Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on 14th September 2020 via Zoom (online).
Apologies were received from Nick Gough, Alan Brampton, Roger Thetford.
Chairman: vacant (John Harvey acting for the meeting)
Minutes of last meeting
These were read and accepted without amendments.
Gary Reynolds on the passing of Mike Duck
Sadly I have to report that Mike Duck lost his battle with cancer on the 9th July.
Mike was previous Chairman of the OCA and stalwart of Didcot Chess club. He will be very much missed.
Treasurers Report & Membership Fees for 2019-20
Andy Robins provided the Treasurer’s report for the meeting.
The club made a cash deficit of £19.61 in year 2019/20 (Surplus of £65.23 in 2018/19).
This reflects the purchase of 6 digital chess clocks during the year for £169.61.
End of year bank balance was £87.44.
It was agreed that subscriptions for the 2020/21 season would remain at £30 for adults and £20 for juniors, students, pensioners & unwaged.
Marlborough Club membership fees are unchanged.
First Team Captains Report
Gary Reynolds reported that the First team had another tough season in Division 1, lying 7th of 8 teams when the league was abandoned due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Safety did look likely however (had the season been played to conclusion) due to the gap over the 8th placed team. Top scorer was Gai Guanqun with an excellent 5.5/6. Nick and Andrejs both scored 45% against top board opposition.
Second Team Captains Report (Submitted by Roger Thetford)
On paper we were one of the weaker teams in division 2 but managed three wins and four draws out of the 11 matches that we played, placing us fifth out of eight in a desperately tight division: we were four points off the top and two points off the bottom. Andy Robins (6/11, ever-present) and Guanqun Gai (5½ / 9) were our heaviest scorers despite being on the top boards. John Harvey and I both notched 1½ / 2 to be over 50% for the season. Thank you to all 12 players who turned out for the team.
The season was curtailed because of Covid-19, with promotion and relegation cancelled.
Third Team Captains Report (Submitted by Mark McLeod)
The Covid-19 pandemic potentially robbed Didcot 3 of a title winning season. At the point that the league was ended Uni 3 had played all their matches and scored 19 points from 12 games. Didcot 3 had 3 games still to play and had already accumulated 15 points with +23 game difference. The 3rd place team was Cumnor 2 who had amassed just 9 points from the 9 games they had played.
With us electing to drop the Didcot 4th team we were much stronger this year and therefore it was not surprising to see the team pulling out some impressive wins. Notable records from the season were:
Mark McLeod – 7.5 points from 9 games
Alex Tringali – 6 points from 6 games
John Clarke – 5 points from 7 games
Alan Brampton – 4 points from 5 games
Mike Duck – 2.5 points from 3 games.
Congratulations to all players and I look forward to restarting the Captains duties once we recommence over the board chess.
Tournaments
The John Richards Cup for 2018-19 was won by Andrejs Olehnovics.
The Martin Sheridan Shield, for payers graded under ECF 115 didn’t finish before the club had to close.
The Christmas 5-minute tournament was again excellently organised by Roger Thetford, with plenty of food provided by The Marlborough.
Graham McInnes won the title in this handicapped event.
Following the pandemic-enforced closure of the club (for OTB chess), we launched the 2020 Corona tournament using Lichess online. This is currently ongoing.
Club Nights (& number of teams): discussion delayed until club can start meeting again in person.
Election of Officers
Congratulations to Mark Mcleod on his appointment as our new Chair (proposed by Andy Robins, seconded by Paul Blackmore).
Thanks to Paul Bizzell for volunteering to be Third Team Vice Captain.
Roger is standing down as Second Team Captain. Please contact a Committee member if you would be interested in taking on this role.
Chair Mark Mcleod
Treasurer Andy Robins
Secretary John Harvey
First Team Captain Gary Reynolds
First Team Vice Captain Bernard Cooper
Second Team Captain <vacant>
Second Team Vice Captain Andy Robins
Third Team Captain Mark Mcleod
Third Team Vice Captain Paul Bizzell
OCA League: Online chess team(s) for 2020/21
At the time of the meeting, it appears very unlikely that OTB league chess will recommence in Oxfordshire for the 2020-21 season.
Therefore, the OCA is considering an online team league. Several variables remain to be resolved; platform (Lichess?), format (swiss?), number per team (4/6?), time controls.
It is hoped that these would be resolved at the OCA AGM of 24th September.
The OCA asked clubs for levels of interest ahead of their AGM
Before our AGM Gary had surveyed the club for interest in playing in this league and the response suggested we would have a squad of 10 (later increased to 11).
Therefore, we have communicated to the OCA that we have an interest in putting forward one team of 6 for an online league (or 2 teams if they are to be of 4 players).
We await the conclusions/next steps from the OCA AGM.
Any Other Business
1. Gary informed the meeting that all Mike Duck’s chess books (30-40) had been donated to the club. These would be available to borrow from the club store cupboard at The Marlborough.
2. The OCA is considering naming their online league tournament after Mike Duck
3. The meeting agreed to rename our Christmas Blitz tournament “The Mike Duck Christmas Blitz”
There being no further business, the Chairman closed the meeting.
Meeting Closed 8:25 pm. John Harvey, Secretary.