Hi
everyone, and Happy New Year to you all. Let's hope it's a better one than
the last two.
First
of all, I apologise if you've received this email and you're no longer
involved with the organisation of your chess club. The lists I have are
somewhat out of date, for obvious reasons. If you're no longer involved
then can I ask that you forward this email to the new person in charge?
(And let me know if you need to be deleted from my contact lists). Also, I
apologise if you've received the mailing more than once. Some people
appear on several of my lists. I've tried to weed out the multiple entries
but I might have missed some
Is
it time to get back to over-the-board league chess in Sheffield &
District? A good number of people believe so. Other leagues and
tournaments have started back up and, whilst Omicron looked for a while as
though it might put a dampener on things, there is a faint light at the end
of the tunnel. The Executive are meeting online on Thursday next week,
i.e. 27th January, and would like to rubber stamp our otb re-start.
Sometime
between now and the Executive meeting, I would appreciate it if you could
let me know the situation at your own club. Are you ready to play league
chess again? Also, are there any COVID rules at your playing venue?
We're
already aware of some clubs that are still struggling, for various reasons,
and therefore the plan is not to restart our main winter league. The
sensible time for that would be October. Instead, we're looking at
something more akin to our Summer League, probably running from around 1st
March to end of June. As per our existing Summer League rules, matches
would be over 4 boards but with an option to increase to 6. Games should
be graded (so ECF membership would be encouraged). Players wouldn't have
to play for their 'main' clubs, e.g. if a club chose not to enter a team in
this restart, then their players would be allowed to 'guest' for another
club until we restart the winter league.
There
may be some points that I've missed off but have a look at the current
Summer League rules (mannchess.org.uk/SRules/Rules.htm#summer)
and let me know if you have any queries about them. I'm not asking for
definite team entries at this stage but, rather, feedback from clubs to be
presented to the Exec next week.
Best
wishes
Geoff
Brown
General
Secretary, S&DCA
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