Minutes of AGM August 2015

Lytham Ex-Service Chess Club

Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Thursday 20th August 2015

Present: John Cooper (Chairman), John Regan (Treasurer), Phil Raynor, Ben O'Rourke, Colin Wilks, John Cox (Secretary)

Apologies: Keith Sansom, Geoff Robinson, Dennis Davies, Pat Coleman, Colin Liddle, Paul Evans, Tom Leah, Kit Hopkins, Lynne Morrison, Graham Morrison

Minutes of Club Meeting 14th August 2014 were accepted and signed off by the Chairman.

Actions Arising

Five Chess Sets and Boards were purchased and presented to the Club by John Cooper.

A chess set was donated to the Ex-Service Club Bar, although there is little sign of it being used.

The proposed Club Simul did not take place because of lack of interested numbers

The proposal for one night per month to be devoted to a defined Club activity had not been followed up. The poor attendance on Club nights apart from League or Club Championship matches continues to be a problem.

Changes proposed to the Rules for League and Rapidplay matches were presented to the Blackpool and Fylde AGM and accepted. The rule book has been updated to regflect the changes

The Club Championship was successfully organised by Paul Evans

Chairman's Report:

At last season’s general meeting on 14 August 2014 it was agreed that we should purchase 5 new chess sets for use in matches. I found that we could obtain very good quality sets made by Regency Chess Company for £50 each and they were supplied to me by Premier Engraving, a firm run by a friend of mine who lives in Peterborough. I have donated these to the club and am sure that they will be a sound asset for many years for the club.

The club has once again fielded 4 teams in the League, quite an achievement having regard to the static membership figures. We have been lucky in having two strong juniors, Kit Hopkins and Tom Leah, who have been the most regular members at the club throughout the season  despite having A level exams. Kit has played in all our first team matches and Tom has played in no less than 18 League games for the club including at least one game for each team! We will certainly notice the difference next season when they leave us for university.

Our static membership comes despite the efforts of John Cox as Webmaster over the past two years in publicising our club online on Lythamchess.org.

John has enhanced the website over the past year and I think his efforts make him highly eligible as a candidate for the Len Gibbins Trophy award.

Our teams have not won any of the League titles this season but the second of our handicap Rapidplay teams, led by Geoff Robinson and Pat Coleman, has won the Handicap Rapidplay after some stirring victories against stronger teams.  Congratulations to all who played in this team!

Statistics compiled by John Cox show that the club’s player of the season is Phil Raynor, who has scored 5.5 out of 7 games for the first team and 11.5 out of 20 games in the League and the Club Championship.  Perhaps we need a new trophy for this achievement.

Paul Evans has expended considerable effort in running the Club Championship and is sorry that he has not been able to present a report because of a computer virus which has destroyed his data. However, we do have a clear new winner in Colin Liddle and look forward to his return from working in Scotland during the last few months. Results suggest that the winner of the U150 championship, which Paul introduced to run alongside the main event, will be Tom Leah who has scored 3 points. Just behind Tom comes Eric Che with a very creditable score of 2.5.

Finally I take the opportunity to thank our Treasurer, John Regan, for his expertise and effort on the financial side and for his regular attendance on Thursday evenings.

Secretary's Report:

There was little of consequence to comment on this year. The Club had continued to run smoothly although there appears to be little interest in participation in the Club apart from formal matches. The ECF August grades have been updated on the Club website and it was noted that Taran Che's grade had increased by 19 points since January. Well done Taran!

Treasurer's Report:

John Regan presented the annual accounts. Post meeting note – these have now been audited and signed off by the Chairman. There is a reduction of £192.34 in the Club's reserves compared to last year. This is mainly due to a 50% increase in the usage of the room and John Regan had negotiated a refund of our Match fees for 2013 last year which of course is not available this year. On this basis he proposed keeping the fees the same at £20. This was agreed.

The question of whether ECF fees should be paid by members directly to ECF or through the Club was raised. This is entirely the choice of each member, but John Cooper pointed out that the cost is the same either way but if they are paid through the Club and hence through the Lancashire Chess Association, then £1 goes to the Lancashire Chess Association.

Tournament Organiser's Report: In the absence of Paul Evans and a computer problem there was no formal report. However it was agreed that the Club Championship had been well organised and it was hoped that Paul would agree to run it again this year. Colin Liddle won the Championship with 4.5 points and Tom Leah won the award for the best under 150 player with 3 points.

Captains' Reports

• First Team: The team ended the year mid-table boosted by Kit Hopkins who played 8 matches and Tom Leah who played 7 matches. Regrettably these two will not be available this year as they are away at University.

In the Challenge Cup we beat Poulton but lost in the final to Preston by 5 – 3.

• Second Team:

• Third Team: Report sent by Keith Sansom -

Played 8, Won 1, Drawn 1, Lost 6.

My thanks to all the players for supporting the team and especially to Pat and John Regan for standing in as Captain when I was unavailable.

I was also very pleased to hear that Dennis has recovered. He has been a stalwart player for the team.

Although we struggled in Division B, we finished with an excellent win against Poulton 2 and I would like to try another year in this division to give the team some strong opposition.

It was agreed that the third team would remain in Division B

• Fourth Team:

Although the fourth team ended the season in last place it provided the opportunity for eleven members to play competitive chess and, as in the case of Taran who won four of his five matches, to develop their skills. It was agreed to continue with four teams this year.

• Rapidplay Second Team

The second Team, captained by Geoff Robinson and Pat Coleman aided by Dennis Davies, Ricky Lord and John Cox won a close competition, beating Poulton in the final.

Election of Officers and Committee:

The Club Officials and Team Captains all confirmed their willingness to continue for another year and were elected unopposed.

John Cooper undertook to ask Paul Evans to be the Tournament Organiser again.

Programme for next Season:

The only event that can be arranged prior to the League defining its programme is the Silver Queen Tournament. The date for this had to be changed from that previously publicised due to the Club Room being double booked. It is now on Thursday 17th September.

Presentation of Club Trophies:

• The Len Gibbins Memorial Cup was presented to John Cox for taking on the onerous duties as Secretary and Webmaster for the Club.

• The Club Championship was won by Colin Liddle and the under 150 prize by Tom Leah.

• Phil Raynor was declared to be Player of the Year for his outstanding achievement of winning 5.5 points from seven first team games and 11.5 points in a total of twenty Club games. Sorry Phil but there is no prize for this!

Other Business: Colin Wilks was welcomed as a new Club Member