Archive
SAXMUNDHAM & DISTRICT CHESS CLUB
Secretary's Report: Season 1994 – 1995
Saxmundham Chess Club has had another successful year with good attendances on club nights and membership falling only slightly from the previous year's record level.
Wins in the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup against Hadleigh (3½–2½) and BTR (4½–1½) gained Saxmundham a place in the Suffolk final versus Ipswich. Once again, however, Ipswich were a class apart and won 5½–½ (Mark Hindle saving us from a whitewash).
In the first division of the Suffolk League Saxmundham ‘A’ team did enough to avoid relegation, with 17½ pts from 11 matches they finished 10th from 12 teams. Match results were 2 wins 2 draws and 7 losses.
Saxmundham ‘B’ team, finding themselves promoted to the second division, acquitted themselves well gaining 24 pts from 14 matches and finishing 7th from 8 teams in a very tight league. Match results were won 4, drawn 3 and lost 7.
The ‘C’ team's results were much improved on the previous season – they finished fifth in the third division from eight. Results were 3 wins, 2 draws, 9 losses and 23½ pts from 14 matches.
A feature of the season was the amount of chess played by Saxmundham teams – 44 competition matches were played (4 more than the previous season and possibly a record number). It is to the credit of the respective captains that despite having less players available for selection the season was completed with only one board defaulted. Special praise also needs to be given to David Cutting, Hugo Brown and Paul Cartwright who played between them a total of 66 games.
In the National Major Knockout Competition Saxmundham visited Wood Green and lost 3–2 in a close encounter. Kingston beat us 4–1 in the Plate.
John Feavyour beat Mike Bone in the final of the 1993/4 club championship.
Finally, mention must be made of Charlie Gold who returned to the States early in the season. For around 20 years he has been a regular in the ‘A’ team and variously organised the club championship and captained the ‘A’ team. His experience and enthusiasm for the game will be Saxmundham's loss and Florida's gain.
R.F. Gray