Altrincham & Hale Chess Club


Minutes of the 2019 AGM held at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday 10th September 2019


1. Attendance


Present – Mark Hann, Tony Lane, Nick Lowe, Tom Tomkins (Chair), Steve Ward, Bill McCartney, Peter Hawes, Denis Osborne, Vijay Kakarparthi, Sheraz Khalil, John Sharkey, Max Ye, Reg Clucas, Paul Holden


Apologies for absence – Thomas Hague, Steve Douglas


2. Minutes of the 2018 AGM were agreed as correct and accepted.


3. Matters arising -

The idea of putting advertising on the club website was looked at, but there was no perceivable benefit.


Our Facebook page has seen more activity this year, and we will look at setting up a Twitter account as well to give the club additional exposure.


4. Officers' reports


Treasurer's report for year ended 31 August 2019 (Nick Lowe)


It is harder to compare the accounts to last year since everyone now pays their own ECF membership rather than through the club, so although the gross income is down, so are the expenses.

Subscriptions have been received from sixteen members at £50 per person plus seven new members of £30 each.



On the expenditure side, the main items are:




The net result is a surplus of £84.15 leaving the accumulated reserves at £241.93.


Subscriptions for 2019/20 to agreed at AGM (see item 7 below)


The subscription rates:


The meeting voted unanimously to accept the accounts.


Secretary (Reg Clucas)


Until a few weeks ago it had been an uneventful year, with little to report from the Secretary’s point of view. Then in July the Woodheys Club informed us that as from September we will no longer have use of the front room. This is understandable as they run on a tight budget, and need to maximise income from that room. They also informed us that the club makes very little money during the summer months as it is little used by their members outside the snooker season – consequently they intend to start closing at 9:30 between mid-April and September next year.


Initially I thought that we would therefore need to find a new venue, and I began making enquiries with that in mind. However, the Woodheys Club have offered us a space between the two snooker rooms which can be closed off by sliding doors, giving privacy for matches. Last week I set up furniture in this area to ensure it has enough space to accommodate a 7 board match. It will also hopefully be quiet enough. We can continue to use the open area for friendly games, juniors, etc. So I am proposing that we stay at the Woodheys for the time being. If this arrangement proves unsuitable then we will resume our search for an alternative venue. As a precaution we have reduced our League involvement for the forthcoming season, so that there will be more flexibility if we need to rearrange fixtures – this will be covered under another agenda item.


When the summer comes it may be possible (perhaps at additional cost) to get them to stay open late for the two or three Summer League matches that we usually have. In the worst case we could always just play all our Summer League matches away, but we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. The Rapidplay League should be unaffected, as with a prompt start a Rapidplay match will finish by 9:30. The club championship may be a bit more difficult to fit in, but again that is something we can decide on next year.



The details of our teams' playing performance will be described in the various team captain's reports, so I will just mention the fact that we are now in the top division in all three of the leagues in which we particpate (Manchester League, Stockport League, and SE Lancs Summer League). I believe this is unprecedented in the club's history, and I hope you will all support the team captains by turning out for the teams when asked, to allow us to field the strongest teams possible.


Reg Clucas 10th September 2019


Competitions report (Mark Hann)


Club Championship

In a change from the previous years two-section, all-play-all format, the 2019 vintage of the Club Championship was run as a 5-round Swiss, attracting 12 players. As of today, the event is currently into the 4th round.


After 3 completed rounds, Tom had a perfect 3/3. Dave, Nick, Peter and Sheraz were in pursuit on 2/3, with a further 4 players on 1½. Victory for Tom in his 4th round game with Dave will set up a last round ‘decider’ with Peter, who has since moved onto 3/4. Any other result will mean that as many as 7 participants could still be in line to become club champion!


The Major Trophy, which is eligible to players graded below 120, is currently in Peter’s hands, although both Stuart and Thomas (who are both currently on 1½/3) could still catch him.



Blitz Tournament

This was held on May the 21st, attracting 16 participants, including, encouragingly, 5 junior members. The format was a 6-round Swiss, with 5 minutes per player for all moves.


A total of 47 of the 48 games ended decisively, with only the round 6 encounter between Reg and Tom drawn. This allowed them to share second place on 4½/6, half-a-point ahead of Harry and Vijay. The event was won by Mark with 6/6, thus retaining the trophy he shared with Danilo Soares in 2018. Kai and Shishir were the top-performing juniors, finishing sixth-equal with 3/6.


* * * * * *


Mark proposed that next year's Club Championship be played in the same Swiss format. This was agreed unanimously.


Team Captains' reports – Reports from the captains of the Manchester League, Stockport League and SE Lancs Summer League teams were read to the meeting, and can be found on the respective pages of the club website.


Stockport Rapidplay League report (Mark Hann)

We began the defence of our title - after our somewhat surprising success in 2018 - by beating Worsley Wizards 6-2 at The Woodheys. This defined our results trend for the Summer as, like a true 1980’s Luton Town on their plastic pitch, we were dominant at home, but couldn’t buy a win away! Marple, by a 6-2 scoreline, and both Wilmslow and Stockport Jacks by a score of 7-1, all came and went away empty handed. On our travels, we were less successful: a 4-4 draw at East Cheshire currently being our best result. We suffered a narrow 5-3 defeat at Ashton and a more punishing, although unreflective, 7-1 loss to Stockport Aces, who resumed their dominance of this competition following our success last year. If we can win our final game, away to Worsley Warriors, we will finish third, which would be an excellent achievement.


Having been a self-confessed non-enthusiast of this format, Tony promptly won 3 of his 4 head-to-head matches (drawing the other), whilst Reg won 4 and drew the other in his 5 appearances to date. Mark also won 5 of his 6 head-to-heads, losing only to Allan Beardsworth of Stockport. Dave, James (who is making his debut next week), Jeff, Mike, Sam, Tom and Vijay have also made valuable contributions to our continued success in this popular Summer format of the game.


I would like to warmly thank everyone for playing, sometimes at the last minute, and for making my job as Captain most straightforward.


5. Presentation of trophies


No presentations this year as the Blitz competition is the only event so far completed, and the trophy was presented on the night of the event.


6. League Entries for 2019-20


We will continue with one team in the Manchester League. This team was reprieved from relegation from A division due to the League decision to increase the number of clubs in this division.


In the Stockport League, we thought it prudent to drop one of our three teams in view of the uncertainty over our venue. Initially we decided to drop the B team, but in order to help the League to have a sensible number of teams in each division, we agreed to drop the Limit League team instead, so will run the A team and B team. The A team will play in Division 1, after Stockport B refused promotion, and the B team in Division 3.


7. Membership fees


It was decided that there were not enough members to permit a reduction in subscriptions to £45. It was also decided to introduce a small membership fee for juniors.


So the subscription rates will be:


The meeting voted unanimously in favour of the above rates.


The above rates do not include ECF membership. The ECF now have a new online membership scheme making it very easy for those who need it to take out membership (i.e. anyone playing more than three games in any league or the Club Championship).


The meeting also discussed the possibility of having a lower tier membership rate, for those who do not visit the club very often. This was prompted by queries from a couple of members earlier in the year. It was felt that it would be difficult to determine who should qualify for such a rate; however it was suggested that infrequent visitors might instead just pay a fixed daily fee whenever they visit. It was decided to look at this outside the meeting to decide feasibility. The meeting voted unanimously for the Officers to progress this as appropriate.


8. Election of Officers


Secretary - Reg Clucas to continue

Treasurer - Nick Lowe to continue

Competition Organiser – Mark Hann to continue

New member representative - Steve Ward to continue

Manchester League Captain - Tony Lane to continue

Stockport League A team - Reg Clucas to continue

Stockport League B team- Vijay Kakarparthi is standing down; Steve Ward will take over this role

Limit League team – N/A this season

Summer League team - Tony Lane to continue

Summer Rapidplay League team - Mark Hann to continue

President - Tony Lane to continue

AGM Chair – Tom Tomkins to continue


The meeting voted unanimously for the above.


9. Any other business


It was suggested that it might be possible to meet on a different night of the week, to enable us to continue using the front room. (Subsequent to the meeting we enquired about this with the Woodheys Club, and they advised we could have Wednesday night – however, the club closes at 10.30 on Wednesdays, which would be unsuitable for league matches. So we will continue to meet on Tuesdays).