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| 2011 -
Dublin City University |
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Friday July 22nd (iii) - from Peter Purland
In the Stokes and Robinson early wins in the afternoon assured
English victory in both but the first match to finish was the
Gilbert between Scotland and Ireland which was won 2-1 by
Scotland leaving England needing at least two points to gain
second place which they duly did winning the bottom two boards.
Meanwhile in the Glorney Ireland beat Wales 3-2 but the England
Scotland game all boards went in to the last half hour with
England winning 3½; - 1½;. The Stokes Cup finished up England 27½;,
Scotland 19½;, Ireland 15½;, Wales 9½; whilst the Robinson Cup
ended up England 24, Ireland 18½;, Scotland 15½;, Wales 14. The
Gilbert was won by Scotland 13½;, followed by England 9 (match
points 7) Ireland A 9 (match points 5) and Ireland B 4½;. Finally
the Glorney Cup was won by England 23½;, followed by Ireland 16,
Scotland 14½;, Wales 6.
The competition was very well run and played in an excellent
spirit. England will be running the 2012 event July 17-21.
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Friday July 22nd (ii) - from Peter Purland
Early wins confirm that
England win the Stokes and Robinson Cups! Glorney was won before
the start of the round. |
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Friday 22nd July (i) - from Peter Purland
Unlike some years there
was nothing settled going in to the final day - something that
can only be good for the competition. England was in the lead in
Glorney, Robinson and Stokes whilst Scotland led the Faber. To
avoid the two Irish teams meeting in the final round the draw
for the Faber paired Scotland v England and the two Irish teams
whilst the other three tournaments saw Wales v England and
Ireland v Scotland. The first tournament to finish was the
Robinson where Ireland completely reversed the previous score
winning 4½; - 1½;. This put Ireland 2 points ahead of Scotland in
second place but as England inflicted a 5½; - ½; defeat on Wales
this left England only needing a single point in the afternoon
to win the tournament. In the Stokes Cup too, Ireland reversed a
heavy round one defeat record a 4-2 victory whilst England, as
in the Robinson Cup, won 5½; - ½;. This gave England a 6 point
lead over Scotland who, in turn, are 5½; points ahead of Ireland.
In the Glorney, too, Ireland turned a first round draw in to a
4-1 victory (what did they feed them on last night?) which left
England, who beat Wales 4½; - ½; with an unassailable 7 point lead
over Ireland and Scotland who were tied on 13 points. The Faber
proved the most interesting event with both games being drawn
although this was sufficient for Scotland to guarantee first
place leaving Ireland with a one point advantage over England in
the battle for second. |
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Thursday 21st July - from Peter Purland
Thursday morning saw the final round of the first leg
of matches with England playing Scotland and Ireland playing
Wales. Both matches were close with some good long games (and
one or two good short ones!) and in the Ireland v Wales game
Ireland took the Stokes game 3½; - 2½; and the Glorney 4-1 whilst
the Robinson was a 3-3 draw.
In the Gilbert Ireland A won 2½;
- ½;. Four games in the other match went the full 4 hours with
Scotland winning the Faber 2½; - ½; and England winning the
Glorney 3-2, Robinson 3½; - 2½; and Stokes 4½; - 1½;. This left
England winning the Stokes by 2½; points from Scotland, the
Robinson really close with England on 10½;, Ireland 9, Scotland
8½; and Wales 8. In the Faber Scotland are forging ahead of
Ireland, whilst in the Glorney England have a three point lead
over Scotland with Ireland half a point behind.
The afternoon pairings were
England v Ireland and Scotland v Wales. The first match result
of the afternoon was a 3-3 draw between Wales and
Scotland in the Robinson followed by a 5½;-½; win for England in
the Stokes. However Scotland kept the pressure up on England in
this tournament defeating Wales by the same score to remain 2½;
points behind England. In the Faber Scotland beat Ireland B 3-0
whilst England reversed the score against Ireland A winning 2-1.
This leaves Scotland 3½; points ahead of Ireland with England a
further point behind.
The England v Ireland match in
the Robinson then finished with England reversing Wednesday's
result winning 4½;-1½; and opening up a 3½; point lead at the top
with the other three countries all within a point of each other.
The Glorney was, inevitably, the last to finish with Scotland
defeating Wales 3½;-1½; whilst all five of the Ireland v England
games went on well into the final hour.
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Wednesday 20th July - from Peter
Purland
All 80 players arrived safely and most stayed in the
accommodation provided at Dublin City University. This was
standard, en-suite student flats of 4 or 5 bedrooms with a good
restaurant on site. After a hearty Irish breakfast (much
appreciated by leaders and players alike) we went to the playing
area where we were welcomed to Dublin by Pat Fitzsimmons,
organiser of the event, Jonathan O'Connor, chairman of the ICU
and Roisin Shortall, TD Minister of State at Department of
Health who formally opened the tournament. It was a pleasure to
hear a minister who knew something about chess and could make a
good speech. The four sections all played a common opponent so
in round one we had England v Wales and Scotland v Ireland.
Unfortunately in the Gilbert Cup Wales were unable to raise a
team, so Ireland put in a second team. The first round results
saw English wins: 5-0 in the Glorney, 2-1 in the Faber and 4½;
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1½; in the other two. Scotland and Ireland drew in the Glorney
whilst Scotland won 2-1 in the Faber, 3½; - 2½; in the U14
(Robinson Cup) and 4½; - 1½; in the U12 (Stokes Cup).
The afternoon saw Ireland v
England and Wales v Scotland. The latter games were over first
with Scotland winning the Glorney match 4-1, the Stokes 4-2 and
the Faber 2½;-½; whilst Wales won the U14 3½;-2½;. The Ireland v
England games were much longer affairs with only the Stokes
match finishing within 3½; hours and this resulted in a win for
England 3½;-2½;. The Glorney finished next and here England did
well with two wins and three draws to maintain each players'
unbeaten record. The Gilbert went to Ireland 2-1 whilst the
Robinson went down to the last two seconds with Ireland coming
home 3½;-2½;. Thus the day ended, with England leading the Glorney
and Robinson and Scotland leading the Gilbert and Stokes.
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2010 -
Trefforest, Glamogan University - From Peter
Purland, ECF Junior Director |
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This annual event, which is now the British Isles Championships,
is held in July, just before the British Championships and
rotates round the four home countries. This year the event was
held at Trefforest in Glamorgan University. Food, accommodation
and playing conditions were all good but the hills! Is all South
Wales steep sided valleys? At least we will have some very fit
teams after this event.
David Levens stepped in at the last minute to take over running
the teams and, although he has aged during the week, he did
enjoy the experience and saw his teams produce the results.
Traditionally we have been the strongest team at both U12 and
U14 level and the U14 team, which was nearly full strength,
carried all before them. The team was Marcus Harvey, Peter
Batchelor, Henry Broadley, Adam Taylor, William Foo and Martin
Oliver and, between them, they only dropped 5½; points in 6
matches. Despite this, William Foo was the only player to record
a perfect score. Wales came second (I have to mention this) but
were 10 points behind. The U12 team had suffered some drop-outs
but those who did turn out certainly did England proud, scoring
25½; points to win comfortably. The team was Robert Fitzpatrick,
Alexander Harris, Nishant Bommayya, Aditya Mavinkurve, Ananth
Balaji and Marcus Rose. Ananth was the only other player in the
whole tournament to score 6/6
The Gilbert Cup was beset by cry-offs but eventually we got out
a very strong team (we do not usually play our World and
European selections) but Lateefah Messam-Sparks and Sheila Dines
joined Anna York-Andersen to try to regain the trophy won by the
Scots last year. The first five rounds led to both teams being
tied on 10½; with our girls facing the Scots in the final round
and needing to win as the Scots had the better tie break. Anna
drew first and, when Sheila brought in a draw I wondered if they
knew what they were doing. They did! Lateefah had a won game and
quickly secured the point that ensured the return of the cup to
England.
It was, however, the Glorney Cup team that gave me the most
satisfaction. We were minus our top 8 or 9 players for a variety
of reasons and, as we had only won the event in the last game
with our selected team in the last two years, who would have bet
on this team? They were - David Grant, William Jones, Elliott
Auckland, George Tunstall and Michael Rabbitte. However some
players have pride in what they do and reputations (or ratings)
count for nought. By round four they had surpassed all
expectations and built up a 5-point lead but (I hate to say it)
we had played Wales twice and they had a very young team whilst
Ireland and Scotland played them on the last day and both scored
5-0 victories. The morning saw the Scots thirsting for revenge
(even our team would admit to luck in the first encounter) and
they got it with no wins for us and draws from David, Elliot and
Michael. At this point the Scottish coach and an Irish parent
were seen rubbing their hands and congratulating each other.
What were our players made of? They had to get at least two
points against the Irish! Well they went in together and
determined. Elliott took a steady draw, David lost, but Michael
drew. Ten minutes left, five minutes left then - George got that
all important win and shortly afterwards William drew to ensure
we finished half a point ahead of Scotland. They thoroughly
deserved their victory. They had come and they had given their
all, and we can be proud of them!
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