Altrincham and Hale Chess Club
Annual General Meeting
Tuesday 26th June 2007
Navigation Hotel, Altrincham

1 Present at the meeting: Tom Tomkins, Majorie Rhodes, Karl Lockett, Bill McCartney, Richard White, Leslie Hebb, Steve Ward, John Roff, Kurt Linke, Fainks Rossouw, Chris McCoy, Wayne Kranz, Dennis Osborne, Nick Lowe and Tony Lane.

2 Apologies were received from David Hughes, Graham Bird and the Gerlagh family

3 The minutes of the AGM on 27 June 2006 were agreed as a true record, except for some inconsistencies in the attendance record.

4 The only matter arising from the 2006 minutes was that the subscription rate for Junior members (under 18) was subsequently agreed as nil.

5 Written or verbal reports were received from the following officers:
· Tom Tomkins – Secretary’s report (already posted to this Blog)
· Nick Lowe – Financial Statements showing a surplus for the year of £1.69 and closing net funds of £306.14 were formally approved by the meeting.
· Tony Lane – Manchester league team as follows:

Last year, we justified the decision of the fixtures meeting to retain us in our favoured Division B of the Manchester League, despite finishing in a relegation position at the end of 2004/05. Although we justified the decision, we finished with only three teams below us and therefore entered the coming season prepared for a challenge, given the loss of our regular top board David Bryan who moved to Chester. 

The start of the season indicated there may be a struggle ahead. We lost to Stockport 2 5:2 and were defeated in our first home match by Atherton 4½:2½. Things seemed to have improved in the next match when both Captains signed off a draw in the match with Bury 2, only to realise in the post match analysis that Karl’s assumed win was actually a perpetual check. The score sheets hastily downgraded him from a win to a draw resulting in a win for Bury 2. Results picked up in the next match with a victory at 3Cs by the narrowest of margins. This was followed by a 6:1 thrashing at Urmston from which we recovered with a draw against Heywood 2. The Reyner Shield match was a predictable 7:0 loss against 3Cs first team, with their bottom board Ray English outgrading our top board Nick Lowe by at least 30 points. The absence of top board strength was then cruelly exposed at Rochdale, where we lost on the top four boards and won on the bottom three, with Nick losing the top board game to our former player Daniel Sullivan, who now works in Rochdale. We did manage to follow this up with our second win of the season at Atherton 2 4½:2½ and a draw against Chorlton 2, but we lost 5½:1½ in the final match against Chorlton’s third team, who bizarrely finished the season third, 5 points and four places ahead of their second team. 

In our 10 league matches we scored 28½ points against 41½ points. Our two wins and two draws compared to three wins and one draw last year, which had been achieved from just nine matches as opposed to ten we played this year. Our overall points tally places us ahead of Bury 2 on board count difference and a point ahead of Rochdale. However, Rochdale’s game against Stockport 2 does not appear to have been played and we therefore await confirmation of the final placings. 

There were only nine players who played during the season. Although I was the sole ever present, another seven people played in at least eight matches, and the ninth member, David Hughes played in five games. The only person to achieve a plus score was Karl Lockett who had a tremendous season registering 6 points from nine matches. I was the next highest points scorer with 4½, for which I am indebted to Nick who occupied the top board vacated by David and ground out three draws during the season. Richard and Graham did not fair much better on their regular appearances on three and four but Bill and Tom managed to secure 4 points from their matches on the lower boards. Kurt and David both made contributions to the matches in which we secured points in the league. 

We are hopeful that we did enough to secure our position in Division B, and if this is confirmed, we will embark on our tenth anniversary in that Division next year, in the period since we joined the Manchester League in 1993/94. 

· David Hughes – Stockport league first team, as follows:

This season we played in Division 2 of the Stockport League after relegation from Division 1 the previous season. We started the season in great form with successive wins over East Cheshire A and Macclesfield C, two drawn matches against Stockport C and Marple B, and a win over Macclesfield C. At Christmas this meant we had 10 points out of a possible 12. The second half of the season was disappointing and we lost every match, ending the season with 10 points out of a possible 24, and in 6th place out of 7 teams in Division 2.

In the Charnley Cup we met a strong High Peak team in the first round and were defeated 5-1.

Altogether 12 club members played in the league and cup this season. These were: Graham Bird, David Bryan, David Hughes, Tony Lane, Kurt Linke, Karl Lockett, Nick Lowe, Bill McCartney, Chris McCoy, Daniel Sullivan, Tom Tomkins, and Richard White. The points scored this season were as follows: David Hughes had 8, Nick Lowe had 5.5, Daniel Sullivan had 5, Richard White and Tom Tomkins had 3.5, Kurt Linke had 2.5, Chris McCoy and Karl Lockett had 2, and David Bryan, Bill McCartney and Graham Bird had 1.5.

My thanks to all who played this season. Unfortunately two of our strongest players, David Bryan and Daniel Sullivan, won't be able to play for the team next season but we have some up and coming young players in the club so I have no doubt that we can field a competitive team next season.

· Karl Lockett – Stockport league second team
· Steve Ward – Trafford league team; we won this league!
· Tony Lane – South East Lancashire Summer league team
· Nick Lowe – Club competitions

6 The following trophies were presented:
Captains Cup - Lightning competition – Tom Tomkins
Presidents Cup – Club championship – Nick Lowe
Committee Cup – Club competition runner up – Richard White
Grand Prix – overall performance – Richard White
The new Major competition for ungraded/lower graded players had been jointly won by Reyer Gerlagh, Peter Gerlagh and Joris Gerlagh

7 After a discussion, it was agreed that team arrangements will be the same as in 2006-07 except that Steve Ward will aim to organise for two teams to compete in the Trafford league. There was interest from at least four members in the proposed Stockport league quickplay competition.


8 Subscription rates for 2007-08 will be unchanged:
· Ordinary members - £20
· Retired or student members - £10
· Junior members (under 18) - free

9 It was agreed that the scoring for the Grand Prix will be simplified to a percentage basis weighted as follows:
· 60% on the outcome of the main club competition (the same basis for both the Premier and the Major divisions)
· 25% based on the lightning competition
· 15% based on the handicap competition.

10 If numbers and available dates make it feasible, either or both of the main club competitions will become all-play-all.

11 Nick will aim to organise some form of pre-season competition.

12 The following officers were elected for the year 2007-08:
· Tom Tomkins – Secretary
· Nick Lowe – Treasurer
· Tony Lane – Manchester league team captain
· David Hughes – Stockport league first team captain
· Karl Lockett – Stockport league second team captain
· Steve Ward – Trafford league team captain
· Tony Lane – South East Lancashire Summer league team captain
· Nick Lowe – Club competitions organiser

13 Karl reported that the Stockport league had invited comments on the number of players per team in the lower division and the meeting supported the proposal for teams of five.

14 There was no other business for the AGM and will be presented to them jointly in due course.


Altrincham and Hale Chess Club
Secretary’s report 2006-07

First, I must thank Richard White for handing over detailed records, both on paper and by e-mail, so that I was able to take up the reins easily. It has proved much more difficult than might be expected to persuade organisations such as the Sale & Altrincham Messenger and Trafford to update their details, despite advising them several times!

An initial key priority has been pulling all membership details together into one spreadsheet, including e-mail contacts where available. Membership numbers have continued to grow – albeit slowly (partly due to a few departures) - and now stand at 26 active members, compared with 23 at the same point in 2006.

We have run a total of four teams during the Winter season, including our first year with a second team in the Stockport league and continue to participate in the South East Lancashire Summer league. Team captains will report on the results. As a result, it proved quite difficult for Nick to fit all of the internal club competitions in – but they were all completed and results will be confirmed and trophies presented at the AGM.

From a very basic technical background, I finally managed to set up our blog as a first presence on the internet and subsequently also our website – all at no cost, of course.

Two members (other than myself) have “registered” on our blog, which enables them to add their own content, etc. I would encourage on-line members to do so (if practical) and also let me have content (e.g. games, photos, other feedback) for either the website or the blog. I see the website as our “shop window” introducing the club, providing useful links and other background, while the blog can be a growing “diary” and ongoing archive.

The club has been promoted through a flyer on the Altrincham Tesco community noticeboard and various Trafford and other registers, etc. However, I would suggest that it should be a priority for 2007-08 to seek to further raise our profile and ultimately increase our membership base – in particular in underrepresented groups – such as younger players and women. I also wonder if we could build stronger links with Schools at all levels.

The trophies (some having been finally recovered from a previous winner who had moved to the South Coast) needed to be updated with engraving recent years’ winners, and in one case, urgently repaired. This has now been done, including the current year’s winners.