Its time for another gripping instalment in the history of Kenilworth Chess Club...…..
May 1992 - Joe Soesan wins the Tilley Trophy yet again, but there is an outstanding play off in the Soesan Trophy, to be played between Simon Kermode and George Richards. This had still not been played by the AGM!
September 1992 - Bernard has acquired a printer! For the first time since he became Secretary, the AGM minutes are typed and legible! So now I can clearly see that on September 10th a couple more familiar names finally make a first appearance - both Tony King and Mike Whatson appear on the scene, as 17 people attend the AGM and three more apologise for their absence, including former Chairman Geoff Temple, who has resigned from the club.
The meeting hears that the A team finished 3rd and the B team 8th (or last as it is also known) in Division 1; the C team 5th of 6 in Division 2; and the D team - where else? - 3rd of 7 in Division 3. Two new clubs had joined the League, Olton (in retrospect, allowing this was an historic mistake of considerable magnitude!!) and National Grid, but AP had folded. Joe Soesan successfully defended his British Veterans title.
It was a different time, and in an outburst of pro-European charitable spirit, the club had donated a chess clock to a blind girls' school in Romania. In another example of community outreach, the Secretary reported that he was trying to arrange an open morning at Kenilworth Library. And there is no limit to our generosity, as we also decide to let National Grid players into our internal tournaments free of charge.
For the first time ever there is an official mention of the Chairman's social evening, about the lack of which I have been berated many times in recent years. (Even though I have never been Chairman!) Maybe Chris instituted this concept in 1992? It had certainly died by the time I joined in 2012.
For the first time since he took over as Treasurer, Geoff King's accounts show a loss - £8.03. But with an accumulated surplus of £151.68, subs are - yet again - left unchanged at £6.50/£3.00.
The Committee is re-elected en bloc, though Chris is already angling to escape the Chairmanship, saying he won't do it for more than 2-3 years. Bruce is to be B Team Captain; Roy in charge of the C team; and Tony will lead the D team. We will also have an E team Captain, but apparently the Secretary didn't think it worth mentioning that we were expanding to 5 teams!
May 1993 - the Tilley Trophy was shared by serial winners Steve Burnell and Joe Soesan, and the Soesan Trophy also saw a tie between Chris and Anthony Hitchins. After the experience of the previous season, the Secretary is clearly having no truck with play offs from now on.
September 1993 - 15 people attend the AGM on September 2nd, and 8 send apologies.
For some unexplained reason, the 1991-92 Soesan Trophy play-off has still not taken place, even though the 92-93 competition has now been finished. Neither Simon Kermode nor George Richards is in attendance to explain matters.
The A team had finished 2nd in the league, while the B team bounced back from its relegation to Division 2 by coming first and getting promoted back to the top division. The C team came 5th in Division 2, and in Division 3 the D team for once did not come third (finishing fifth) - but the E team did. An excellent debut (?) season. Alcester were reportedly returning to the league in the coming season.
And massive kudos to Tony Russell, who had defeated Mickey Adams in a simultaneous (possibly organised by the Leamington League, but the Secretary can't be bothered to tell us).
The open morning at the Library had attracted some publicity, but had not produced any new members. (So we won't bother trying that again!)
On the financial front it looked like the club was reliving the Rogers years of spend, spend, spend, as the Treasurer reported another loss, this time of £20.98. The club's reserves were now down to £130.70, but for the umpteenth year in a row the subs were kept at the same level.
The Aldridge/Rogers/King triumvirate maintained their vice-like grip on power, but the meeting now turned ugly as attention shifted to the election of captains and team formation issues. At stake was a place in the B team. Bruce had been a member of the Division 2 winning team, but had had a "disappointing season" (manager-speak was alive and well, even in those days) and his grade was now 12 points below Vince Mulholland (a new name on me). So, in the apparent absence of a 10 point rule, the club had to decide who should be in the B team next season. The answer now would be both, as someone in the A team wouldn't play very often, but then it seems as though people were happy to commit to play in more or less every match! So the meeting had a vote and by 9-0, with 3 abstentions, it was decided that Vince would be in the B team.
But to bring him down to earth the meeting then did the dirty and voted him in as B team captain. That'll teach him! As befits a future Clubman of the Year, Roy carried on as C team captain. While Alastair Dawson was a familiar name as the A Team Captain, who on earth were Robert Meteyard and David McKenzie, who took over the D and E teams??
And if this was not enough chess for the club, we had organised a 20 board (!!) friendly against Stratford. Presumably, to get that many people to the board, no excuses for absence would be entertained! Was this the first three line whip in KCC history?
We will never find out what happened at the Chairman's social evening in 1992, but it was obviously a success, as there is going to be another one on December 9th. Mine's a pint!
So the last two years were not too exciting, but full credit to the club for fielding 5 teams - something that we are unable to do today, even with more members. But there is no doubt the excitement of the early and then the glory years has died down. The club is already slipping into comfortable middle age. What it needs is a wake-up call and some new blood! But there's still the best part of 20 years before I arrive on the scene, so we'll have to wait for that.
No comments:
Post a Comment