Jon Hunt v Harry Sharples
Club Membership 2023-24
At the AGM on 29th August, the Treasurer will be proposing no changes to the 2022-23 membership rates for 2023-24 and will confirm that the club continues to accept annual membership payments by cash and cheque, and weekly payments by cash. However, all members are strongly encouraged, if they have not already done so, to set up a GoCardless direct debit agreement with the club. Our GoCardless payments system has been operating smoothly for two years now, and the number of members paying the club this way is already in double figures.
Please visit our Pay page to read more and set up your GoCardless direct debit agreement. If you already have an agreement set up with the club, do not set up another one - your membership payments will continue to be drawn by this method unless you have asked us to stop. Whether paying by cash/cheque or via GoCardless, please ensure that the club has your current email address. We will shortly be emailing all members requesting the they update their membership details. This information will be stored securely in the club’s Mailchimp account, and no financial information will be stored along with it.
Finally, if you wish to play rated games of chess - such as those in our internal club competitions, league matches and one-off evening league events - then please ensure that you are a paid-up member of the ECF for the 2023-24 season. ECF membership is a requirement for rated play, so if your ECF membership status is showing as “Not Member” on the ECF Ratings website then you will not be permitted to play rated games with the club. ECF Bronze membership, which costs just £18 for the year, is sufficient for all club and league competitions. If you are considering entering other tournaments or congresses - e.g. the 2024 Thanet Congress - then ECF Silver membership covers your rated play in those too. Join the ECF or renew your membership here.
Robert Starley & George Allen winners in “The Black-and-White”
After 12 gruelling rounds and 116 rapidplay games (that’s if they had all been played!), we have our winners in Sandwich Chess Club’s new open competition. The overall winner of “The Black-and-White” was never in doubt, and Robert Starley cruised over the line with two rounds to spare, finishing on an unassailable 12 points out of 12.
George Allen, “1st Earl of Sandwich”, & Robert Starley, inaugural winner of “The Black-and-White”
Far harder fought was the 1660-and-below rating battle to become the “1st Earl of Sandwich”. Near misses included Daniel Allen and Mark Towlson, who finished on 7.5 points a piece, and a special mention goes to Kit Blundell with 8 points. But in the end the title went to the only player other than Robert Starley to win all of his last six games in the competition, powering past early favourite Roy McAloney of Margate 2-0 in the final rounds to finish on 9 points out of 12 - George Allen, “1st Earl of Sandwich”!
The competition has been proved to be both fun and challenging, and if it has done nothing else for the club it has introduced the idea of biscuits at club nights. We hope to run it again next season, perhaps (now that we have some DGT 3000 clocks with enough programmes) with the time control of 45 minutes for all moves adjusted to 30 minutes for all moves with a 10-second increment from move 1. Who will be the “2nd Earl of Sandwich”? And did we guess right to bulk-buy plates for “The Black-and-White” engraved with the name ‘Robert Starley’ for the next ten years? Only time will tell…