Minutes of the Meeting Held on 21 September 1998

							DURHAM COUNTY CHESS ASSOCIATION EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE

Minutes of the Meeting held on Monday 19th April 2010 at the Hetton Workingmens Club

The meeting commenced at 7.15 p.m.

Present: Ken Neat (President & Durham City); Keith Smith (Treasurer & Hartlepool); Bryan Bainbridge (League
Secretary & Bishop Auckland); Nigel Hall (Webmaster & Hetton Lyons); Robin Horner(Secretary & Gateshead
Libraries); Fred Stobbart (Congress Secretary & Hetton Lyons); Stan Johnson (Grader & South Shields); Roger Simpson
(Durham City).

1. Apologies: J. Findlay, M. Bell, G. Matthews.

2. Minutes of the previous meeting held on Monday 18th January 2010

The President signed them off as a true record.

3. Matters arising from the above minutes

Mr Neat said that the prospective Lightning Tournament discussed at the previous meeting had not
taken place owing to lack of support. He had e-mailed clubs about the subject but had had hardly any
responses. Mr Bainbridge said that he too had asked around the clubs but he also had had almost no
replies.

4. Correspondence

Mr Horner reported that he had been in further e-mail communication with Mr Turnock on the subject
of the funding of the fee in relation to the IM title secured by Mr Hawkins. Mr Turnock had mentioned
that Mr Hawkins had said he would find out the correct procedure and then revert to Mr Turnock,
which he had not yet done. Hence there was no further progress. Mr Turnock had said that he would
send a further message to Mr Hawkins on the subject.

5. Reports from Officers

a. League Secretary

Mr Bainbridge produced copies of the latest League tables. He said that the automated tables on the
website were working well. In response to a question from Mr Neat which was referred to Mr Hall, Mr
Hall said that the entry of the results onto the fixtures page was not yet automated and was still done
manually and this meant that there had to be an element of manual cross checking as well. Mr Smith
said that he would be able to assist with automating this feature too and would attend to it during the
summer. Mr Bainbridge said that it was good to see Durham City Bishops doing well in the A
Division. Peterlee might drop a team out owing to its becoming a regular occurrence that players were
not turning up after initially promising to do so. Mr Hall said he had not received any result from the
Bishop Auckland v. Darlington Knights match which should have taken place early in the season. Mr
Bainbridge said that this match was now scheduled for next week. He added that there had pleasingly
been few defaults this season.

Mr Bainbridge and Mr Neat referred to an occasion on which Mr Boxall of Peterlee had raised the
possibility of playing one player in two separate League matches which were taking place at the same
venue at the same time. Mr Horner said that in his view this would be against the Rules. The starting
point would be that clearly there could be no question of one player playing on more than one board in
the same match as this would contravene Rule 4 ( minimum of 5 players but more allowed if agreed so
there could not be less ) and so the issue was how far this extended to two simultaneous matches. Mr
Horner said that, although the Rules did not refer specifically to the possibility of this situation arising,
it was inescapable from Rule 4 that two matches meant a minimum of 10 players taking part. There
could not be 9 or 8 players save in the case of default. Even apart from that point, there could well in
practice be problems with the seeding and order of strength rules being breached in any case on a
given occasion. There was no need to alter the Rules to prohibit it specifically but of course it would
be open to any member to propose a change at the AGM if it were thought desirable to incorporate
some wording putting the matter beyond all doubt.

Mr Bainbridge said that Cleveland had not been very accommodating in relation to fixture clashes but
Northumberland had been. He thanked Mr Hall for his help in relation to this and for his efforts
generally in relation to the website, the efficient running of which had assisted greatly in ensuring the
smooth running of the League and in reducing his own workload.

Mr Horner referred to the problem that the Gateshead club’s main contact at the Civic Centre, Mr
Abbott, was leaving his job and that it was not yet clear what impact this would have on the club’s
ability to continue to host matches at that venue. He promised to keep the Association informed of any
difficulties in this regard.

b. Treasurer

Mr Smith presented a Statement of Accounts as to the Association’s financial affairs for the period 18th
January 2010 to 18th April 2010. The balance of the Association’s funds was £1,643.10 as shown in the
Statement. Mr Smith mentioned that the NCCU affiliation fee was now £71.25, comprising £75 less a
5% discount, and was therefore down from the previous year’s amount of £100 less the discount. As to
a further matter of expenditure, there was one Durham player, namely Mr S. Gardiner, whose fee was
to be added to the figure of £114.05 shown. Mr Simpson enquired as to the present status of Red Rose
and Mr Smith said that they were now not members.

c. U125 Match Captain

No report.

d. Correspondence Captain

In the absence of Mr Findlay, who was playing in the Darlington C v. Durham City Canons match, Mr
Horner read out the e-mail report which Mr Findlay had submitted. Four results had been reported thus
far, namely one win ( Kyle Kinnie ), two draws and one loss.

e. Ron Evers Organiser

In the absence of Mr Matthews, Mr Bainbridge reported that the competition had had an initial entry of
8 teams and had now reached the stage of the final. This was scheduled to take place between
Hartlepool and Durham City I on 28th April.

f. County Championship Organiser

Mr Horner reported that with only a few results still to come the current leaders were Simon
McGuinness in the Championship, Steve Ormerod in the Terry Holmes and Tony Mezzo in the
William Bentley. Mr Horner added that in some ways the victory of Mr McGuinness may be thought
to raise an issue as to possible changes to the rules because he had played his games in Division B
whereas the other Championship contenders had played mainly in Division A and hence had met much
stronger opposition on a consistent basis than he had. This was in no way his fault but might be
thought anomalous and Mr Horner said that he would give some thought prior to the AGM to whether
the rules ought to be altered to weight Division A results in some manner ,making them more valuable
than those obtained in Division B. Mr Horner apologised for sending out the scoreboards rather less
frequently than previously promised and said he would seek to do better in this respect next season.

g. Congress Director

Mr Stobbart reported that preparations for the Congress were going well and he was expecting that the
event would be more successful financially than was the case last year. Thus far he had received 55
entries and it would be realistic to anticipate an advance of at least 15 more over the next few days as it
was common for players to enter congresses quite late. One player from Mongolia had contacted him
about the event. The cancellation of the congress at Hawick had doubtless assisted in achieving
satisfactory numbers. The one matter of real concern was the relatively low entry in the Open but this
seemed to be a sign of the times. Mr Bainbridge suggested the possibility that prizes could be related
to the number of entries. Mr Stobbart said he had given some thought to this but the problem was that
the small number of Open entries was clearly likely to continue in the future and it would seem strange
for prizes in the other events to be higher than those in the Open. Mr Stobbart added that he would
always welcome suggestions for any improvements but he felt that overall the event was holding its
own in difficult times for the game. The meeting expressed its thanks to Mr Stobbart for his hard work
as Congress Director.

h. Webmaster

Mr Hall reported that the website was up to date with all results so far supplied and the recording of
results on the fixtures page. The Ron Evers results were up to date and full details with an entry form
relating to the Congress had been supplied by Mr Stobbart and were available on the site. Thus far
about one quarter of the entries to the Congress had come through the site. Mr Hall added that to date
there had been no further developments as to the previously mooted possibility of a North East team
entering the 4NCL.

i. Grader

Mr Johnson reported that there were no grading problems and that almost all results to date had been
submitted. He said that any outstanding results should be submitted by the end of June although it
would probably still be possible for late results to be incorporated into the 2010 list if sent in during
July.

j. Northumberland Junior Chess Association

No report.

k. Junior Co-ordinator

Mr Neat reported that the DCCA Junior Championships had taken place at Gilesgate Sports College on
Sunday 28th March. The entry was very disappointing, with only 20 players from all of Durham
County taking part. The results were set out on a sheet which Mr Neat provided. The winners were
D.White ( U18 ), B.Cull ( U15 ), N.Garner ( U13 ), A.Gupta ( U11 ) and M.Gupta ( U9 ). Mr Neat
added that he would be producing a document at the AGM dealing with the development of junior
chess and making suggestions as to how clubs and LEAs might assist. Whilst past experience had
tended to show that little followed from initiatives in this respect, it was important to explore ways of
maintaining junior chess facilities not least because without new players coming through the future for
local chess would be bleak.
l. Trophies Secretary

Mr Horner said that he would be doing his best to round up the trophies before the AGM although for
the moment the Ron Evers Trophy was still to be located. He added that, whilst the winners of the
trophies for the individual competitions would presumably not attend the AGM, it should be possible
to present those trophies to persons who could pass them on.

m. NCCU Delegate

Mr Bainbridge said that the next NCCU meeting was scheduled for 10th June 2010.

n. ECF Delegate

Mr Bainbridge reported that Mr Turnock had attended the latest ECF meeting and that Mr Bainbridge
had given him his vote. The Chess for Schools initiative had now been abandoned.

o. Equipment Secretary

Mr Stobbart reported that he was in possession of the equipment for use at the Congress. In response to
a query from Mr Neat, Mr Stobbart said that he had not specifically checked the Chinese clocks.
Mr Neat mentioned that at the DCCA Junior Championships these had not been functioning correctly.
Mr Stobbart said that he would keep a watch on this for any problems.

p. North East Rapidplay

No report.

6. Motions for the AGM

Mr Horner referred to the prospective motion that Clause 7 of the Constitution be amended to read
“All Officers and Executive Committee Members ( including the President ) shall be eligible for re-
election”. Mr Stobbart said that he would propose this motion and Mr Simpson agreed to second it. It
was therefore placed on the Agenda for the AGM.

Two further motions were also to be proposed and seconded for the AGM and these too were therefore
placed on the Agenda. They were ( 1 ) “The rate of play for Divisions A and B will be 30 moves in
1 hour 15 minutes. When 30 moves have been played the clocks will be reset by 15 minutes each and
the game played to a finish ( ECF Quickplay Rules to apply )” and ( 2 ) “The rate of play for Divisions
A and B will be all moves in 1 hour 30 minutes with no ECF Quickplay finish”. Motion ( 1 ) was to be
proposed by Mr Anderson and seconded by Mr Berry and Motion ( 2 ) was to be proposed by Mr
Nigel Hall and seconded by Mr Metcalfe.

7. Dates for further meetings

The AGM was fixed for Monday 24th May 2010. The next Executive Committee meeting would be
held on Monday 20th September 2010. Both meetings to be at the Hetton Workingmens Club at 7.15
p.m.

8. Any Other Business

None.

The meeting closed at 8.57 p.m.
Robin Horner

Secretary of the Durham County Chess Association