On Saturday, Surrey beat Greater Manchester 9½ to 6½ to reach the final of the County Chess Championships. Surrey went 2-0 up after Manchester had a pair of players turn up an hour and a half late and default, and then kept the lead all the way through. Streatham & Brixton Chess Club member Robin Haldane played for Surrey ... but alas lost his game on time. The Open team will now face Lancashire in the final on July 7th, same day that the Under 175 team, who qualified by beating Yorkshire, face Middlesex in their final.
Best of luck for the double!
11 comments:
Why doesn't the county chamionship just have more boards and scrap the Under 175 thing? That way Under 175s can then say they play for their counties first team. It can be somewhat random whether you have a load of 173s or 178s in any given season. The winning side could have a lot of under-rated juniors or people who do badly at faster time limits (I realise these two are likely to work against each other).
If the ratings systems could be standardised, I think I could get in the England under 185 side as I am 184 and have had a good season. I could then fool people who didn't have enough knowledge or couldn't be bothered to work it out that I was an England chess player. Someone who never has a bad season (like I did last year) would be unlikely to get in the team as they would not be good 'value' for their grade.
Andrew
There are also under 150, 125 and 100 teams...
Well that seems even odder to me.
Andrew
Perhaps I should see if there is an under 100 (or equivalent) Middlesex Tennis, Poker and 10km running teams. I reckon I could get into those. Quite fancy representing England under 50's at football also (are their home games played at New Wembley)?
Andrew
There are England B sides and reserve teams and things like that, so it's not entirely out of kilter with other sports. And it's basically just an opportunity for players to get games against similar standard opposition.
Herts U150s beat Nottinghamshire (albeit on board count after it finished 8 - 8! I drew on top board), so we're going to the finals as well on 7th July! Yippee!
On the subject of the open/ U175/ U150 etc teams, we (Herts) haven't run an U175 side as one of the other SCCU counties invoked some bizarre rule which would have meant home and away matches for each fixture. Given that the U175 would comprise the lower echelons of the open team, plus the stronger players from the U150, it was felt that we'd end up with too many matches.
Antony
Is your grade below 150 now? I'm sure you would have ben ineligible a season or two ago...
Antony,
I think the U175 matches are home and away as there are only four counties competing. I heard that next year Kent will enter a team so if Herts do too then likely each team would play each other team once for five matches, one less than in recent seasons.
Angus.
I thought Antony was higher than 150 too.
I was sure he must be lower than 150. But there again I have played him this year! Only joking Antony btw.
Andrew
Hi chaps,
My grade's on a slow downward spiral.. 149 this season, 152 the season before and 154 the season before that - so quite right, Justin, I wasn't eligible for the U150s for a couple of years. They bit my hand off this time (nice to be wanted!). We're playing Lancashire in the final which will be tough. Look forward to catching up with fellow S&BCC members playing on the same day!
Antony
Post a Comment