Club News & Summer Match Results 2024

Updates

20 Jul Steve Whatmore

Our AGM has been arranged for Monday 12th August at the club - we hope to see as many members there as possible. In the Birmingham Summer Rapid Play League our u6600 team & u5800 B team have struggled a little against some really strong opposition. However, our u5800 A team, captained by David Gaskell, finished in a fantastic 2nd place in their division, narrowly behind South Birmingham. Our Club Championship was won for a second time by Steve Whatmore who just pipped Stephen Gaskell in the Final.  All of our 2024-2025 fixtures have now been agreed in the Birmingham, Wolverhampton & Cannock Leagues. As well as our normal Chase Trophy entry, we have also entered 2 teams in the Cannock League's Chase Shield - a new knockout competition for Division 3 & 4 teams.

League entries for 2024-2025

11 Jun Steve Whatmore

The Birmingham League have accepted too many new teams for next season to fit them all into their divisions 4 & 5, so have decided to ‘bump up’ a team from Division 4 to Division 3. After the top 2 teams were promoted, 4 teams were tied in 3rd place last season in Division 4, but they decided that our B team would be the only one to be ‘bumped up’. We queried this decision as we clearly do not have the strength of playing squad to compete at the higher level, however we were told that the decision was final & we have no right of appeal. With the likely prospect of our players being unfairly matched against significantly stronger opponents in every game, we have therefore decided to withdraw our B team from the Birmingham League. Instead, we will enter 2 extra teams in the Cannock League Divisions 3 & 4. This will allow our mid-rated & developing players to play in games where they will have the opportunity to enjoy their chess by competing on a level playing field against similarly rated players. All of our other league entries will remain the same as last year.