In October thirty-eight BCA members travelled to Kents Hill Park Training and Conference Centre, Milton Keynes for our 2024 Autumn Tournament. It was a new venue for us!
This time we did not have any visitors from overseas, but we were pleased to welcome Joe Paton to his first BCA event. He did not take part in the tournament but had a friendly game with Clare Gailans. Perhaps we might see them in a tournament soon.
It was good to have Chris Ross taking part in the tournament after a few years’ absence. We had 22 participants, and everybody played in the one section. Here is the list of players with ratings from the beginning of October.
Chris Ross 2220, Owen Phillips 1944, Tristram Cole 1850, James Connors 1719, Gary Hogan 1710, Brandan Read 1698, Bill Armstrong 1637, Stan Lovell 1607, George Phillips 1421, Dan Rugman 1359, Mark Hague 1344, Voldi Gailans 1316, John Fullwood 1260, Neda Koohnavard 1245, Stephen Bailey 1224, Gill Smith 1134, John Osborne 1105, Tony Lawton 1092, Abi Baker 1063, Philip Rafferty 937, Lea Ryan 857, Richard Harrington 660.
In Round one on Friday evening the results were as you would expect from players’ published ratings. Rounds 2 and 3 were held on Saturday morning and afternoon respectively, after which we had the following standings. Tris was leading with 3 points. 4 players were on 2.5 points, Chris, Owen, James and Gary. On 2 points were Bill, Brandan and Neda.
After dinner on Saturday evening, we all met up again in the chess room. We also celebrated Neda’s engagement, with her wedding coming up the very next month. She kindly brought a couple of tubs of chocolates to share. We then had the draw for the raffle which was organised by Julie and Pat. Their hard work raised £200. A musical soirée followed with Julie Leonard and Steve each playing guitar, Julie on vocals, and the audience also in fine voice for several of the songs. Joe was persuaded to sing too, and Tessa Fullwood recited a couple of poems.
On Sunday morning, organised by Tessa and Julie, 10 people went on a visit to Bletchley Park which was a short drive away, while chess players fought their way through the 4th chess round. After round 4, the fight for the top positions then looked like this. Chris and James were both on 3.5 points, Tris and Owen were on 3 points and 6 players were on 2.5, Gary, Brandan, Bill, Stan, Neda and Gill.
Then the 5th and final round had Chris playing James and Owen played Tris, and all those with 2.5 points were in a group of 3 games.
Final standings and prize winners.
Chris beat James so finished on 4.5 points. Many congratulations to Chris for being the outright victor and winner of the Open Trophy and the top prize money.
Owen and Tris drew their game so finished with 3.5, along with James. Also, Gary beat Stan, Brandan beat Gill and Neda beat Bill so Gary, Brandan and Neda also had 3.5 points. This meant 6 players shared second place. (Sadly, Gary was unable to stay for the prize giving.)
Neda won the Challengers section, as top player with a grade under 1450 and she was presented with a trophy and prize money.
Dan finished on 3 points and was placed 2nd in the Challengers.
On 2.5 points were Bill, Stan, Gill, Mark, George, Steve and Voldi.
Gill, Mark, George, Steve and Voldi were joint 3rd in the Challengers, and Gill won Rating Prize A.
John, Tony and Phil ended on 2 points and Phil won Rating Prize B.
Lea, Abi and John had 1 point and Richard was on 0.
Congratulations to all the prize winners.
The weekend was complete with a short soirée on the Sunday evening, this time held in the bar as there were very few hotel guests apart from our party. Musical talent was provided by Julie, Steve, Richard Murphy, Joe, Clare and Owen, and Lea had us in stitches with her standup routine.
A big thank you to John and Tessa Fullwood for their work researching hotels and organising our event at Kents Hill Park. We are grateful to Matthew Carr and David Clayton who were our arbiters and Richard Murphy who was our steward. Thank you to everyone who helped out behind the scenes and everyone who attended, you made it another successful BCA event.
Compiled using excerpts from Gill Smith’s report for the BCA Gazette.