Altrincham & Hale Chess Club

Minutes of the 2025 AGM held at 7:30 p.m. on Monday 18

August 2025

Attendees – Tony Lane, Nick Lowe, Thomas Hague (Chair), Steve Ward, Reg Clucas,

Danilo Soares, Daniel Clucas, Elliot Hunt

1. Apologies for absence – Tom Tomkins, Jane Brophy, John Licata, Andy Tang

2. Minutes of 2024 AGM were agreed to be correct.

3. Matters arising

• We have verified that we do not need to register with the Information Commissioner's

Office.

• We have had a sign advertising the club erected outside Timperley Village Club.

4. Officers' reports

Treasurer's Report

Subscriptions have been received from a total of 29 members; up from 21 last year and is

made up of:

• 16 existing people. 14 paid the full rate and two paid a proportion as they did not attend for

most of the year.

• 6 new members

• 5 juniors

• 2 new juniors

On the expenditure side, these were:

• Rent, being £20 per week for 46 weeks and includes the accrual for August. Total is £920.

• The regular expenses being league fees and website costs are slightly more than last year,

although there maybe some league fees to pay to the Stockport League.

• Periodically we need to purchase score sheets, so this is unlikely to appear again for a little

while.

• The bad debt was for owed by a potential new member last year but left before paying the

remaining £5 owed.

• There is a one-off cost of having a sign outside the building of £38.15.

The net result is a surplus of £106.43 leaving the accumulated reserves at £566.69.

If membership numbers remain at a similar level and rent does not increase, then I believe the

subscription can be reduced to £48 for the coming year, equivalent to £4 per month.

The accounts for the year to August 31st 2025 are below.

Nick Lowe 18th August 2025

ALTRINCHAM&HALECHESSCLUB

AccountsForYearEnded31August2025

2025 2024

£ £ £ £

Income Existingmembers 16 875.00 16 1,280.00

Newmembers 6 150.00 3 125.00

Existingjuniors 5 100.00 2 40.00

Newjuniors 2 10.00

Interest 15.47 8.20

29 1,150.47 21 1,453.20

Expenditure Rent 920.00 865.00

Insurance 0.00 0.00

ManchesterLeague 17.00 15.00

StockportLeague 0.00 0.00

SummerLeague 4.00 8.00

Websitecosts 32.40 30.00

Outsidesign 38.15 0.00

Scoresheets 27.49 0.00

Baddebts 5.00 0.00



Totalexpenses (1,044.04) (918.00)

Surplusfortheyear 106.43 535.20

Reservesboughtforward 460.26 (74.94)

Reservescarryforward 566.69 460.26

BALANCESHEET

Balances BuildingSociety

18Aug25 650.69 31Aug24 505.26

Cash 0.00 20.00

Debtor Subscriptions 0.00 5.00

Prepayment SubscriptionsFarisZaheer/NickLowe (24.00) (40.00)

Accrual RentforAugust (60.00) 0.00

Creditors 0.00 (30.00)

NetAssets 566.69 460.26

Secretary's Report 2025

Not much to report that is not covered under other agenda items. We have had a steady flow of

prospective new members coming to the club, many of whom have become members after the

initial free 3 month period.

Reg Clucas 17th August 2025

Team captain's report – Stockport League

Once again we had a mid-table finish in Division 2, winning three and drawing one of our eight

matches. We more or less alternated wins with defeats throughout the season, so were never in

contention for promotion.

In the Charnley Cup knockout competition we were drawn away to a very strong Urmston team,

and only Tony Lane managed to ‘trouble the scorers’ with a creditable draw.

For the first time since 2018 we entered a team in the Limit League division. This is for players

with ratings no higher than 1600. Team members were mixture of established players and those

who were getting their first experience of League chess. The team finished 8th out of twelve teams,

with four wins and two draws from eleven matches.

A total of twelve players turned out for the team, but at times it was a struggle to find four willing

players, especially for away matches. We managed to get by with just one defaulted board, but it

does concern me slightly that it was difficult to fill the team. One solution might be to enter the

second team in the main league, which has no rating limit, though it would of course mean tougher

opposition which might not be ideal for our less experienced players. But team entries will be

discussed under a later Agenda item.

Whichever division our second team plays in, it would be good to have a volunteer to perform the

captain’s duties.

Reg Clucas 17th August 2025

Team captain's report – Manchester League

My reports in prior years have tended to follow a familiar pattern. They started by placing the

current season within some historical context, noting the division in which we competed, how we

had fared in that division in the past and noting any changes in composition of the divisions and the

clubs competing therein. The reports then gave full details of both the team's and players' results.

This year, I've decided to break with tradition and to adopt a slightly different approach. I will

simply point you in the right direction to other sources where you can study all this detailed

information at your leisure and confine my report to a summary which will hopefully leave a little

bit more time to play chess this evening.

Your first reference point should be the excellent club website maintained by Reg, which you can

find at altrincham4chess.org.uk. In the left-hand margin click on 'Manchester League team' to

access all our team's results, brief reports and the odd game played. Above the results summary

there is a further link to view the equivalent information for previous seasons. Beneath the summary

is another link to the ECF League Management System (LMS) for the Manchester Chess Federation

(MCF). If you click again on the top right of the LMS MCF home page you can see full details of

match results, all the league tables and past seasons information by selecting "fixtures", "league

tables" and "past seasons" respectively from the menu provided. Furthermore, by selecting

Altrincham & Hale from "clubs" at the bottom of the menu you can then select "stats" to see how

each player fared during the season.

In summary, the club website shows we lost our opening Wahltuch Cup fixture to Eccles 3, who

went on to win the cup itself. The site also confirms that the planned league divisional

reorganisation referred to in my closing comments of last year's AGM report proceeded as planned.

Consequently, we ingeniously avoided relegation from B division and were placed in the expanded

new B division which was split into two regional sections. In B (1) division, in the continued

absence of Danilo and Mark on the top boards, we failed to win a match for the second season

running, drawing 2 and losing 6. Given the Covid affected period prior to then, it's a sad fact that

we have not won a Manchester League match since 21 March 2019! However, you can see from the

reports on the site that we did come close on occasions.

The league table on the LMS MCF site shows that our 2 points left us firmly at the bottom of the 5

teams in the league, 6 points adrift of the University and Chorlton 2, However, our board points

score in the league of 15 for and 31 against was better than last year despite losing 6-0 and 5-1 in

our two games against the clear champions, Eccles 2. The aggregate board points score of 46 is 2

below the expected 48 as we were the beneficiary of defaults on 2 boards while I'm delighted to

report that we defaulted on none.

The club's stats on the LMS MCF site list the 13 players who turned out during the season. They

show that the nucleus of the team were 6 players who played in more than half the matches. They

comprise 3 regulars from last year's team, Reg, Sheraz and myself, a returning Nick and 2 new

recruits Simon and James who helped to strengthen our team. In fact, James was comfortably our

top scorer with 3.5 points and Simon was one of only 4 other players scoring at least 1.5 points. The

only other squad change in the season was AJ's retum to the US finishing his spell with us with an

impressive win and draw, while we were able to replace him with Nicolas on a part time basis as his

appearances are restricted to when he is not studying at Leicester University.

As usual, I would like to thank all the team members fortheir support. During the month ahead we

will no doubt discover whether we play in C division, or perhaps ingenuity will strike again and

we'll get another opportunity to play in B division.

Tony Lane 18 August 2025

Team captain's report – Summer League

My Summer League report this year has been modified in style in the same manner as set out in my

Manchester League report. Accordingly, I refer you once again to Reg's excellent club website. A

click on "Summer League teams" will give you access to all the results of both our teams, brief

reports and some excellent games. In particular, I can recommend Danilo's first game for nearly two

years where he demolishes a Woman FIDE Master, former England Olympiad Team member and

2013 British Ladies Champion in just 19 moves! As usual, there is a link above the results summary

to enable you to view the equivalent information for previous seasons. At the top of the page you

will also find a further link to the South East Lancashire Summer Chess League (SELSCL) website.

On that site you can see full details of game results and league tables by selecting the appropriate

heading from the menu in the left-hand margin.

At the time of writing, the club website shows we narrowly lost our first two B division fixtures and

our cup match against Eccles. In fact, the cup match went right down to the wire with 5 draws and

Reg still battling against his bête noire, Mike Surtees on top board. Thankfully, Reg was unable to

obtain a further draw as that would have resulted in an outcome decided upon by the toss of a coin,

and we all know what that would have been given my own participation! The results summary then

shows a resounding 5-1 win over Stockport followed by two blanks. I can fill one of those in for

you by reporting our heavy loss at Eccles last Thursday. The game results for that match are on the

league website. They show that in one of the highlights of my season, my half point against a player

rated nearly 2000 proved to be our only score. Eccles even denied Danilo his usual success by

pulling a rabbit out of the hat and playing GM Danny Gormally, who they registered on the day of

the match. Unfortunately for Reg, this left him playing Mike Surtees on board 2 in yet another long

match with an all too familiar result! The final blank will only be completed once we have played

our last game of the season against 3Cs 2 on 11 September.

The current league table on the league website shows the importance of our win over Stockport at

the beginning of the month. It gave us our first 2 points and lifted us above Stockport and off the

bottom of the table. Indeed, prior to seeing Eccles' team sheet last Thursday we were reasonably

confident that we may secure a further win in that match, which would place us third in the table

and possibly set us up for a title decider at 3Cs in the final game of the season. Unfortunately, last

Thursday's result has shifted our focus for that match from clinching a title to avoiding relegation! It

also threw us into a negative board points score as we now have 10 points for and 14 against.

An indication of who played for the team and how they fared is also available on the league website

by selecting "current performance" and then selecting our club to view the performance of just our

players. However, only those players who have played a minimum of 3 Summer League games are

included in this data. Consequently, the list displayed includes just 5 members of our team. To see

their first team results you need to strip out James's loss and Vijay's win on boards 1 and 2

respectively of our second team match at Atherton. You will then see that James was our top man

again with a 50% score of 2½ points, playing in all 5 matches as did Reg, Simon and I. However, in

performance terms Reg's 40% score on higher boards gave him the top rating of 1945 placing him

comfortably in the league's top 20 rated players. There were 5 other members who played fewer

than 3 games for the team. In addition to Danilo who made a very welcome return for the last 2

matches, Sheraz was impressively unbeaten with a win and a draw, while Nicolas, Nick and Bill

also contributed with game points.

All that remains is for me to effectively copy and paste the final paragraph of my Manchester

League report by thanking all the team members for their support, and during the month ahead we

will discover whether we are likely to play next year in C division or get another opportunity to play

in B division.

Tony Lane 18 August 2025

We also have a 2nd team in the lowest division of the Summer League (E Division West), and have

used it to give inexperienced players the chance to play league chess – we have used 10 different

players in the three matches so far, two of which have been won. If we win the remaining two then

we have a chance of winning the West section, which would put us into a play-off against the E

Division East winners (Bury 2) for the E Division championship.

5. League Entries for 2025-26

As usual we have entered our first team in both the Manchester League and the Stockport League.

We will also enter a 2nd team in the Stockport League. We will again canvass members as to

whether they would like to play in the Limit league division, which is for players rated up to 1600.

As mentioned in the Stockport League captain's report, we at times struggled to fill this team,

especially for away matches. If we can't get enough people to commit to playing away matches then

we may instead enter the team in the main league, where there is no rating limit so we would have

more players to choose from. The drawback to this, of course, is that the team would likely be

playing stronger opposition, which is not ideal for our inexperienced players.

It would be good if someone could volunteer to captain the 2nd team. One perk of the job is that the

captain can pick him/herself for every match if they so wish!

6. Internal Competitions

Nick Lowe will organise a Blitz competition before Christmas, when we know which dates will be

free of League fixtures.

We will canvass members to see who would like to play in the Club Championship (standard play)

next year, and what format it should take.

7. Membership fees

Adult subscriptions for the year September 1st 2025 to 31st August 2026 will be £48, a 20%

reduction from the previous year. Juniors will remain at £20.

8. Election of Officers

The following officers indicated their willingness to continue and were elected nem con.

Secretary - Reg Clucas to continue

Treasurer - Nick Lowe to continue

New member representative - Steve Ward to continue

Manchester League Captain - Tony Lane to continue

Stockport League team - Reg Clucas to continue (we may subsequently appoint a captain for the

Limit League team)

Summer League team - Tony Lane to continue

President - Tony Lane to continue

Chairman – Tom Tomkins to continue

9. Any other business

None