Keverel Chess

Archive for the ‘Exeter & District League’ Category

The Newman Cup is DCCA’s RapidPlay trophy. As in recent years, the only entries were Exmouth, Tiverton and Seaton, playing each other at home and away. Last Wednesday evening was Exmouth’s last match, entertaining Seaton at their Age Concern Day Centre in New Street. Having beaten and drawn  against Tiverton, and beaten Seaton away, and knowing that Seaton had beaten Tiverton in their first encounter, the title was Exmouth’s to lose. Not that anything was to be taken for granted as Seaton were able to field a much stronger team for this 2nd match.

In fact, after losing the toss and having Black on Bds. 1 & 3 Seaton won the first round. With colours reversed the crucial moment came after Stephens and Wensley won on Bds 1 & 2. Jones was locked into a rook and pawn ending against the dangerous M. Adams (Martyn, not Mickey). With two minutes left each, the play was getting wild, and although Jones had what was probably a winning position – with best play -  anything could go wrong, and knowing that a draw would ensure at least a drawn match, and with it, the title, offered a draw which was quickly accepted. Another factor in his offer, was that Blake was winning on Bd. 4. but in the last few seconds the win evaporated, and the match was, in fact, drawn.

Exmouth thus finished this tournament with a win and draw against both opponents.

The Exeter & District League’s annual “Coast vs Country” match took place on Tuesday 12th June at the Manor Hotel, Exmouth, by the kind invitation of the Management. This event started in 2003 as a celebration of the League’s 50 years’ existence and has been held ever since. The Coast team comprises players from the clubs of Exmouth, Sidmouth and Seaton, while players from Exeter and Tiverton make up the Country team. There is always a problem equalising the numbers in both teams and there has to be a bit of flexibility, with one or two players helping out the opposition, but the matches are usually very closely fought.

This year, the recipe was complicated somewhat, by a late influx of juniors, and after the teams were evened out, the even later withdrawal of John Morrison, left 11 yr old Guy Susevee without an opponent. Nevertheless, he ended up having probably more chess than anyone else in the room, as the early finishers gave him several friendly games.

Looking at the team lists on paper beforehand, the Coast team were bracing themselves for a sizeable loss, as they were outgraded by 6 points per board, on average, but it didn’t work out like that, with the Coast eventually winning by one of the bigger margins in the series 11.5 – 6.5.  9 year-old Reese Whittington set the ball rolling by beating his opponent in 8 moves, and it went on from there.

The final details were as follows:

In recent years this event has been combined with the presentation of trophies to teams who have won their leagues during the season. This year it was decided to hold that back until the AGM in September. However, one presentation was made; this was by Devon’s match captain, Brian Hewson, to his Player of the Year, Mark Abbott, who had won all his 5 games for the county during the season. As neither would be at Devon’s AGM on the following Friday, it seemed appropriate to take this opportunity.

Mark Abbott (r) - Devon's Player of the Year 2012.

Bds 6 (nearest) to 1.

Bds. 11 (nearest) - 16.

Bds 17 & 18.

Hodge vs Amos & Palmer vs Waley.

Top game: Stephens vs Hewson.

Coast team's top players.

Thirty-six league players of varying strength gathered at the Manor Hotel, Exmouth for the annual prizegiving, to be followed by an 18 board match between the clubs of  the coastal towns against those situated inland.

First of all, John Stephens accepted the Division I Cup on behalf of the Exmouth Club, having won it the week before (see account). Jonathan Waley, as captain of the Exeter team  was presented with the Div. II cup, followed by John Knowles who won Div III with the Tiverton Ravens. (See photographs below)

The match followed immediately and it wasn’t long before the Coast team established a small lead of 1 or 2 points as the results started to come in, with a good number of draws. Eventually, the Coast had a 2 point lead with 3 games still in progress, though Abbott and Rogers had their backs to the wall in losing endgames. So with one game still in play, the scores were level, and Obie Ebanks, a new arrival at the Exmouth Club, had a small advantage against schoolboy S. Keat, but was having to face a strong attack, when Keat’s flag fell but neither noticed in the excitement. With Keat’s clock 3 minutes past flag-fall, Ebanks forced the win of a rook and the game was up. Keat resigned not having realised he’d already technically lost minutes earlier, though, of course, the win has to be claimed.

Full details:-

John Stephens (Exmouth) receives the Div. 1 cup from Brian Aldwin.

Jonathan Waley receives the Div. II cup.

John Knowles is truly delighted with his Div. III trophy.

Paulden and Stephens reprise their encounter of the previous week.

Hodge vs Ten-Holter (nearest)

General view.

General view#2

Dominic Mackle had a fairly comfortable game against Dr. Adam Woodruff and his win took him to clear 3rd.

In the Major Section Jamie Morgan of Exeter came clear 1st. Although he lives in the city, he has yet to visit their club. He was born in Guernsey and learned his chess in the far west of Cornwall, and should now prove an asset to East Devon chess.

The Minor proved a triumph for Christine Constable, who, with her husband John, runs the bookstall and provided all the equipment. It was the first clear 1st in her chess career, and it is a moot point as to whether she is the first lady player to win outright any section at this event. Someone should consult the record books. Unfortunately, the trophy hadn’t been returned by its previous winner, (no names – no pack drill) so she, too, will have to wait until Easter to receive it.

The full details were:-

 Although the event passed pleasantly enough, there remains to question of falling numbers – a drop of c. 15 per year over the past few years is unsustainable without some adjustments to the formula. The Committee will be considering the possiblities – whether it be a new cheaper venue, an increase in entry fees, cutting out the Friday evening round, the formation of a Friends of the Congress fund, similar to Paignton, or a more rigorous “selling” of the event, if that is possible. They are not alone in this – many events are having to take stock in the wake of falling numbers.

Meanwhile, here are some scenes from the final round:- 

Rudd vs Homer gets under way on Bd. 1.

Mackle with Black managed to beat Woodruff and come clear 3rd

Christine Constable on her way to a personal best.

The youngest competitor, 10 yr old Theo Slade, won a Grading Prize.

Mark V. Taylor looking after the Cup for Jack Rudd.

Exeter resident, Jamie Morgan, winner of the Major Plate.

Christine Constable looking pleased with her win in the Minor - very pleased!

After 3 rounds of the congress, only one player is left with a maximum score in the Open; Stephen Homer of Exminster. There are four players a half point behind – these are Alan Brusey, Steve Dilleigh, Mark Taylor and Jack Rudd, the latter two having drawn against each other in Rd. 3.  Tomorrow’s winner must surely come from this group.

All five have a Devon connection in common: Brusey and Rudd live in the county, while Dilleigh was brought up in Plymouth and Taylor was a student at Exeter University.

The 36th East Devon Congress got under way at the appointed time of 7 p.m. tonight with a few words of welcome from the Secretary, Alan Maynard. The overall entry was 15 down on last year, which was, in turn, 15 down on 2009, a worrying trend for the Committee to consider at their post-congress meeting. Strangely, while the Open and Major sections held up well, it was numbers in the Minor Section that were down. By and large, most of the players here were familiar faces, the usual suspects, one might say; if the congress is to continue in its present form, it must attract many more newcomers.

Paul Helbig  of Bristol returned to defend the trophy he won last year, hopes dented by the unexpected appearance of  IM Jack Rudd, hot foot from the Brighton International that finished mid-week, and clear favourite here. Other contenders for a prize in the Open include John Wheeler, Graham Bolt and Dominic Mackle.

General view of the playing hall.

Open Section: Rd. 1 Bd. 1 Rudd vs Woodruff.

Dave Rapkins (formerly Exmouth) greets Alan Brusey, former Devon Champion.

Tim Paulden, (rt: Exeter League Secretary) welcomes Oliver Wensley, ungraded newcomer.

Ray Chubb, Secretary of the Torbay Congress, gets started.

10 yr old Theo Slade of North Cornwall gets in some practice before his England U-11 team trials next month in Liverpool.

This annual event is scheduled for a Sunday in January, when teams of 12 players are invited from each of quarter of Devon. It usually involves three teams, but this year all areas were able to raise a side, and they met at Exeter, at the Isca Centre, a comfortably appointed indoor bowls and bridge club, recently built on the site of the old County Show Ground. The North team is drawn from the membership of Tiverton and Barnstaple, South comes from the various clubs in Torbay, while the East comprises clubs in the Exeter & District League and the West comes from the membership of the large Plymouth Club. The overall population base of each area is approximately equal at 250,000, so to that extent it tends to make for a close contest.    

Players are matched according to the Hutton Pairing system, which ensures that although the teams are mixed up, the formula guarantees that, for example where 4 teams are involved, four players from any one team will play each of the other teams, and of those four, 2 will have the white pieces and the other two being black. And, where there is an even number of teams, all players will be matched with someone on the same board number as themselves. It’s complicated, but it works and it’s fair.    

Before the start, the organiser, Alan Maynard, was the only person to have seen all the team lists and ventured that the winners would be either East or West, but no-one was fooled by that prophesy as anything can happen in this kind of match – and usually does.    

Certainly, the East started well, winning two of their 1st 3 games, while the West lost their 1st games, but from then on there was never more than a point between them. In the end, it came down to the very last game to finish, David Toms of the East against Richard Pollock of the West, Toms needing to win for East to share 1st place. In the early endgame, Toms had blundered away a bishop, having seen the trap in earlier analysis, but had two extra pawns for it. It came down to a bishop + 3 vs 5 pawns. Toms fought gamely to give himself a chance, and indeed both queened a pawn. But Pollock was able to force them both off immediately and was left with a solitary pawn free to get his 3rd queen. So the matter was settled by the last pawn in the last game to finish - it was that close.   

Summary Chart.

Details.

The Top 4 Boards Get the Show on the Road.

Kennedy vs Billings on Bd. 5 Make Their Opening Moves

 

All 4 Whites Here Won their Games; Allen, Murray, Knowles & Tatam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General view of the action - John Duckham in the foreground

 

    

The last and decisive game to finish - Pollock vs Toms

 

 

 

 

 

Organiser Alan Maynard (r) presents the trophy to Tony Tatam, Captain of the West team.

 

     

Exmouth’s 2nd match of the season and 1st at home was in Devon’s 3rd Division, the Schofield Cup, where their opponents again were Tiverton. In short they lost again by a similar margin to the 1st encounter in the Newman Cup.

Jones was the first to fall, blown away in 20 moves by a brilliant sacrificial attack. In the position below, Morrison (W) ignores the attack on his queen and plays 16.Nxe6.  Probably Black’s best reply was 16…Qb6 (not spotted), covering the fork on c7 and leaving White with 2 pieces en pris. Black, in fact, played 16…Qxc3, causing White momentary panic before he found 17.Bxb5! threatening mate and there is little Black can do.

White to play and win.

Oliver Wensley temporarily restored parity when his opponent had a senior moment in the following position. After a game in which both sides were level throughout, White played 36.Rf3?? thinking he was threating a back rank mate but missing the fact that his bishop is dropping.

White to move

 Juris Dzenis got his Queen trapped in the centre and struggled on gamefully but Knowles was too canny to let things slip. At the very end, Brian Gosling found himself as White in this position, but desperately short of time. He played 30.Nd5? which releases the Black Queen to come to d3 forking rook and knight. In fact, 30.Qxa4 would have almost forced the exchange of queens and left him with 2 connected, passed pawns, enough to win the game, all other things being equal.

White to play and either win or lose.

Annetts plays 2...Bf5

Maynard vs Wensley gets under way on Bd. 4

The League’s A.G.M. was held at Exeter School on Monday evening (20.09.2010).

President Dave Beckwith took the Chair, accompanied by Secretary Ken Derrick (Sidmouth). Also present were Hazel Welch and Les Porter (Seaton); Tim Paulden & Jonathan Waley (Exeter); Brian Aldwin (Tiverton); Bob Jones (Exmouth).

Ken Derrick stood down as League Secretary and Tim Paulden agreed to take over with help from Ken in the early months.

Silverware had already been presented at the Coast v Country match in June, but the final tables were tabled.

This annual match originated in 2003 as the League celebrated its 50th year with a match between the clubs situated on the coast (Exmouth, Sidmouth and Seaton) and those sited inland (Tiverton and the various clubs in Exeter).

After a gap of one year, it was decided to make this Coast vs Country formula an annual event, at the Manor Hotel on Exmouth’s Beacon.

This year Ken Derrick took over as Coast team Captain, with Brian Aldwin assembling the Country team, aiming at 20 players each. In the  event, 2 players failed to show and after a little judicious shuffling of players it settled down as a 19-a-side match. On paper the teams were closely matched from top to bottom.

Play was preceded by the prizegiving, with Brian Aldwin doing the honours.

Exeter captain Tim Paulden receives the Div. 1 Cup from Brian Aldwin.

Alan Dowse receives the Div Cup on behalf of Seaton.

Sidmouth member Tom Badlan receives the Div 3 cup.

Les Porter of Seaton receives the Div. 4 trophy.

Once play got under way, it wasn’t long before the first results came in and there was never more than a point between the two teams. Eventually, with the top two games reaching a climax, the teams were tied at 8.5 each. On Bd. 2, Mark Abbott won his game to put the Coast team in an unbeatable position, but Derrick and Waters were involved in a breathless time scramble and the clock could have decided matters. Derrick, however, managed to make about 30 moves almost instantaneously and snaffling some vital pawns in the process. With seconds left on both clocks, a dead drawn position was reached, the draw making the score 10 – 9 in the Coast’s favour.

Details:-