Horfield A have sprinted ahead of the field as the second half of the season picks up. They were helped by Clifton A beating Grendel A and then losing to Clifton B, but in any case Horfield have only dropped three points and are looking pretty determined. Certainly Downend A had a horrid time against them last week. Division Two is also starting to crystallise, with Nailsea A taking a commanding lead. Both South Bristol teams are in charge, in Divisions Three and Five respectively, while Nailsea C are leading with a game in hand over Clifton D in Division Four. Meanwhile there is a relegation race developing in Division Two, with only four points separating the bottom seven teams.
Both KO competitions are down to their last four teams. Horfield managed a very convincing performance against Clevedon and are no doubt looking for the double, though Clifton's strength over eight boards is legendary. South Bristol, who put up a strong performance against Downend, are still in the Minor Cup, and must be eyeing up the Nailsea team who have come into the other half of the draw. I hope we will be able to have the important Cup matches reviewed in future issues of ChessTimes.
Just eight new players have played in the League in January, so there has been some slowing down over the Christmas period. I have placed PlayChess leaflets in the Central Library, and the take-up is about 10 - 15 a week, so they should provide a steady influx of new players in the second half. Of course, it is up to clubs to ensure that they give a good impression and leave new recruits with the feeling that it is worth joining a chess club. Otherwise people will simply come along a couple of times and then stop.
There has been an amazing surge in the performances of A team players in the Alan Ashby Salver. This competition should work against A team players as they cannot play up and only in a few cases can play down. But it turns out that Steve Dilleigh (Horfield) is only half a point off the leaders, despite a ten match disadvantage. Alex Easton (Horfield) and David Eggington (Nailsea) are a further half point behind. So it is now a contest between quality and quantity. Meanwhile in a separate competition of their own Jim Cattran (Grendel) and Richard Lobb (Yate) are vying to become the first Bristol player ever to manage 30 League games in a season - this is the number required to qualify for a full BCF grading.
The BCF are now bringing out gradings twice yearly, but the January list has been deferred and seems to be running into problems. Leagues have been given an extra month to produce grading information but there is still no sign of the special software package which will enable this information to be put into the form required. As this list is the pilot for the new scheme we can expect that the wrinkles will not have been completely sorted by the time the main list is published in August.
The Bristol League will continue to use last August's list for the purposes of the playing down rule, even after the interim list is published, though if any player who did not have a grade in August gets one in the new list, he may use that to qualify for playing down. The League has deferred a decision on whether to send up results for the January list until we have had time to evaluate the new software.
The results of internal club tournaments can be sent for BCF grading (provided they are played to standard time limits). Simply notify the Grading Officer before the event, and send him the crosstables afterwards. The BCF has recently decided to charge 1/3 of the standard Game Fee for these matches, but the League will pay this fee if the tournament is held for the benefit of new and ungraded players. So you can give your players the chance to play matches even if they are not in a League team, and get them into the next grading list if they play sufficient games.
A set of tables and individual performances has been sent to clubs at the same time as this report was produced. Some players have apparently been under the impression that the individual performances can be used as gradings, but in fact these figures are produced for interest and to help captains know how their players are performing. BCF gradings take tournament performances, and in some cases matches from previous seasons, into account.
The next set of tables will be sent to clubs on 27th February.
Jerry Humphreys
30th January 1999