Welcome to all the new players who have joined us this season, including a large contingent from Bristol University. I hope you will enjoy playing in the Bristol League and will continue to do so for many years to come. You will find that League tables are updated on our Web site twice a month, and your club secretary will receive a list of performances by players in the club, with informal gradings calculated for players who have completed five or more games. There are also updates on the Alan Ashby competition, which is won by the player who scores the greatest number of points in the League and Knockout, regardless of the number of games played.
You will shortly be seeing entry forms distributed for the League Congress, an individual tournament which decides the Bristol Champion. Last year this attracted nearly a quarter of the members of the League, and we hope you will be able to help us continue its success this season.
I have received results from 87 matches so far. Division One looks like being an open race, with Clifton, Horfield, Bath and Grendel all fielding strong teams. All four of these teams are on -1, in the Div 1 way of scoring things. In the other divisions only Cossham, Downend C, Clifton C and Horfield C are still on maximum points from their games played.
Not many players have managed five matches yet - the threshold at which statistics start to be calculated - but already Aidan Rawlinson (Bath) has set the pace with his 179 performance from the first six games. Other good performers are Mike Brannan and Mike Passmore (Downend) and our recently retired Grading Officer Ray Studer (Clevedon).
These are rather higher than at the same time last season. The current total is 20 (0.22 per match compared to 0.13 last October). The worst offender is Civil Service, which so far has not fielded a full team. Once again captains are asked to remember that a default deprives a player of a game - even very weak opposition is preferable to none at all.
Initial figures show that Division Three is markedly stronger than last year, particularly on the top boards, while all other divisions are a little weaker. Division Four contains University A, which should turn out to be a strong team, so I expect its average strength to increase as they play more matches.
311 players have so far competed in at least one match, almost exactly the same as this time last season. At the normal rate of influx of new players I would expect about another 100 by the end of the season. However a couple of clubs have told me that they have a number of new players who have no team available. If there are sufficient clubs interested I will be happy to organise a mini Division 7 after Christmas.
The dust finally appears to have settled on this year's grading list, and I have identified most of the graded players in the League. The main problem has been with players not previously graded, as there have been many misspellings, which have resulted in multiple entries in the list. In one or two cases I have taken an average of the published figures to give a grade to a player who would not otherwise have had one. This is important as ungraded players are not permitted to use the 'playing down' rule. If any players shown as ungraded think they played ten or more graded games last season, please contact me.
The Trust has recently voted money to Henbury school for a relaunch of its chess club, and has sent letters to all the schools in the Bristol area to see if they wish to start a new club. A leaflet summarising the aims of the Trust will be sent out with League Congress entry forms, and League members are invited to make a donation with their congress entry. The trustees are Christopher Jones, Martyn Sellars and Jerry Humphreys. You may contact any of these for further information or to make a request for a grant.
This year I have started sending League tables to clubs by e-mail. This is very cheap as well as saving me the inconvenience of printing and packing over a hundred sheets of paper each time. As a bonus those clubs that receive their tables by e-mail get an update in the middle of the month. If your club would like to be included in the list please e-mail me at jerry.humphreys@tinyonline.co.uk. The next set of tables and individual performances will be sent by e-mail on 13th November, with a set going out to all clubs on 27th November.
Jerry Humphreys
30th October 1999