ECF Council meeting - County Championship
Robert Richmond
A major item on the agenda was consideration of the grading limits for next years County Championship, as a consequence of the coming inflation of grades. I followed the instructions of the Executive Committee and voted for the suggestion by Cyril Johnson, Director of Home Chess, that the grading limits be left unchanged. The practical effect of that would be that this years U150 team becomes next years U175 etc, which would have been ideal for Notts. Provided we could find captains we could run teams at U175, U150, U125 and U100, instead of now where we run U150, U125 and U100 teams, with the rather unsatisfactory possibility (as actually happened this year for once) of a 12 board U175 Jamboree. This was defeated.
An alternative proposal from the SCCU setting the limits as U180, U160, U140, U120 and U100, creating an extra level, and with U120 and U100 teams being over 12 boards was passed. The SCCU (unlike the MCCU) has a viable and successful U175 competition, and they faced the possiblity of a number of players in those teams being deprived of County chess. The vote was essentially SCCU vs MCCU, and the bigger Union won.
What happens in the Midlands next season is very unclear. The only certainty is there is a lot of talking to do before the MCCU AGM. A couple of thoughts. I doubt that any MCCU county could run teams at all the available levels, so there may be unviable numbers in particular competitions. We are not masters of our own destiny - no doubt we could run an U180 team (instead of U175), but Counties with an OPEN team may prefer U160 instead. Watch this space...