.
The Treasurer's report was a written report from the treasurer, given by the secretary, in the treasurer’s absence.
It said that we started the ‘year’ with £209.69. We collected £270 in (18) club subscriptions and
£140 in donations (£135 from John Clark and £5 from Peter Hoare). We spent £250 on venue fees, £60
on two digital clocks and £44.80 on entry fees for the winter league competitions. The income was
therefore £410, and the expenditure was £354.80 so our balance increased by £55.20 to £264.89. The
secretary added that without the donations we would be £85 worse off, but without spending £60 on
the two clocks and the fact that he could have collected three more subscriptions (£45) following the
summer league, we would then be £20 better off. Therefore, he agreed with the treasurer that club
subscriptions could again remain at the flat rate of £15 for all those who play more than just a few games
for our club throughout the winter and summer leagues. This was voted on and unanimously accepted
by the membership.
The Captains’ reports began with James Marley giving the winter league A team report. He said that the
A team exceeded his expectations. He thought they would be in a battle to avoid relegation, but they
finished third equal only two points off second place. This, he said, was due to the top two boards (Jim
and Ewan) both scoring 50% and some strong performances on the bottom boards. In particular, John
Clark’s 10 wins from 12 games were a major contribution to the team’s success.
The winter league B team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that the B team finished mid table
in division 2 with 10 points from 12 matches. He thought they might have gained a few more points if
Tim (their board 1 player) had not missed half the matches, but he did think they would still have
finished fourth as third placed Barnsley had eight more points than them. Ken, John Clark and Alan
played in all 12 matches. John was top scorer with 7/12, Alan scored 6½ and Ken scored 5½. Peter
Cooper only missed one match, he scored 5 points, and Peter Hoare scored 4/7.
The winter league C team report, in the absence of Colin Reid the captain, was given by the secretary.
He said that the C team had found it quite difficult playing in division 3 and they had finished bottom
with only 4 points from 14 matches. The secretary said we knew it was going to be a challenge, but to
give more players a game we thought it would be better they play in division 3 rather than in the four-
board division 4. As it turned out, many of the division 4 matches were by consent played over 5 or 6
boards and, there was one more team in that division. Also, to give our team a chance in the 3rd division
matches, Peter Cooper was playing regularly (a B team player) and John Clark (an A team player) played
on four occasions. Peter Cooper was top scorer with 5/14 along with Colin Reid, but his 5 from 9 gave
him a better percentage score.
The Richardson cup 1st team report was given by James Marley. He said that they narrowly defeated
Hillsborough in the first round, they had a bye in the second round, then came up against Nomads 1 in
the semi-final. Nomads fielded a complete team of 2000+ players and won 5-1. James drew on three
against Sam Milson and John Clark drew on six against Chris Shephard.
The Richardson cup 2nd team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that in the first round they
were drawn against Nomads 1, the eventual winners of the competition, and that they got whitewashed
6-0. Nomads had four 2000+ players. Our top four boards were: Ken, Alan, David Burn and Mick
Howarth. Then, in the Plate competition (which 1st round losers can play for), we got drawn away to first
division Worksop, where Alan’s draw against Phil Griffiths avoided another whitewash.
The summer league A team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that the A team finished third
out of five in division 2, with 8 points from 8 matches. Ken, Alan, Peter Hoare and Peter Cooper played in
all eight matches. Peter Cooper and Alan were joint top scorers with 5/8.
The summer league B team report was given by Alan McIntosh. He said that the B team finished fourth
equal out of six in division 4, with 9 points from 10 matches. Twelve different players were used. Colin
played in all but the last two matches and was top scorer with 6/8.
Some overall statistics were then given by the secretary. He said he was top scorer with 19 points from
33 games (58%). Ken and Peter Cooper both scored 15½ from 34 games (46%). Dennis Johns finished on
100% but played only one game. Mark Walker finished on 70% from five games, but members agreed
with the secretary that John Clark should be named Player of the Season. He scored 18 points from 29
games overall, that gave him a percentage score of 62%, but his performance for the A team of 10 wins
and 2 losses was an outstanding 83%. There was, however, some discussion on how the Player of the
Season should be decided. The chairman thought we had always used a player’s percentage score but
added that they had to play a minimum of five or six games to qualify. This was thought to be a more
definite method, but members agreed that the qualifying number of games should be ten. The secretary
said that this method of calculation made John the Player of the Season and that he would use the
method in future.
Under Internal competitions the secretary mentioned he had hoped to run the club championship. But
he pointed out that it takes a fair amount of organising, that the number of club members who take part
is usually limited and, that because he would also enter the event, it could be quite difficult for him to
run. Also, because there had been regular summer league matches and other external events taking
place, there was no real need to run our own event. The secretary did think, however, that it was a
shame we had not continued to run the competition, that we no longer ran the under 140 tournament
and that we no longer had any lightning events. But, at present, he said there just wasn’t enough interest
for them.
A 15-minute drinks break was taken at this point.
For upcoming External competitions the secretary pointed out that we had used 22 players in the winter
league (for an 8 board and two 6 board teams) and that 16 players took part in the summer league (for
two 4 board teams). Following the survey of intention that went out with the invite for the AGM he said
we had a similar number of players available for the winter league and therefore thought that we could
again run three teams under the current system of 8 boards in division one, 4 boards in the bottom
division and 6 boards in the other divisions. If division one became a six-board division, we would have
to consider entering four teams. The teams would need to be in different divisions however, and we
would need another captain.
The Election of officers and team captains resulted in Norman Wragg (the chairman of 27 years), Alan
McIntosh (the secretary for 9 years), and Ivan Basarab-Horwath (the treasurer for 5 years), all being
re-elected. Colin Reid had agreed to continue as the club's new members' contact and Ewan Cormack
said he would continue as our website coordinator. Colin and Ewan were both re-elected, as were the
captains: James Marley A team and Richardson 1 team captain, Alan McIntosh as B team and Richardson 2
team captain, and Colin Reid as C team captain.
Under the Consideration of S&DCA rule change proposals it was decided that at the S&DCA AGM the
club should vote against the proposal to reduce the number of boards in division 1 from eight down to
six. Some members disagreed with the decision, as it was hindering some clubs from accepting
promotion and this was reducing the number of teams in division 1 and having a knock-on effect on the
make-up of the divisions below. Others, however, thought that teams should be made to accept
promotion. Some didn’t like the idea of fewer games, and some were worried that it could possibly lead
to fewer points being gained by our A team. As a result, the vote went 10-4 against reducing the number
of boards.
The proposal to allow the home team to decide whether the time limit should be 70 minutes plus 6
seconds per move, or the existing 75 minutes per player, was also opposed. Members were not against
the idea of increments but didn’t like the idea of having more than one time control. After considering
what we would choose if the rule change was passed, we realised that we couldn’t do that because one
of our team’s may prefer a different control to another of our teams and that the same team (but with
different players) may change its mind from match to match! This then reinforced our decision to vote
against the proposal.
The proposal that a team who refused promotion, who then went on to win the division they stayed in,
be prevented from being awarded the division trophy was quickly opposed. It was thought that S&DCA
would be better discussing the issue of promotion and relegation rather than the issue of awarding a
trophy to a team that didn’t top their division.
Finally, although not a proposal that was going to be considered, the S&DCA were going to discuss the
issue of mobile phones. We thought it would therefore be useful if we had a discussion on the topic. It
was pointed out that under the section Mobile Phones on the S&DCA’s website, there was guidance that
said a warning should be given to an opponent if their phone (which was not exempted) went off during
the game. However, because this was dated back to 2014 and had not been incorporated in the rules a
player claimed one of his summer league games on the basis that the FIDE law applied. It was pointed
out that we don’t follow the FIDE law as most players have their phone on their person during a match,
so a bespoke rule was needed. Members thought that a mobile phone ringing was not sufficient
distraction to warrant a loss and that it was the ability to use a phone to cheat that was the real issue. It
was suggested that mobile phones should be placed on the table beside the chessboard. Although some
said they wouldn’t want to leave their phone out and that on some occasions space could be at a
premium, there was a consensus that a modification of the FIDE law was required which would allow
mobiles in the venue but limit the chances of players using them inappropriately.
There not being Any other business the meeting closed at 9:40pm.