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.
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team was withdrawn from Division 4, The rule governing this says If less than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However if a team have played over half of the fixtures, results stand and the withdrawn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 ❷Champions 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
❷Champions 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
