Blah: - the Bulletin
Editors Page.
I will use this page to give
information or just comments… if I remember I will change the Button date at
each update.
MCM 18th August 25
The meeting was held on Monday 18 August 2025 at Shirley &
Wythall CC with the following in attendance: Dan Lambourne (President
& Red), Tim Lane (Hon. Gen. Sec. & SB), Richard Collett
(Hon Treasurer), Alan Woollaston (Hon. Records Secretary), Matt
Allen (Sol), Bruce Baer (CB), Terence Benson
(WEs), Mike Biddle, (Rules & Osc), Gordon Christie
(SW), Stewart Fishburne (Hal), Des Green (Eligibility
& Col), Reg Jones (Ky), Christopher Lewis (ECF),
Phil Maddocks (MW), John Moore (WEs), Peter Nixon
(Wsk), Barry Smith (Mer), Julian
Summerfield (Sol), Dave R Thomas, (Fixtures &
Grades), Terry Walker (Match Committee) – 20 members.
1. Apologies
Apologies had been received from Golam Ali, Daniel Billington, Chris
Evans, Robert Glass, Peter Oliver, Richard Reynolds and Paul Sharratt.
2. Minutes of Previous Meetings
The minutes of the Meetings of 7 April 2025 and 9 June 2025 had previously
been circulated. A motion accepting them
as a true record of those Meetings was proposed by TB and seconded by DG. Copies were signed by the President.
3. Matters Arising
As requested, the Hon. Gen. Sec. had sent a reminder to clubs
about the facility in LMS for listing
players who could attract game fee payments on 30 June by not having a current
ECF membership.
4. Report of the Hon. Gen. Sec.
TL reported that production of Handbooks for the 2025-26 season
had been completed in a timely fashion. He
had implemented his previously-notified intention to remove travel directions
and club secretaries’ home addresses from the club directory published in the
Handbook. The entry form had been
updated to allow clubs to provide detailed information on the availability of
refreshments and on venue-specific restrictions, and all such information had
been published in the Handbook. Sutton
Coldfield had requested a late entry of a team into the Minor Division, and Solihull
had requested to withdraw their division 1B team. Discussion of both these requests was
deferred.
5. Report of the Hon. Treasurer
RC reported that the June rapidplay had
generated a profit in the region of £800.
The main expenses for the year – insurance, engraving and handbooks – had
all been paid. League fees were due at
the end of October.
6. Report of the Records Secretary
AW had nothing to report.
7. Distribution of Handbooks
Handbooks were distributed to Clubs in attendance.
8.
Discussion on match defaults
The chair of the Rules sub-Committee had asked for this matter
to be placed on the agenda. He
enumerated the number of matches that had been defaulted in the 2024-25 season
and drew attention, in particular, to a case where a club had defaulted a match
in a higher division to avoid lower-division players (who could have played as
reserves) being reregistered into the higher team and therefore becoming
unavailable for an expected play-off in the lower division. This had gifted two match points to another
club in the higher division which had, in turn, brought about another play-off
that otherwise might not have happened.
He had additionally reviewed the possible effect of a two-point
penalty for match defaults. The only
team who would have been affected in the 2024-25 season was Kynoch’s Division 4
side, who would have been relegated.
DRT said that the existing rule 12.3 was an inefficient
deterrent – in the previous season it had been possible to apply it to fewer
than 50% of away-team defaults. BB suggested
that the rules could be modified to allow teams contesting play-offs to use
their start-of-season registrations (i.e. Rule 5.12 wouldn’t apply to play-offs). There was a brief discussion about levying a
monetary fine on defaulting teams, but this attracted no support.
The Rules sub-Committee was asked to draft an amendment to
replace the current Rule 12.3 with a points penalty.
The meeting agreed that the matter of refreshments in bars was
closed.
9.
Reports of sub-Committees
a)
F&GP – hadn’t met
b) Match – TW reported that Solihull had asked to withdraw
their 1B side. The only precedent for a
withdrawal from Division 1 was a case in which a club had suffered from an
entire team leaving the area between seasons.
JS summarised the reasons for the request, noting that Solihull felt
they had insufficient regular core players of Division 1 standard (as opposed
to people who play only one or two games).
SF reminded the meeting that custom and practice was for clubs to
withdraw their lowest teams. DRT noted that the Solihull 1B side that comfortably
avoided relegation was made up primarily of people registered in D2. After a
lengthy debate, it was proposed by DRT and seconded by GC that “The Management
Committee does not accept Solihull’s request to drop their 1B team and mandates
that, if they are going to drop a team, it should be the lowest team in the
promotion-and-relegation divisions. This
was passed with fourteen in favour, one against and a number of abstentions.
Sutton Coldfield had requested a late entry of a team into the
Minor Division. This was approved by
general acclamation. It was additionally
agreed that Solihull should have some latitude with the arrangement of the additional
fixtures due to the complexity of their existing fixture list.
c) Rules – MB had nothing to report.
d) Eligibility – DG had nothing to report.
10. Reports of Tournament sub-Committees
a)
Individual – RG had sent apologies and noted that the event would consist,
as usual, of six rating-limited sections.
Entries should be sent to him, individually by members or in bulk by
clubs, by 1 October. Members were
permitted to enter only a single section of the event.
b)
Lightning – No report. The
sub-Committee currently has no chairman.
c)
Rapidplay – No report.
d) Online – CE had sent apologies and a report that three
online “daily” matches were in progress on chess.com involving about fourteen BDCL
members.
e) Morry-Wood Memorial – PM had nothing to report.
f) Summer – AW reported that the 2025 Summer League had been completed.
11.
Report of Webmaster
The webmaster had sent apologies and a
note that he had nothing to report.
12.
Report of the Rating Officer
DRT had nothing to report.
13.
Report of the Safeguarding Officer
The Safeguarding Officer had sent
apologies and a note that he had nothing to report.
14.
Reports of the various Delegates
a)
ECF – CL reported that the ECF’s AGM would be held on 25 October. Alex Holowczak had been awarded the ECF’s Certificate
of Appreciation.
b) Warwickshire CA – TL had nothing to report.
c)
Worcestershire CA – DL reported as follows:
Worcestershire
Closed Congress is [23 & 24 August].
Worcestershire
Summer Cups are ongoing. Longbridge face Redditch in the final of the U1650,
whilst Longbridge A and B and Redditch also share the lead in the six-team Open
Jamboree at the half way stage.
Five
clubs have entered 23 teams across five divisions [...] in the Worcestershire
Leagues.
Eight
clubs have entered 11 teams across two divisions [...] in the Dudley Leagues.
Worcestershire
have entered an U1650 and a Minor Counties team in the MCCU Counties
Championship.
Worcestershire
have entered a team in Division 4 of the 4NCL OTB.
There
were updates on the MCCU website covering County team entries for 2025-6 season and Midlands players at British
championships.
d)
Staffordshire CA – PN reported
that the Staffordshire congress had taken place on 16 & 17 August in
Stoke. A longstanding issue caused by
the death of the sole signatory of the CA’s bank accounts had been resolved.
15. Date of Next Meeting
Hon. Gen Sec. to arrange.
16.
AOB
A query about eligibility of Minor Division teams to
compete in the knock-out trophies led to the Rules sub-Committee being asked to
investigate what would need changing to permit this. It was also pointed out that the Townshend
Trophy was failing to comply with Rule 8.1.
The Shropshire congress would be held on 9, 10 &
11 January.
Summer League
A total of 22 Teams took
part, playing 70 Matches across three divisions in this year’s summer league,
Thanks to all who took part,
Unfortunately, there appears
a lack of appetite at the top end with not enough entries to run an Open
section.
Honours 2024-25
BDCL
League Champions Central
Birmingham win their tenth League Champions Title
Division ❷ Champions Central
Birmingham
Division ❸ Champions Stourbridge
Division ❹ Champions University of Birmingham
Division ❺ Champions Sutton
Coldfield 5A
Division Minor
Champions Lichfield
Terrill Trophy Winners Central Birmingham 2
Townshend
Trophy Winners Birmingham St George 4
Homer Trophy Winners South Birmingham 1A
Barrington Trophy Winners Mercia 4
Individual Open Winner
Cory Hazlehurst (SB)
Individual 1900 Winner
David Smith (Red)
Individual 1750 Winner
Shared (Olt/SB)
Individual 1600 Winner
Rory Lynas (Olt)
Individual 1450 Winner
Louis Maciel (SB)
Individual 1300 Winner
William Durrant Jones (Ky)
Summer League Open Not enough entries
Summer League 7400max Winners Warley Quinborne
Summer League 6600max Winners South Birmingham
Summer League 5800max Winners South Birmingham
Team Withdrawals and
Relegation
Due to player circumstance a
team was withdrawn from Division 4, The rule governing this says If less than
half of the fixtures have been played all results are void,
therefore it’s as if the team did not enter and the normal of two remaining
teams will be relegated at the end of the Season…….
However if a team have played over half of the fixtures, results stand and the
withdrawn team will count as one of the relegated teams.
For clarification It’s also
been said its common practice for a club to drop the bottom team and move any
players in lower teams up.
This is the case when clubs
want to drop a team at the start of a season, and not part way through.
One argument is, players due
to no fault of their own, should not be forced to play at a higher level than
they were originally registered,
LMS Verification
Can teams Please make sure all matches
have been verified on the LMS site within 5 days of playing,
11. Notification of Results
11.1 A Result Card shall be sent to the Honorary Records Secretary
by an official of the home club and also of the visiting club within five days
of the date of the match. For the purpose of this rule a result card
shall include an electronic result card approved by the League. When during
a season a team fails four times to send in a card within five days, then that
team shall have one match point deducted and subsequently one match point
deducted for every failure thereafter. When the results are submitted to the
Records Secretary on an electronic Result Card, then the original Result
Card shall be retained by a club official until the date of the AGM.
The LMS from the Start of the Season
will Display August Std Grades, not in Brackets, these should be used for board
order purpose and will be refreshed in January.
Ungraded players with a FIDE, Rapid
or Estimated grade (xxxF/xxxR/xxxE), who acquires an official ECF over-the-board Standard
Play (Original Blue) grade,
shall
thereafter be regarded as being of that rating.
MCM 24th August 24
4. Report of the Hon. Gen.
Sec.
TL reported that production
of Handbooks for the 2024-25 season had been completed in a timely
fashion. Editorial incompetence was
responsible for the failure to incorporate a recent change to the Hon.
Treasure’s email address. Other changes
that had occurred since the Handbook was sent to the printer (new secretary at
Sutton Coldfield; new venue for Mercia; change of rooms at Birmingham St.
George’s) would be circulated by email.
5. Report of the Hon.
Treasurer
RC reported that the June
rapid-play had yielded a surplus. The
League’s major expenses had either occurred recently (trophy costs and
handbooks) or were imminent (insurance – which would be higher than previously
due to the increased amount of equipment now owned by the League).
6. Report of the Records
Secretary
AW reported that player
registrations had started to arrive. He reminded
the meeting that unrated players had to be given an estimated rating and that P
ratings weren’t recognised. Clubs
providing estimated ratings should provide as much information as possible to
justify the figures.
7. Distribution of Handbooks
Handbooks were distributed to
Clubs in attendance.
8. Reports of sub-Committees
a) F&GP – hadn’t met
b) Match – Terry Walker
reported via email that, with divisions 4 and 5 at capacity (28 teams), it was
likely that three teams instead of two would need to be promoted from these two
divisions. In the event of five further teams competing in 2025-26 the League
would be able to restart Division 6.
c) Rules – MB had nothing to
report
d) Eligibility – activities
had been covered in the report of the Hon. Records Secretary
9. Reports of Tournament
sub-Committees
a) Individual – RG reported
that this would consist, as usual, of six rating-limited sections. Entries should be sent to him, individually
by members or in bulk by clubs, by 1 October.
b) Lightning – JM had nothing
to report
c) Rapidplay
– no report
d) Online – CE reported that
matches were in progress between the BDCL and other online clubs, generally at
one move per three days. He was
considering running an internal event at the same speed. He was still seeking a more enthusiastic
candidate to take over the role of chair.
e) Morry-Wood Memorial – PM
reported that he had not instigated the election process for Morry-Wood
officers so the status quo was unchanged with PM as Controller and Acting
Chairman. The formalities should proceed before the next meeting. The changes
to the Morry-Wood rules that were agreed at the BDCL AGM would be applied to
the 2024-25 competitions, and any further changes would be discussed in time
for the 2025-26 competitions. There was
a reduction in the number of judges (to six) due to the resignation of Terry
Walker at the AGM. He felt that the sub-committee should consist of about eight
members but was working quite well with six experienced members. He intended to propose a limit to the number
of games each player can enter each year for the Best Game prize, but this had
to be discuused witht the jusges.
f) Summer – AW reported that
the 2024 Summer League had been completed without any disputes.
10. Report of Webmaster
RR reported that a “BDCL
online” button had been added to the web site, using material provided by
CE. The Competition Rules and the
Constitution pages had been updated to incorporate recent changes. The pages for individual clubs had also been
updated.
There was a brief discussion
about the need to collect the date of birth of juniors – TL to talk to Dave
Thomas about circumstances in which this information was required.
11. Report of the Rating
Officer
12. Report of the
Safeguarding Officer
PS had nothing to report.
13. Reports of the various
Delegates
a) ECF – CL reported that the
ECF would publish a “safeguarding FAQ” in due course (date TBC).
b) Warwickshire CA – TL had
nothing to report
c) Worcestershire CA –
Worcestershire had entered two teams in the Minor championship, but both had
lost at the quarter-final stage. The
summer cups were in progress. Joe Friar had won the county championship.
d) Staffordshire CA – Stephen
Smithson noted that he had taken on the role of MCCU Director of Rating and
Counties Championship Controller. Clubs
would (mostly) be interested to know that each of Warwickshire, Worcestershire
and Staffordshire would have a team in the under-1650 section in the coming
season. Worcestershire, Staffordshire
and Lincolnshire would also have teams in the Minor section (and it was not too
late if Warwickshire wanted to enter too).
Some counties would additionally have further teams in other
section. All those interested should
follow the MCCU website updates. All
Clubs would have members eligible for at least one team.
15. AOB
TL briefly described the ECF
grassroots funding initiative – see https://www.englishchess.org.uk/ecf-grassroots-support/.
JM announced that a three-section
tournament in memory of Keith Escott would be held at Plantsbrook
School on 14 & 15 December.
Division Make up for 2024-25
The Match committee met 3 June to finalise the League Make up for Season
2024-25, there were 2 requests, 4 Withdrawals, and 6 new entries, some up
drafting was needed to fit all the teams in and satisfy the rule of 14 max per
division
West Bromwich the longest
running team without a break have withdrawn from the league (Div 2), However
Tamworth and District are re-entering the League and will be in Div 2
Shirley and Wythall and Longbridge have entered new teams into Div 5, Warley
Quinborne have withdrawn their Div 5 team, Mercia have entered a new team which
has been placed in Div 4, Coleshill 5A have been up drafted to Div 4
Rushall 4 were drafted to Div
3 however this was not to the clubs liking and have withdrawn. Lichfield B and
Solihull D have been withdrawn from the Minor League, Longbridge and Coleshill
have entered the Minor League.
Division Make ups and first
round trophy ties can be found here BDCL-2024-25
(birminghamchess.org.uk)
Honours 2023-24
BDCL
League Champions Sutton
Coldfield win their tenth League Champions Title
Division ❷ Champions South
Birmingham A
Division ❸ Champions Solihull
Division ❹ Champions Redditch
Division ❺ Champions Longbridge
Division Minor
Champions Solihull B
Terrill Trophy Winners Stourbridge 3
Townshend
Trophy Winners Redditch 4
Homer Trophy Winners Warley Quinborne 2A
Barrington Trophy Winners Solihull 5
Individual Open Winner
Cory Hazlehurst (SB)
Individual 1900 Winner
Philip C Maybury (WQ)
Individual 1750 Winner
Mark Drugan (SB)
Individual 1600 Winner
Aaron Norton (Ky)
Individual 1450 Winner
Muhammed Mehmood (Sol)
Individual 1300 Winner
Donald Billows (Ky)
Summer League Open Winners Central
Birmingham
Summer League 7400max Winners South Birmingham
Summer League 6600max Winners South Birmingham
Summer League 5800max Winners South Birmingham
April
13th 2024
Birmingham
& District Summer League BDSL
Rapid
Play
Hello
everyone, it's that time again,
Tournament and Rules are mainly the same as previous, (A limit of 11 team per
section has been Introduced)
Four Divisions, 4 players per Team, 20 minutes + 10 sec per move 2 Matches per
round Alternate Colours
Starting
7th May to Aug 1st IF need be (13
weeks max of 11 teams per section, (Max ten Fixtures) B teams will be dropped if they prevent a
different club joining,
May Rapid Grades. The reason for this is the current May grade will
be shown on LMS and I will not have to manually enter every April one.
Send
team entries to me (Summer League Chairman) AFTER 13th April
24 and before Mid-night 2nd May 24 a
first come, first served basis
(This
will allow clubs to see the player's May grade), which you will mainly
know if you look at the player's ECF OTB rapid history beforehand
Entry fee £5 per team Paid to BDCL Treasurer (Richard) by 31st May Please
Division
One Open
Division
Two 7400 max, average 1850 (minimum 1550)
Division
Three 6600 max, average 1650 (minimum 1350)
Division
Four 5800 max, average 1450 (minimum 1150)
Board
order 100Pts max
You
can play lower graded players but they will count as the minimum for the
Division
Check
Rules Doc for more details
Let
me know Details of Ungraded or P graded Players so we can estimate them.....
I know this may go on too long for some, but the Majority seem okay with it,
and the grade tolerance in each section allows teams scope for change, so we
will see how it pans out again this year.
I will populate the button below for details as I get them
Thank
You in advance for your support
Alan,
BDCLRecords
Jan 1st 2024
Today sees the release of the ECF January grades, which
we will be using for Board order in the second half of the season.
Can all club secretaries / captains of teams, Please re-estimate any Non ECF K graded players, whose grade
may have changed more than 50Pts since first being estimated.
This will also be used for the Second half of the
season or until a ECF grade is acquired
Honours 2022-23
BDCL League Champions Solihull
Division
❷ Champions Redditch
Division
❸ Champions Rushall
Division
❹ Champions Kynoch
Division
Champions ❺ South Birmingham
Division Minor
Champions Coleshill
Terrill Trophy Winners Sutton Coldfield-1
Townshend
Trophy Winners South Birmingham-5
Homer Trophy Winners Sutton
Coldfield-2
Barrington
Trophy Winners South Birmingham-4
Individual Open
Winner Shared
Individual 1900
Winner Rob
Glass South
Birmingham
Individual 1750
Winner Bruno
Silva South
Birmingham
Individual 1600
Winner Thomas
Vanes Coleshill
Individual 1450
Winner Sam
Fowlkes
Individual 1300
Winner Chaniru
Ranasinghe
Summer League Open Winners Sutton
Coldfield
Summer League 7400max Winners South
Birmingham
Summer League 6600max Winners South
Birmingham
Summer League 5800max Winners Solihull