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History was made at the Holiday Inn on Monday night, when the latest graduate from Paul's Coventry Chess Academy made his debut for KCC in the D team match against Leamington C. At around 6 years and 10 months of age, Anish Bijibilla took the step into the world of adult league chess with supreme ease, wrapping up a win over a 1327 rated opponent in under an hour and becoming the youngest ever player to win a game for Kenilworth! (And at the other end of the age spectrum, a stalwart of the CCA, Roy, was contributing the other point to the team in a 2-2 draw. Perfect symmetry!)
Anish gets ready to make his first move for Kenilworth, with comparative veteran Gregory in the background!
So sorry Billy, your record as our youngest winner, which stood at just over 7 years of age and has lasted since December 2018 when you were successful against Stratford D in Division 4, has been broken. (Which presumably means Jude has been pushed down to number 3!) I would be very surprised if there has been a younger winner for any other club in the history of the Leamington League - and especially not in Division 3.
Anish has had a fantastic couple of weeks, first scoring 6/7 in the Minor section of the Birmingham Rapid Play (including a win over LDCL veteran Kim Gilbert of Shirley who was born in 1945! - how's that for an age difference?!) and then just last weekend making 3/5 at the Nottingham Minor (standard play) against players all rated over 1400. No wonder Paul thought that Anish was ready for a competitive debut in the league - and how right he was.
On the April ECF rating list Anish is the second ranked U-7 in England for both standard play and rapid play, and third for blitz, and when the above results are taken into account that could well change. Its no wonder that he has been selected to play for England in the World Cadet U-8s in Georgia later in the year (where he will begiving away a year to most of his opponents).
It is a great pleasure and privilege for us to have Anish playing for KCC and I'm sure we all hope he will have a long and enjoyable time with our club. And he's a really nice lad as well! So a big Kenilworth welcome to him and his dad Nanda, and the rest of the family, and best wishes for what promises to be a very exciting chess journey.
Well, my plan to file some regular reports from the front line in Liverpool clearly didn't work too well. what with sight-seeing, playing and then eating and drinking there simply wasn't enough time left for me to slave over a hot lap-top and keep you stay-at-homes up to date with how our brave lads were getting on. But - better late than never - I can at least provide a round up of how the KCC battalion ultimately fared.
Star billing has to go to our two junior sensations, Jude and Billy, who both performed admirably in the Championship event, both eventually finishing on 4.5/9 after a last round draw between themselves. Not the pairing either would have wanted to finish on, but at least no-one went home a loser! Jude's high point was obviously the win over IM Brandon Clarke which took him above 2300 and qualified him for the FM title, while Billy had an excellent event too, and gained 62 rating points. And it could have been even more as he had both IM Andrew Ledger and GM Nigel Davies on the edge of defeat. Crucially, he was unbeaten in the last three rounds when borrowing a pen from me! Between them, Jude and Billy only played 3 non-titled players across 18 games, which illustrates what a strong event this was. Excellent results and performances at such a young age.
Bruce was in the running for a high placing in the 50+ event, but a last round loss - when a win would have placed him clear third - sent him down the table to 9th=, but with a hefty rating gain. Ben made his debut in Seniors' chess in this event and finished 26th= from a starting rank of 41 and also gained rating points, as he did with his excellent 4th= finish in the U1900 morning tournament. (Which netted him £20, to boot!) Ed and I flew the flag for KCC in the 65+ event where, from 81 starters I finished 4th= (winning £12.50 - its big money at the British Champs!) and Ed was 44th= - in both cases well above our starting ranks. Finally, as far as proper chess is concerned, Keatan found it hard going in the Major Open but still scored above 50% in his unsuccessful bid to qualify for the 2026 British Championships. Which, if you haven't already heard, will be held at Warwick University - so no excuses for not playing next year! I guess I should also mention the Blitz and Rapid events, but only because Joshua managed to finish 3rd= in the U-2000 rapidplay event and take home £18.50, which must have more than paid for his day return from Manchester!
And I can't let the event pass by without mentioning that the recent slayer of KCC at our 50th anniversary simultaneous display, GM Mickey Adams, collected a 9th British Championship title to go with his recent English Championship success. What a player - not bad for a 53 year old! And he fully deserved to see his image up in lights on an enormous billboard opposite the playing hall. Don't think I've seen chess get such large scale promotion before.
Disappointing that none of KCC's finest managed to make it onto the advert along with Gawain, Mickey and Nikita!
Liverpool proved to be a very interesting host city - plenty to see and do and no shortage of accommodation, food and beverage options. Especially the last named! And what a venue we played in - Warwick University will do well to find anywhere on campus as impressive as this!
The grade 1 listed St George's Hall
Which was equally impressive inside!
Slightly larger than the Abbey Club!
Although it has to be said that the tradesmen's entrance the chess players had to use was slightly less imposing.
The way in looked like the entry to some public toilets. And not very nice ones at that!
Liverpool, famously, has two cathedrals which stare at each other from either end of the marvellously appropriate Hope Street.
The truly monumental Anglican Cathedral, seen from the steps of the Catholic Cathedral, half a mile away. It is the longest and fifth largest cathedral in the world. But definitely not the most beautiful.
The RC Cathedral, designed by Coventry kid Sir Frederick Gibberd - also famous as the architect of Didcot Power Station and Harlow New Town!
When I wasn't busy preparing for my battles on the chessboard (ie most of the time) I took advantage of the free mornings to visit some landmark sites associated with several of Liverpool's most famous sons and daughters.
Who lived in a house like this? John Lennon!
So no prizes for guessing this was the childhood home of Paul McCartney
Surprise, surprise! It's Cilla again.
And another surprise - who knew that the 100 Another Place statues by Antony Gormley on Crosby beach were actually modelled on the most famous of all Liverpool icons - the Diddymen?!
To avoid any confusion, please note that I am on the left.
After this bumper pictorial city tour (aren't you relieved there was no photography allowed in the Beatles's former homes?!) you'd think I'd have no energy left for a musical contribution as well. But you'd be wrong. How could I miss the opportunity to present one of Liverpool's most celebrated musical acts singing about an ancestor of a KCC legend? Answer - I couldn't!
Fantastic news from the British Championships at Liverpool, where yesterday Jude had a tremendous win over the very strong IM Brandon Clarke (for the second time in a month, both with Black), finishing with a brilliant rook sac. You can play through the game here. After this win, Jude's live ELO rating has gone over 2300, which means he has qualified to become a Fide Master. This makes him only the second KCC player ever to become an FM, after Adam Collinson, though I'm pretty sure Adam didn't reach this milestone at the age of just 15!! Many congratulations from everyone at the club, Jude. Your success is absolutely brilliant.
It was very nearly an even more special day, as Billy was on the verge of taking down another IM, Andrew Ledger, but somehow the more experienced player saved a desperate looking rook ending and prevented an IM-bashing double by KCC juniors. So after 4 rounds of the Championships, Jude has a fantastic 3 pts with Billy on a more than respectable 2 pts. Today its another very tough pairing for Jude, against Ukrainian IM Svyatoslav Bazakutsa, while Billy plays FM Stephen Dishman. Good luck to them both, and indeed to all KCC participants. Which includes myself, of course!
The English Championships are under way at the Holiday Inn and Kenilworth has been graced by the presence of not one, not two, but three GMs rated over 2700 ECF. This must be the strongest collection of chess players Kenilworth has ever seen!
Fresh from his slaughter of the innocents at the recent KCC 50th Anniversary Simultaneous Display, Mickey Adams has quickly returned to Kenilworth as the number 2 seed, with an ECF rating of 2726, and following a Round 4 win over number 3 seed Gawain Jones (rated a mere 2723!) has assumed sole leadership as I write with a 100% score. Trailing half a point behind is number one seed, and 2021 Russian Champion, Nikita Vitiugov (2746). A potentially decisive round 5 encounter between the top two seeds is scheduled for Sunday morning.
Round 1 underway, with Nikita Vitiugov White on Board 1, Mickey Adams Black on Board 2, and Gawain Maroroa Jones on Board 3 nearest the camera (left)
Three of Kenilworth's finest are also in action, with Jude currently leading the way on an undefeated 3/4 after some excellent games. He faces IM Brandon Clarke in Round 5. Keatan and Billy are both on 1.5 pts at the moment, though Keatan will be the happier of the two given his very strong opposition so far. Billy has suffered two White losses which have derailed his progress, but lets hope for a strong finish in the last 3 rounds. We can in any case be massively proud that three of our juniors are mixing it in this ferociously strong tournament. Keep going guys!
It was a great day for the club yesterday, when we hosted a simultaneous display from England's legendary Super GM and 8 time British Champion, Mickey Adams. Well, it was a great day in every respect except the score, as Mickey turned on the turbo chargers to leave us losers by a score of 28.5-0.5! Massive congratulations to Andy Ward for preventing the clean sweep and retaining just a bit of dignity for the club! In the end there were 22 KCC participants, as Dhairya was unable to get to the venue in time from a football match, plus 7 of Paul's most promising students from the Coventry Chess Academy, who we were delighted to invite to join us. With none older than 11, and three of them only 5 (yes, 5!!) it was something of a baptism of fire to be playing a man once ranked 4th in the world - behind only present/future World Champions Kasparov, Kramnik and Anand! - but they all did themselves and the CCA proud with both their play and their behaviour.
And, as you can tell from the score, it was no better for the older and more experienced KCC contingent. We had managed to bring in 2 of our big guns, Jude and Javier, to fill the top boards and - surely - put us on the scoreboard, but regrettably these were 2 big guns who were only able to fire blanks and were readily put away by the GM. Andy B dropped a pawn early on Board 3 and despite determined play inevitably went down to defeat. I thought I was doing rather well (+1.8 at one point!!) but got well outplayed at the critical moment and ended up in a mating net where my extra piece was not much consolation. On Board 5 Keatan got into a big tactical melee which looked quite promising, but Mickey had seen a bit further and when the fireworks finished he was a pawn ahead and inevitably winning.
I failed to see much of anybody else's games, and while I have collected all/most of the score sheets, I haven't had a chance to play through them yet. (Watch this space - I'm sure that some of the games will feature on the Blog in due course.) At the very end it was only Mike and Algis left, but Mike was powerless to stop Mickey promoting to a second queen, while Algis - the last man sitting - had to concede as a central pawn push destroyed his position and won material.
So full marks and maximum kudos to Andy who, together with Ilyas from the CCA juniors, won a best game prize, selected by Mickey, and each received a signed copy of his ECF Book of the Year, Think Like a Super Grand Master. (Shame none of us read this before the simul!) Naturally, you will want to see how you go about drawing against a Super GM, so here's the game. The Lichess Stockfish tells me that Mickey played at 94% accuracy and Andy at 95%! Impressive or what?!
Just like Julius Caesar, Mickey would be well entitled to say, "Veni! Vidi! Vici!". So many congratulations to our visiting GM, who was a very friendly and engaging guest - and a frighteningly strong chess player. If Jude, Billy or Keatan can't win the English Championship in Kenilworth in July, I hope its Mickey who can regain the crown he last won in 2023 and only relinquished to Gawain Jones in a play off last year. I should have asked him what piece of music he would like to accompany this article, but as I didn't he'll have to make do with my choice. Looking at the results list it seems to me that there was indeed, from a KCC perspective, "too much blood on the page" (and also "on the Page!"), so I'll let The Gaslight Anthem play us out, in what is only their second ever appearance here.
As far as I can tell, the first music video to appear on the KCC website appeared on December 20, 2017. It was Tina Turner singing "We don't need another hero". But don't bother going back to try and find it, as the video has subsequently been deleted from YouTube, so no longer appears on our Blog. Little did I realise, when I first discovered how to embed videos into a web post, that the selection of music would become such a big part of the KCC Blog. My semi-scientific research (scrolling back for what seemed like ever through 7.5 years of posts) has revealed that there have in total been some 101 different artists featured across a total of 160 music videos.
You won't be surprised to learn that Bruce tops the table of most appearances. The Top 10 currently looks like this.
Bruce Springsteen 14* Jackson Browne 9 Bob Dylan 8 Little Feat 5 The Kinks 4 The Allman Brothers 3 Buffalo Springfield3 The Byrds 3 Mark Knopfler 3**
The Grateful Dead 3
* Plus 1 with Southside Johnny
** Plus 2 with Dire Straits
There are a further 14 artistes with 2 contributions, and 77 with a single appearance.
The Club Organiser has clearly been progressively losing his marbles, as several songs have appeared more than once by accident - though on a couple of occasions it has been done deliberately, most recently with Fairground Attraction's Perfect, in honour of a second 100% score by Javier at the LDCL Blitz Championships. Going Home, the theme from Local Hero, appeared 3 times in the same post (deliberately!) and Running on Empty by Jackson Browne has also featured 3 times though two of these have now disappeared, having been removed from YouTube. Now I have a list of all the videos, such accidental repetition shouldn't happen again. As long as I keep the list up to date, of course!
In my opinion the weirdest song to appear (so far!) was Charles Jolly's rendition of The Laughing Policeman, though if you want to hear it again you'll have to track it down yourselves as the Blog search function doesn't reference embedded videos. But also pretty weird was John Cage's 4'33" of absolute silence. Still, I prefer this to any of the contributions by Abba or Queen. Not my favourite groups!
Despite being of a certain age myself, I'm pleased to see that the Beatles and Rolling Stones have only managed one appearance each, with their combined score being beaten by both the Kinks and The Byrds, the two best 60's pop bands in my opinion.
But the most astonishing discovery I made going through the Blog's musical history is that one song - which should really have been the first ever - has never made an appearance. Until today. I could have included the live version recently witnessed by the Chairman and Club Organiser in Manchester, but that's an amateur production with very dodgy sound and this song deserves better. Much better. So wrap your ears around this. If its not the greatest rock song ever written, it must be pretty damn close! What a great way to start the second 160 KCC music videos.
Which even by my standards is an oblique way of introducing the subject of TITLES!
And this we definitely need to do, as it will probably surprise you to learn that we now have 5 - soon to be 6 - over the board titled players at KCC, (holding 7 titles between them) which is pretty amazing for a club/town of our size. It may also surprise you when I reveal that its quite probable that you, dear reader, could join this illustrious band, albeit that for most of us this would have to be at the lower end of the title spectrum! Because, in its infinite wisdom, the ECF sometime ago introduced a whole raft of titles that cover almost all levels of over the board playing standards. (And anyone suggesting that this was a money generating exercise by the ECF should be ashamed of themselves for being so cynical.)
Starting at the bottom, we have the title of English Chess Maestro, which requires holding a rating of 1400+ as an average for a 12 months' period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £5. There are currently 42 of these by my count (from the ECF website), and before you say that this is a pretty meaningless title I should point out that it was awarded in February 2016 to Shreyas Royal - now a Grand Master! But KCC doesn't have any ECMs, as our illustrious members have higher aspirations.
The next rung on the ladder is the English Team Maestro, which requires holding a rating of 1600+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £5, of course. I count 53 ETMs, but once again KCC comes up blank in this category. Though future GM Shreyas Royal (Feb 2017) makes another appearance in this list!
Continuing up the ladder we reach English Club Master, which requires holding a rating of 1800+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £5, of course. There are 86 ECMs, and finally we find a KCC name on the list - Paul B (and his daughter Jo, who came along to a recent club night), though I fear he acquired his title well before he joined us. Surprisingly this title eluded Shreyas Royal, but there is an even more impressive name on the roll of honour, three times British Champion, GM Gawain Jones! (Who, as I type this article, Keatan is just about to play in Round 1 of the British Rapidplay Championship. I am sure he will acquit himself with more credit than I did when I played Gawain in Round 1 of the King's Place Rapidplay Tournament many years ago and lost in under 20 moves with White!) Other interesting names on the ECM list include 3 times British Women's Champion Dinah Norman and former Egghead (and ECF President, I think) C.J. de Mooi.
Rather confusingly, the next ECF category is also ECM, though in this case it stands for English County Master, which requires holding a rating of 2000+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment this time of £10, reflecting the fact that we ae now moving into the higher reaches of the grading list. There are 61 of these ECMs, and while there are no KCC members amongst them, I have spotted two former team mates of mine at Mitcham Chess Club and 2 current team mates of Bruce B at Central Birmingham.
And still we ascend the ladder, now reaching the title of English Regional Master (ERM, but not to be confused with the Exchange Rate Mechanism, that economists of a certain age will recall), which requires holding a rating of 2100+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £10. There are 58 members of this club, including Andy B and Mike as KCC representatives, though the strongest player of the ERM group is future IM Tom Rendle. I could claim this title, but modesty - and my desire to hang onto a tenner - forbids me from applying.
I expect that a little bit of research and the payment of a further tenner might well see that Andy could claim the next, and highest, ECF awarded title - and one that is really worth having, as it enables you to play in the chess.com Titled Tuesday tournaments with the world's strongest players - that of National Master (NM). As I'm sure that he must have reached the qualification standard in his prime. Which was obviously long before he played for us! The NM requirement is for a rating of 2200+ as an average for a 12 months period (minimum 30 games). And the payment of £10. Which demands a really impressive level of play. And I speak as someone who has never achieved an ECF rating of 2200 for even 1 day, let alone 12 months!
But never mind, as KCC has no less than 2 National Masters anyway! Both Paul L and Jude got awarded the title on June 17, 2024 - in Paul's case the achievement relating to performances several (where several is quite a large number!) years earlier. I guess I was too occupied with other things to celebrate this achievement at the time, so apologies to our two NMs for the late acknowledgement of their richly deserved titles.
But it doesn't end there, as we also have the much grander stage of the world arena to consider, in the form of titles awarded by FIDE. The first step on the road to becoming a GM is to attain an ELO rating of 2200, which is the qualification level for becoming a Candidate Master. Jude reached this milestone in December 2024, when he posted his - to date - peak rating of 2249. Talk about clearing the required height with ease! But what reminded me that this subject needed to be reported on the blog is that he will soon be joined in this elite company by a second KCC member - and its another highly talented graduate of Paul's Coventry Chess Academy - who has reached the 2200+ rating requirement. These kids! Honestly!! So step forward Billy, after a brilliant performance at last month's Isle of Wight Open, where he gained over 100 ELO points and now finds himself in possession of a FIDE rating of 2203. And an ECF rating, by the way, of 2268, which is just one point below Jude!!
Sorry Javi, but at 2265 you are now only the third highest rated player in the club! Its quite unbelievable that we have 3 players rated over 2260. (That's never happened before in KCC history.) Though they have never all played in the same Kenilworth team!
Something upbeat is required to celebrate the latest addition to the KCC title holders club. This will do nicely, I think.
We're getting very close to the end of our meander through the first 35 years or so of the club's history. In fact, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Unless its a train coming straight towards me. Either way, this interminable saga is almost complete.
April 2009 - The Club Secretary sends out (on April 1st of all dates - I'm saying nothing) notice of the forthcoming AGM and things are serious enough that as well as an agenda he also includes a separate letter describing the difficulties of the Thursday social chess nights. Attendance is down to only 4 or 5 people on some weeks, possibly due to the fact that our home match night is Wednesday and not so many people are eager to spend two successive nights at the Royal British Legion Club. The Secretary also raises the prospect of a return to the Sports and Social Club and urges members to think of new ways to promote the club, as there have been few newcomers to KCC in recent years. I should just like to mention that in keeping with the general level of administrative excellence which has characterised the club in recent years, the Secretary once again fails to specify the AGM venue, presumably relying on osmosis or something similar to inform the membership of this minor detail.
May 2009 - The AGM is held on May 7th in the unspecified and unrecorded venue. Fifteen people somehow turn up, including many familiar names (Aldridge, Holland, Johnson, King, Krombeen, Morris, Payne, Pickering (T), Rogers, Shurrock, Watson, Whatson, Webb and Wood) and an unfamiliar one (A. Riddoch). Apologies were received from Messrs Pickering (C) and Pelton, but P. Mills, N. Mottram and K. Raison are absent without apology. (I think I should reinstate this system of naming and shaming in any future AGM Minutes I might pen.)
The Chairman was able to tell the AGM that this had been the club's most successful season for many years. With 5 teams, we were the largest club in the LDCL, and all teams finished in the top half of their divisions. Star turn was the C team, who won Division 3 by 6(!!) points, while the D team came 1st= in Division 4 ..... with the E team, who they shaded on game points! And Mike Johnson won the league individual competition, beating Dave Shurrock in the final. The Secretary, predictably, had nothing to report yet again, while the Treasurer followed suit and failed to produce any accounts. Even though the only items of expenditure had been £170 on League fees and £40 of catering for the League Jamboree. He effectively asked the meeting to believe him when he said sufficient revenue had been collected to cover these costs and subs were left unchanged. All post-holders were re-elected for the coming season, meaning we would once again field 5 teams - but the all conquering C team would remain in Division 3.
Finally the meeting arrived at the contentious issue of venue. In an uncanny foreshadowing of future years, Mike Johnson said that some members would never turn up at club nights, whatever the day of the week or venue. Roy proposed that the Committee be mandated to look at alternative venues and decide upon the best choice, but the rank and file was having none of this elitism and rejected the idea. Ever the diplomat, Mike Johnson instead successfully proposed that the Committee should indeed investigate possible venues and recommend its preference for consideration by the membership at the EGM/Team Formation Meeting before the start of the 2009-10 season. Under AOB it was reported that the club's equipment was not in great shape, and Bruce H and Chris agreed to take an inventory and make recommendations for any additional requirements.
And so the meeting closed at 10.50, with no-one any the wiser as to where they would be playing next season!
August 2009 - The EGM (18 people in attendance!) decides upon the team composition for the coming season (naming 17 players and 2 reserves), but of the much anticipated venue recommendation there is no mention. So maybe everything in the garden is rosy, after all? ............... No!!
April 2010 - Bernard writes to the membership. The club faces a serious crisis - we are being evicted by the Royal British Legion from the upstairs concert room, as it has been let (for a whole 52 weeks) to two separate aerobics classes at £20 a night. The Club Secretary told them we were rather disappointed that this had been decided without any contact with KCC, for which they apologised, but he admits it is a moot point as there was no way we would have matched this rent. The Secretary further reports that club night attendances have been very disappointing, and the small spend by KCC members has doubtless encouraged the RBL to seek alternative business. The Sports and Social Club is still available, though the room is extremely untidy and Bernard thinks this would be a retrograde step.
After canvassing member sentiment the Secretary reports that the ambiance of the RBL is much preferred for club nights over KSSC, and hopefully we could continue there on Thursday nights with no charge. But what to do about a match venue?? The AGM on April 22nd will be crucial - and everyone is urged to attend in our hour of need. However, despite the crisis and the need for a firm hand on the tiller, both the Chairman and Secretary have tendered their resignation and it will be up to some other poor saps to come in and save the club. (Alright, the letter doesn't phrase it quite like this, but I'm reading between the lines, OK?!)
May 2010 - For some reason the AGM has been delayed by 2 weeks and takes place on May 6th. The tension is palpable - there is a very real possibility that the club will collapse. But the membership have responded to the Secretary's exhortations and turn out in force - 18 present! The meeting agrees (by 14-0 with 3 abstentions) that the Committee will approach the RBL to try and secure a match venue on either Monday or Tuesday nights. Though this will significantly increase our costs. As a consequence the Treasurer proposed that club subs should increase to £60 pa. And this earth-shattering proposal was accepted.
Off the board issues may well have affected the club's performance in the 2009-10 season, as the Chairman reported an almost universally dismal playing record. Our 5 teams had not distinguished themselves - the A and E teams had both finished last; the D team 8th of 10; the C team 7th of 10 (what happened to the previous season's all conquering performance?); and the B team 3rd of 7. Remarkably, though, the club had won the Open KO Cup, beating Stratford in the final. How on earth did that happen?
Its a complete new management board at KCC, since Roy also stands down as Treasurer. The new powers in the land are Bruce (Chairman), Mike Johnson (Secretary) and Chris (Treasurer), while Carl takes over from Phil as A team captain. As well as standing down from their KCC posts it transpires that Bernard and Phil have also had enough of being League Chairman and Secretary respectively.
The AGM ends with the Team Formation Meeting being arranged for September 2nd (but where will it be??), and Bruce makes an unbelievably generous offer to buy dinner for everyone beforehand. Is the current Chairman reading this?! And finally the new Secretary urges everybody in the club to get an e-mail address. Welcome to the 21st century!
May 2011 - And - frustratingly - this is where the available Archives run out. The only other document between the 2010 and 2014 AGM's is a hand written set of accounts for the 2010-11 season. (Which record a loss of £238.58 due to a large expenditure on ten clocks, leaving a balance of just £121.42, but things could have been much worse as we had received a donation of 18 sets and boards to the value of £257.88. As the identity of the donor was not disclosed I shall respect the apparent wish for anonymity, even though I know who it was!)
So this means that there is currently no record to hand of how the venue crisis was resolved. What I do know is that the KCC match night pretty soon became a Monday, and the venue remained at the RBL until 2013. At some point, and possibly immediately, the Thursday club night venue moved to the Royal Oak, which was its location when I first started attending sometime round 2012.
KCC records resume in 2014, but given that I have written them since then, these can hardly count as coming from the archives. Which means that - for now - the journey through KCC's glorious history has ended. But it would be nice to think that the missing three years might be filled in sometime in the future. With Bruce having been Chairman, there's every chance the record keeping was maintained, and so maybe those missing documents will come to light and enable this series to end on a nice round number. But as it is, we are stuck on 19. Which makes the choice of song very easy indeed!
And first place in the worst pun of the year competition for me!
Though as pointed out to me by my old friend John Saunders (which has necessitated this update!), my pun is very close to being plagiarism given this offering from the splendidly batty Mrs Doyle!
But its Billy whose performance needs to get star billing here as he recently won the U-12 Terafinal (that's the Grand Final to you and me!) of the mammoth UK Schools Chess Challenge - at the rather prestigious venue of Blenheim Palace, no less. After fighting through Megafinals and Gigafinals, it was just 60 juniors left by the time of the Terafinals, split into 5 age groups playing 12 player all play all tournaments to decide the champions.
The U-12 Terafinal Crosstable - Billy wins by a whole point!
In achieving this great triumph Billy is following in the footsteps of Jude who was a Terafinal winner himself a couple of years ago, and who finished a close up 4th in the U-14 tournament this time around.
The U-14 Terafinal Results
And while two KCC winners at the highest possible junior level is quite something, its even more a case of hats off to Paul, who has coached three Terafinal winners, with Birmingham's Elis Dicen also successful in a previous year. Remarkable stuff which confirms what a Golden Age this is for junior chess in Warwickshire. (And the county's "old timers" aren't doing too badly either, as 30-something Ameet Ghasi just got his third GM norm and with the rating requirement already achieved will soon be confirmed as Warwickshire's third GM, after Tony Miles and Keith Arkell.)
Billy Receiving the Terafinal Trophy from WFM Sarah Longson, UKSCC Supremo. Thanks to our Social Media Correspondent Bernard Rogers for spotting this Instagram post
By the way, is it just me, or has anybody else noticed a passing resemblance between Billy and Uzbeki Olympiad winner, GM Javokhir Sindarov? Alright, its just me.
A triumph like this deserves a top quality piece of music. One of the greatest pop songs of all time seems appropriate. Apologies if I've used this before, but you really can never hear this brilliant song too often.
Just when you'd given up hope of ever seeing another of these articles, along comes a fresh instalment - just the 15 months since the previous one. (Which itself saw a wait of 27 months for publication!) But its a story that must be seen through to its end - as Magnus (not Carlsen, but Magnusson!) used to say, "I've started so I'll finish."
Part 15 of our epic saga took us up to the 2006 AGM, since which time the two most recent articles have been concerned with filling in some previous gaps after new information came to light. Our story starts again at the 2006 AGM, but only to touch upon financial matters, as I now have a copy of the accounts. These show that we had made a surplus of £43.37 in 2005/6, stemming the hemorrhaging of the previous year. As a consequence we were sitting on a tidy accumulated fund of £309.42 - all of which, interestingly, was in our building society account. There has never been a club account since I have had anything to do with the financial administration, but maybe we will find out just what caused this change of policy amongst the new papers?
September 2006 - There is a big turnout (apologies from Tom Swallow, Rob Olley, Paul Lam and Len Krombeen, with all other members present) for the team formation meeting, where there is some bombshell news - 2 strong players have joined the club since the AGM and we may be over subscribed with "only" 4 teams entered in the League. Chris, supported by Geoff King, proposed that we should try to secure the admission of a fifth team, but when this was put to the vote, it was rejected by 6-2. Instead we would accommodate the new players by forming squads for each team as follows:-
A team - Phil Pelton, Bernard Rogers, Carl Pickering (Captain), Mike Johnson, Phil Wood B Team - Paul Mills, Len Krombeen (Captain), Rod Webb (part-time), Nigel Morris, John Skinner, Nick Mottram (part-time) C team - Roy Watson, Rob Olley (part-time), Chris Aldridge (Captain), Geoff King, Bruce Holland D team - Tony King, Tony Pickering, Mike Whatson, Frank Holmes (Captain), Steve Payne (part-time)
I can imagine that Phil Pelton was one of the newcomers, but its a mystery to me as to who the other new arrival at that time might have been. Any ideas?
April 2007 - The AGM is to be held on April 28, though in his advance notice of the agenda, the Secretary (B. Rogers, Esq) decides no-one needs to know the venue of the meeting. He must have been watching Field of Dreams on video. "If you don't tell them, they will come anyway. Even when you tell them the wrong date." Because the AGM is actually on April 26, but what's a couple of days between friends?! Apologies were received from Geoff King, Tony King, Len Krombeen, Carl Pickering, Dave Shurrock and John Skinner, while paul Lam, Rob Olley and Phil Pelton were "absent without apology!"
The Chairman's report (presented in absentia) recorded that the A team had finished 8th in Division 1 (this sounds perilously close to last!); the B team 4th in Division 2; the C team 7th in Division 3 and the D team 4th in Division 4.Not much to celebrate there, while the 3 cup teams were all eliminated in Round 1. Thankfully there were some individual successes to report. Carl and Phil contested the final of the League Individual Championship (Carl victorious after a replay), while Carl had also won the Coventry League Individual Championship (not that this had anything to do with Kenilworth!) for a splendid double triumph. He then made it 3/3 by winning the club's own Tilley Trophy, while Nigel Morris won the Soesan Trophy and Mike Whatson the Kenilworth Trophy (of which I have never heard - before or since!)
Perhaps embarrassed by his massively misleading AGM notice, the Secretary did not give a report. (If I had adopted a similar policy, recent AGM's could have been over in about 10 minutes!) Thankfully the Treasurer did not follow this example and tabled accounts which showed a massive surplus of £139.50, and net assets of £451.42. Despite this, it was proposed that subs should be increased to £20 to enable the purchase of digital clocks and this was agreed by 7-4.
Phil Wood was elected as the new Club Chairman, while Bernard, Roy and Tony Pickering remained in situ as, respectively, Secretary, Treasurer and Competitions' Secretary.
It then all gets very confusing, as our entry of League teams is apparently dependent upon what night of the week we play. Someone proposed that we revert to Thursdays for the majority of the matches, using the downstairs room. (Where??) But if needed the A team could play upstairs on Wednesdays. (Sounds like the British Legion Club to me.) We would beg/request that our A team stayed in Division 1, with the B team in Div 2, C and D in Div 3 and E in Div 4. Captains would be, Phil W, Mike J, Len K, Roy W and Mike W. In a display of massive hubris it was also decided to play in all 3 KO Cups, with 2 teams in the U-100 tournament.
Frank Holmes proposed that we should give £50 to Kenilworth Cricket Club for their Fire Appeal. On a vote of 6-4 this was agreed. (I reckon I would have voted against!) They subsequently sent us a letter of thanks. Frank also offered to try and keep the Club website (who knew we had one?) up to date. Wonder how that went?
September 2007 - The Team Formation meeting is attended by all members of the club, except Tom Swallow who sent his apologies. We are up to 5 teams as follows:-
A team - Paul Lam (when available), Phil Pelton, Carl Pickering, Bernard Rogers, Phil Wood (Captain) B Team - Nigel Morris, Dave Shurrock, Mike Johnson (Captain), Rod Webb, Paul Mills (reserve) C team - Len Krombeen (Captain), Nick Mottram, Roy Watson, Chris Aldridge (reserve - and E team reserve - try doing that under the current rules and you'd be well and truly hauled over the coals!!) D team - Geoff King, Frank Holmes (part of season only), Bruce Holland, Mike Whatson (Captain) E team - Tony King (Captain), Cathy Raison, Steve Payne, Michael Oldfinch, Chris Aldridge
Cup Captains were to be Carl, Bernard, Chris and Mike.
May 2008 - Its that time of the year again, and once more the Secretary decides to keep members guessing about the AGM venue. But at least he gives them the right date this year! No less than 16 members are present (Messrs Aldridge, Holland, Johnson, King T, Krombeen, Morris, Mottram, Payne, Pickering C and T, Rogers, Shurrock, Swallow, Watson, Webb, Whatson, Wood. Apologies were sent by Messrs Skinner, Pelton and Holmes. Regrettably Frank Holmes will be unable to play in the coming season due to ill health, which has also defeated his ambitions to maintain the club website.
The Chairman reported on the Club's League performances, but these were considered too sensitive to be recorded for posterity. However, the club won the U-625 cup, while the two U-100 Cup teams each managed a win before losing in Round 2. Shame on the Open KO tem, though, who withdrew without playing.
Once again the Secretary reported nothing. Nada. Zilch. Rien. One wonders what we were paying him for?
Whereas Treasurer Roy is right on top of his administrative brief and tables the Accounts which show a massive loss of £286.10 and total expenditure of a scarcely credible £667.22. Looks like we had a Labour man in charge of the finances!! We would have broken almost exactly even, though, if we hadn't invested in digital clocks and random donations to organisations with massively greater financial resources than ourselves. Assets are down to £149.67 and we still have a building society account. Fees are to remain at £20 pa, with no charge for juniors.
August 2008 - The British Legion Club confirms our booking of the (upstairs) Concert Room for every Wednesday from September to April. This doesn't seem significant in its own right, but as will become clear in Part 19 - because yes, there's still more to come! - the seeds of a club crisis have been sown. Stand by for more revelations ........ sometime in the future!
No real need for any music to accompany this article, but for anyone who, like me, is being massively annoyed by a current Compare the Market ad on TV it can't hurt to set the record straight and hear the original - and wow, what a spectacular performance this is. You could only get a show like this in Vegas! But you'll have to be patient - the song itself doesn't start till several minutes in!
Great news, if you haven't heard already, but Paul has just won the 2024 ECF Award for Contribution to Junior Chess. This is a massively deserved accolade for both Paul and the Coventry Chess Academy, which he has been running so brilliantly for a scarcely believable 11 years.
Thanks are due to Bernard C and Roy for preparing the submission, and I'm pleased to say that my Seconder's Statement at least did not derail the application! You can read the citation here. Paul is far too modest and self effacing to broadcast his achievement, but he should be extremely proud of this award, which also reflects splendidly on the likes of other KCC members Bernard, Roy, and Andy Ward who have been steadfast supporters of the CCA since its inception.
And with Paul being the man who introduced the very stylish Basque beret to Kenilworth, this seems like quite an appropriate choice of song to kick off the new season's musical contribution!
Well, that's the only conclusion I can come to after yesterday's events in Round 6 of the Norway Chess tournament being held in Stavanger. There simply isn't any other possible explanation. As the Iron lady said, "There is no alternative."
You only have to go back to the post of April 3rd to find the key piece of evidence. The report of the A team's win over Stratford A (which clinched our fourth successive LDCL Division 1 title) contained the beautiful queen sacrifice finish which Billy pulled off against Richard Dobedoe. If you can't remember what happened, here it is again, in all its glory.
Well, knock me down with a feather, but what happened yesterday in Norway but this. World number 1 Magnus Carlsen used Billy's exact motif to deliver checkmate against current - but clearly ailing - world Champion, Ding Liren.
So I think I'm on safe ground in being pretty confident that Magnus must be a KCC Blog reader, because there is simply no other way he could ever have come up with such a great idea if he wasn't copying Billy
Anyway, now we've established exactly where Magnus gets his best ideas from, it can only be a matter of time before we see some of Joshua's bizarre opening systems appear in his repertoire. And I expect he'll soon be fianchettoing his knights, too!!
Meanwhile here's an old favourite (though not with me, I can't stand the song!), but this post has clearly shown that its not only the history book on the shelf which is always repeating itself!
It was another highly satisfactory night at Solihull yesterday for Kenilworth at the annual Leamington League Blitz Championships - which for reasons unfathomable to me, many people insist on calling the Lightning Championships (or even worse the Lightening Championships, which is something entirely different!)
After last year's clean sweep of the podium, courtesy of Javi, myself and Bruce, history repeated itself, as KCC again took the top 3 spots. However, there was a significant change in the personnel involved! Clearly showing my age, I dropped out of the pace-setters early in the event, and it was left to Bruce to make the running. Which he did to marvellous effect, winning all his first 7 games, including a win over red-hot favourite Javi. At that stage it looked like he could coast to victory, as he had a full 2 point lead on the rest of the field. But in a spectacular melt down he managed to lose his last two games, which enabled Javi to catch him and - in the absence of a tie-break - share the title. There was more glory, though, as Bernard turned back the clock to put in a performance redolent of his golden years, when he won this event (1988) and finished runner-up on several occasions. Clearly those thousands and thousands of Thursday evening blitz games have served some purpose after all. There was no money for third place, but Bernard did scoop some cash by winning the Category 2 prize (under approx 1820) which was well deserved. Before the event I told him his role was to beat anyone from another club and lose to other Kenilworth players, and he followed my instructions to within an inch of perfection. He notched up 6/6 against non-Kenilworth players but netted 0.5/3 against KCC opposition thanks to a draw with Ben.
Ben and myself finished in a tie for 10th with 5/9 - a big disaster for me as second seed, but exactly what my play deserved. Ben spent much more time than me at, or near, the top boards and also had to help out with organisation between rounds, so his finishing result was certainly more meritorious than mine.
Javi looks happy to have just about held on to his title; Bruce looks mortified at letting a 2 point lead slip to only share first; while Ben shakes hands with the Invisible Man
Never mind the glory, give the man his cash! Bernard back in the big time.
So everyone from KCC was either dishing out the prizes, or collecting them. Except me. Which explains this week's choice of music. Never has a title been more expressive!
A couple of weeks ago we had the great pleasure of welcoming back, just for one night, a KCC member from pre-covid times, Algis Toleikis. Algis was visiting Kenilworth with his family from his home land of Lithuania, and found time to pop into the Ale Rooms to catch up with a few old friends and play some chess. I say a few, because only Joshua and I of the older club members were there initially, though Bernard did hot foot it back from Solihull, after a crushing win for the D team, to join in the reunion. But thankfully there were several newer KCC members also in attendance to join in the welcome. A shame that more of Algis' old friends from the Gauntlet days weren't around, but - no names mentioned - they are bound to miss out on such enjoyable occasions if they opt to sit in a dark room in, say, Fen End instead of socialising with their mates on a Thursday evening! Anyway, I can report that Algis was in excellent spirits and reported that things were going very well back home, where he is once more in the world of academia, but now running his own team and research projects. He certainly looked in good health!
Algis, flanked by Dylan and - lurking in the darkness - Joshua
Algis' chief enemy was always the clock, but there seems to have been a remarkable transformation in the last few years, as within about 90 minutes of arriving at The Ale Rooms, he was doing the unthinkable, and playing a bullet game with Steph! As preserver of club morals (and club chess clocks!) I have since had to outlaw this practice on club nights as being far too exciting for a respectable chess club, but it was certainly quite a sight on that particular night.
I was extremely fortunate to win my single rapid encounter against Algis that evening, as he was giving me a very hard time for most of the game. There's no doubt he would be a very useful player for us if he ever gets the urge to return to Warwick University!
But the really big news he was able to tell us was that he had recently notched up a GM scalp. It was in a simul, but it was still a GM - and not any old run of the mill GM, but quite a celebrity in the chess world. His victim was Viktorija Cmilyte, a former European Women's Champion who has been a (full) GM since 2010, with a peak FIDE rating of 2542. She is also well known as the former wife of GM Alexei "Fire on Board" Shirov and, since 2013, as the wife of Peter Heine Neilsen, Danish GM and chief coach/second of Magnus Carlsen for many years. She is largely inactive in the chess world these days, as her career has taken her into politics where she is currently Speaker of the Seimas - the Lithuanian Parliament.
Algis in play against Viktorija Cmilyte. Little does the GM know what is about to happen!
Regrettably, the whole game has not been saved for posterity ...... but the conclusion has! In this complex position, both teams are on the verge of landing knockout blows to the opposing king. Despite the excitement, the all seeing chess engine tells us - almost inevitably - that it is a dead draw. The evaluation, of course, is 0.0! But you still have to find the right moves, and even for a GM that can sometimes prove to be too difficult a task!
Bravo, Algis! A great scalp. Best of luck for your life and career in Vilnius from everyone at KCC. It was great to have had you as a club member for a few years, and it was a real pleasure to see you again. And hopefully it was not for the last time!
Yesterday saw another Warwickshire title making its way to Kenilworth, as Keatan triumphed in the county Under 16 championships, held in Coventry as a seven round rapid swiss. He consequently joins Javi, who captured the 2023 Warwickshire Blitz title in September, as a current KCC county champion.
The Under 14, 16 and 18 sections were run as one, combined tournament and, as the final ranking list shows, Keatan was not the only KCC member in action. Katia was runner-up in the Under 14 section, with Gregory half a point back in 3rd equal - the same position claimed by Dylan in the Under 16 championship. And there was also a silver medal for Lionel in the Under 12 event, where 21 competed in a stand-alone section.
So tremendous congratulations to all our players, who all finished very high up in the standings - and extra kudos to Keatan for standing on the top step of the podium and following in the illustrious footsteps of none other than our very own Paul Lam, who won the same age group title a few (!) years ago.
Keatan and the Warwickshire Under 16 Trophy
And as this tsunami of youthful achievement and excellence wasn't enough, I happened to be at Leamington on Saturday afternoon for the conclusion of the UK Blitz Championships, where Warwickshire IM Ameet Ghasi finished third in the Open section, and Warwickshire phenom Elis Dicen won the Women's title at the age of just 12! Ahead, on tie break, of Bodhana Sivanandan, this year's triple World Under 8 Girl's Champion (Classical, Rapid and Blitz - with a score of 33/33 in the 3 events!) We can't claim Elis as a KCC player, unfortunately, but she did attend several pre-pandemic club nights at The Gauntlet with dad Dennis and big sister Imogen, and Paul has been a major influence on her rapid development into a very strong player. Well done, Elis!
Elis receives the UK Women's Blitz Trophy from ECF Director of Home Chess, Nigel Towers
It was a very long time ago (July 30.2019 to be specific) that the first - indeed only - contribution to the KCC Blog on this topic occurred. For those whose memory isn't what it used to be, here is the station that prompted the initial post.
Named after not 1, but 2, GMs Torre can be found just outside Torquay
Well, its been a long wait, but today has just produced contribution number 2, in what can now be called a series.
Some people might say I'm cheating, but everyone in the chess world knows who Gata is, so no surname is needed!
Gata is a small town somewhere slightly inland between Calp and Denia, south of Javier's old home city of Valencia. But don't take my word for it. Here's a map!
Wikipedia tells me that it has an "unusually large number of bars and restaurants per capita." Sounds like my kind of town! And, spookily, that it is known for its wicker industry - doubtless connected to Kevin of that name, once a well known openings' analyst. Who I drew with, from a position of strength, in the London League in 1988. Everything's connected in this wonderful chess world of ours!
Having reluctantly come to the conclusion - eventually - that Joshua will not be continuing his series of reports from Leicester, I guess it has fallen to me to summarise the KCC results and mark our collective scorecard.
There were a few changes from the initial runners and riders I published just before the off, as some people opted to play in more or less tournaments than I expected (maybe I just miscounted?), but the most significant change was that Solomon has returned from the Wild West (Wells) and at least temporarily revived his KCC membership. He played a rather impressive 42 games at Leicester - and did rather well - so he certainly needs to be included in our stats! This means that the revised count is that KCC players made 39 tournament entries between them (covering 21 different events) and played 281 games in total.
Well, no doubt you are all on tenterhooks to find out what our final performance numbers looked like. So, to put you out of your misery, I can revela that the overall KCC score amounted to 141.5 pts, and a 50.4% strike rate. This represents a major improvement on the 46.7% achieved at Warwick Uni in the 2015 Championships. And we played more than 100 additional games this time around.
While the standout individual performance has to be Jude's 5/9 in the British Championship, the highest overall KCC percentage results were:-
It bodes rather well for the future when David is the old man amongst our star performers! Of our 15 players, no fewer than 11 scored 50% or more. Congratulations to everyone who played and supported this event. I just hope it wasn't so well supported that it's going to be in Leicester again, any time soon!
And we certainly have to record the names of our two tournament winners, who have every reason to be extremely proud of their achievements. Solomon came 1st= in the Weekend U1750 event, with a score of 4.5/5. Not bad for the 34th ranked player. And just as impressive was David's score of 6/7 in the Second Rapidplay Open, which gave him clear first place ahead of Billy, who tied for second, just half a point behind. It was quite something to see the pairing Fellowes v Phillips on Board 1 in the final round of an open event at the British Championships!
This week's song is by way of a tribute to the brilliant Robbie Robertson, lead guitarist and main song writer for that all time great group The Band who passed away earlier this month. Although not as famous as The Weight, or The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down, this is my favourite Band song, and this is an awesome live rendition with brilliant guitar solos from Robbie. Frightening and tragic to think that only Garth Hudson remains from these five superb musicians - the only group ever who have been good enough to get away with calling themselves The Band. RIP Robbie. Another rock and roll genius gone, but what a magnificent musical legacy he has left us.
For those of you who missed it - and that could easily have included me, given the brutallu early broadcast time of o8.50 - here is incontrovertible proof that 2 KCC legends were live on national TV this morning, talking about chess. And not just any old channel, but BBC1. You can't get any more mainstream national TV than that.
Jude, looking cool, calm and collected - despite being watched by several million people!
Paul telling the country what a great game chess is. But will the country listen? It should!
These photos were, literally, screen shots - the screen in question being our rather ancient and decidedly non-widescreen TV.
Great work by both our legends who came across as old hands at this sort of thing. Clearly the experience of getting into desperate time trouble means that handling pressure like this is a piece of cake. I can't come close to matching this sort of media exposure - the listening figures when I was interviewed in a Radio 3 documentary many years back probably struggled to reach 4 figures. And most of them were doubtless waiting for Bruckner's Second Symphony or whatever concert performance was due on next. (BTW I chose this musical work completely at random, only to discover it is called the Symphony of Pauses, which was possibly quite apt for my radio contribution!)
Anyway, guys, many congratulations on a massively confident and impressive performance - but please take on board the words from this week's song, and don't forget your old friends from before you were famous!
Well, even by my standards there has been a rather long interval since Part 16 of this KCC history. 27 months, in fact, for which I would like to apologise. Though I doubt that anyone has been waiting on tenterhooks for a resumption of this narrative. If you can remember back as far as the last instalment, you will recall that the series of articles had initially finished with Part 15, which covered the events of 2006. But then Mike Johnson suddenly came forward with a new heap of papers which enabled me to fill in some of the gaps in the records I had previously inherited. So Part 16 backtracked to cover the years 2000 and 2001, and now Part 17 takes us on to 2003-05
May 2003 - The 2003 AGM was actually well covered in Part 12 of this series (19.09.19) but now the accounts have come to hand. Income from membership subs (£10 adults; £5 associates; £4 juniors) amounted to £230, which was quite a tidy sum back then, while expenditure was only some £136 pounds, giving us a surplus on the year of £94.68. This took our accumulated funds to £284.79, which put is in a good position to cope with unforeseen events such as a pandemic; energy and fuel inflation; or Brexit. Clearly the Club was in very far-sighted hands in those days. I'm not sure why, but our LDCL League Membership fees were a whopping £102, whereas now - even with 5 teams next season - we will only be paying £57. Almost certainly this was tied up with extra payments to the ECF (though it may have still been the BCF then) which have now been subsumed within the individual ECF membership fee.
August 2003 - A letter from the Secretary (Bernard) dated August 14 informs the members that a Team Formation meeting will be held at the Sports and Social Club on August 28th. Additionally, the club will be presented that night with the BCF Small Club of the Year award. Bernard also takes the opportunity to announce that the Club internal tournaments have finally been resolved, with victories for Adam Sykes (over Bernard) in the Tilley Cup and for Carl Pickering (over Rod Webb) in the Plate. And we learn that summer attendances have been "excellent - at least 8 on most nights".
20 people turn out for the Team Formation/BCF Award night, though disappointingly the Club Secretary is a notable absentee. But at least he apologises for his absence. As does - oh no! - the BCF representative due to make the Club of the Year presentation. What a disappointment. This will have to be rescheduled. (David Anderton did subsequently attend a club night before Christmas to make this award.) But at least our teams are sorted out:-
A team - Paul L, Bernard, Paul Mills and Carl (captain)
B team - Phil, Mark L, Adam Sykes, Rod (captain) and Tom Swallow as reserve
C team - Roy, Nick Mottram and Nigel Morris (captain)
D team - Chris, Geoff King, Tony King, Mike Whatson (captain) and Simon Whatson as reserve
E team - Tom Payne, Aaron Payne, Steve Payne, Bruce Holland and Frank Holmes (captain)
May 2004 - Another AGM that has been extensively reported already (Part 13 - 11.10.19), but - once again - the Accounts have now come to light. These show income down by about £40 and expenditure up by a similar amount, so the annual surplus was a measly £15.91. This was mainly due to a steep rise in LDCL fees to £136. Still, our accumulated balance continues to grow and now stands at £300.70.
March 2005 - An interesting letter from Bernard (as Secretary) dated March 31, giving notice of the forthcoming AGM. No, that's not the interesting bit, this is. He informs us, firstly, that the Club will host the U-125 Cup Final between Nuneaton and Stratford on April 21, and then issues an appeal for members to volunteer to serve on the LDCL Committee. "At present, only 4 clubs are represented on the Committee being Stratford, Banbury, Olton and Solihull. As the largest club within the League, the Committee has requested that Kenilworth have at least one representative and I really think that we should honour this commitment." Wow! Who knew we were ever the largest club within the League?? This is complete news to me, and a major surprise, considering we are the smallest community to have a team in the League!
May 2005 - A club membership list comes to light. We have an impressive 20 full members; 1 associate and 5 juniors. Plus 3 naughty people (Adam Sykes; Aaron Payne and Simon Whatson) who didn't cough up their subs! The full members are:- Bruce Holland; Chris Aldridge; Nick Mottram; Phil Wood; Rod Webb; Roy Watson; Mike Whatson; Tom Swallow; Tony King; Bernard Rogers; Geoff King; Nigel Morris;Frank Holmes; Steve Payne; Paul Mills; Carl Pickering; Nick Waterman; Len Krombeen, Calvin Smith; and the mysterious Dr ??????, who gave his £10 to Carl! john skinner was the only associate member and our junior squad was Paul and Mark Lam; Tom Payne; Michael Atkins and Daniel Parvis.
I know I am starting to sound like a record that has got stuck, but the 2005 AGM has also previously been recorded at length (Part 14 - 18.12.19) though again without any financial details. Until now! These show another rise in LDCL fees, which have now reached the stratosphere - £168! Luckily, the Treasurer must have applied the thumbscrews as he has somehow raked in £225 in subs, but with £62.88 spent on equipment, and £40 of subsidies for our juniors' BCF membership, we posted a loss on the year of £34.65, which reduced our accumulated funds to £266.05.
I think I'll call it a day for now - if you think its a pain reading this stuff, spare a thought for me having to type it all out! There's enough material left over for at least one more instalment of this series, so the suffering - for all of us - is not over yet. There will be a Part 18 of this series - don't think it won't happen, just because it hasn't happened yet. Which just happens to be a line from our latest song!
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