Some good news: this event - which has been in abeyance for a year while I grooved myself into running this website - is going to be rehabilitated later this year! Bob Jones of "The Western Morning News" has very kindly agreed to act as the judge for this event which will get under way again starting in September this year. Bob will judge the games submitted to him for consideration along with two friends of his. All are Devonians and as Bob himself pointed out to me, this ensures fairness and objectivity as the games will not be getting appraised by Cornish players. As regards the matter of how to submit games that you are particularly pleased with to him, his quote on this is:
"My order of preference for the receipt of game scores is as follows: 1. Direct out of ChessBase. This can be done easily, once one knows which buttons to press and in which order. It involves neither party in any extra work. 2. E-mailing the typed out score. 3. By snail-mail to my home address. (In the ECF Yearbook). 4. By native runner with a forked stick. In this case let me know well beforehand, so I've got a cup of tea ready for them before sending them back."
Bob is insisting upon a limit of three games per player.

Truro A are officially the winners of the first division for 2007/8. They've lost only two matches all season and have racked up an imposing seven wins. For much of the season it looked as though Godolphin would prevail in this league and I said to Roger Grime that it would be interesting to see if Camborne would be able to stage a rally late in the season and sure enough they have so Godolphin and Camborne tie as runners up. Its been a close-run thing this season between these three teams and plaudits are due to all of them. Godolphin have not gone away empty handed though and are the outright winners of Division 2; they've scored 22 points out of 14 matches played and have been very impressive throughout the season setting a standard that none of the other teams have been able to catch. Liskeard B came closest and finish as runners-up on 20 points at the end of the season. Although they fell away somewhat in the latter half of the season, Liskeard's C team scored 10 points as newcomers and deserve an honourable mention. They may not be with us next season.

In the Busby Cup event the Final was played on July 1st and returned 5 drawn games between Godolphin and Camborne. It will be re-played in September. The Under 115 Event has already been decided with Falmouth triumphing in the final over Camborne. Well done Falmouth! Their cup has been presented to them!

At the Secretaries meeting that was held at the the British Legion in Truro on July the 17th the attendees were Ian Lewis,Chris Reeves, Richard Nancarrow, Don King, Anton Barkhuysen, Robin Kneebone, Ian George, Mark Hassall and myself. The chief item of discussion was the new event - apart from the Oscar - that will be instigated this year. Robin suggested a new event - sanctioned at the AGM - so that players can contest more games in a season without overloading the already-existing playing calendar. He calls it the Swiss Team Event. Read on for the full rules.

The Swiss competition is open to teams of 4 players. Players may play for one team only.

The time control will be 30 moves in 1 hour and 15 minutes with 15 minutes added for the remaining moves. Matches to start at 7:30 PM unless otherwise agreed between the clubs beforehand.

Team lists MUST be ordered by playing strength.

A team's score is the total of game points they have achieved with the single exception that if one team defaults a match on all boards then the 'winning' team will be regarded as having won by a score of 3-1 rather than a 4-0 cleansweep.

Pairings are made using the Swiss pairing system and will be done by Robin Kneebone himself. (Using SwissPerfect software.) Where teams have the same number of points pairings will take into account home/away totals. (See the next but one item.)

The controller (Robin) will balance the home/away totals for each team where possible, and will detrmine home/away venues by lot if paired teams have the same history of home/away totals.

Colours are to be determined by the toss of a coin with the winning captain allowed to choose the colour of the top board, with other boards alternating.

Rounds will be spaced by at least one month to allow dates and venues to be agreed.

The annual secretaries meeting will determine the number of rounds (between 4 & 6) for this new event once the number of all-play-all league entrants is known.

There is no restriction on higher graded players to play for a particular team, so a club could enter two equal strength teams or could share out its car-drivers between two or more teams.

It will be acceptable for players to play for a different club than their league/cup club.

Defaults should be avoided if at all possible. Where a team is aware that they are unable to manage their next fixture the captain should notify the controller immediately and the draw will, if possible, be re-done.