Lancashire Chess Association Junior Congress, Chorley 29 March 2003

There was no Lancashire girls' team at the EPSCA Girls event in Bolton, because there was a date clash with their own Congress at Chorley. Lancashire organiser Ian Hughes has kindly sent in the results of the girls who took part: Rooks section:
Charlotte Wood 5/7 Cleveleys, Natalie Cartmel 5/7 Cleveleys, Rebecca Burns 3/7 The Ormskirk School.

Bishops section:
Shannon Poole 4.5/8 Holcombe Brooke CPS, Sarah Carrington 4/8 Tameside [CHESHIRE], Victoria Holden 3.5/8 Balshaws High, Grace Thomas 2.5/8 Aughton St. Michaels.

Green Pawns:
Abigail Pritchard 6.5/8 Cleveleys, Florence Wilson 5/8 Aughton St. Michaels, Rachel Cass 4.5/8 Aughton St. Michaels, Niamh Stafford 4/8 Holy Souls RCPS, Jessica Elsden 4/8 Holy Souls RCPS, Elizabeth Dawes 2/8 Penwortham.

Tiny Pawns:
Claire Edhouse 4/7 Heywood, Alex Barnes 3/7 Aughton St. Michaels, Becky Charlton 2.5/7 Aughton St. Michaels, Kate Mellett 2.5/7 Aughton St. Michaels, Emma Kelly 2.5/7 Aughton St. Michaels, Becky Elsden 1.5/7 Holy Souls RCPS, Isabelle Wilson 1.5/7 Aughton St. Michaels.

Wey Valley/ Surrey win EPSCA Girls U11 for Eighth consecutive Year, Bolton, Lancashire 29 March 2003

The Wey Valley team were again winners of this popular competition, which attracted 11 teams from all over England.
Wey Valley scored 29.5 points out of a possible 36, and Nottinghamshire were second with 26.5. The detailed results are available Here, and we also have the results of the individual games Here.

Liverpool Schools Knockout Finals, 25 March 2003

Ian Hughes writes:-"The Liverpool Schools League Individual Knockout Finals were held on Tuesday 25th March at Gilmour School. Individual competitions are held for Under 11's to Under 8's
Under 11's: Hannah Mercer (Aughton St. Michael's) beat A.Marsh (Gilmour)
Under 10's: Bethany Halpin (Our Lady & St.Swithins) beat Ciara Pugh (Aughton St. Michaels) in a repeat of the previous two years finals.
Under 9's: Sophie Williams (Aughton St. Michaels) beat E.Thomas (Gilmour)
Under 8's: Rachel Cass (Aughton St. Michaels) beat Alexandra Barnes (Aughton St. Michaels)
Many of the girls above will be representing Liverpool this Saturday in the EPSCA Girls team tournament at Bolton"

St. Teresa's Prep Challenge Cup, [Surrey] March 2003

This local all-girls tournament attracted just over 100 players. In the U11 Section, (25) Olivia Smithies was placed first after a playoff against Charlotte Desouza (2nd), both girls having scored 4½/5 with identical 'sum of progressive scores'. In the U9 (45), three girls scored 4½/5 with Fay Birch placed first and Helen Holmes second after a playoff. Stephanie Dye was third on sum of progressive scores. The U8 (32) had a clear winner, Teresa Tomassi with a perfect 5/5, while Sophie Holmes, Sophie Young and Eloise Smith shared 2-4 places each with 4/5. Results courtesy Kathy Vanucci.

Surrey Girls Chess League

The existing Captain of Surrey Girls Chess, Kate Feld, will be "retiring" from Junior ranks at midnight on 31 August this year. Kate, who is already 18, has given many years of excellent service to Surrey Girls' Chess, and has been Captain for the last three years. However, I am delighted to be able to announce that as from 1 September, Alexandra 'Aly' Wilson will take over as Captain. Aly has wide experience on the domestic and international Chess scene. She has become a very strong player and will be an ideal Captain.

The Newsletter

Issue No 110 of the printed Newsletter was dispatched today, with apologies for the long interval since No 109 came out. It contains a game by Victoria Crompton of Cheshire, but we have been rather short of games in recent issues. Therefore I plan to issue a special 'games' newsletter soon, so I would like to appeal to all ECGCF and SGCL members - however young - to send in one of their games for publication. Games by girls who have never had a game published previously are particularly welcome. Your game will be nicely set out in figurine notation, hopefully with annotations, which of course you are very welcome to add yourself if you so wish, and if space allows, a diagram as well. When sending in games, please make sure they are legible and the notation can be followed!

Youth is no barrier...

I am very pleased to report that 6-year old Angharad Lee of Essex, our youngest ECGCF member, has qualified for her local Megafinal in the UK Chess Challenge. Well done!

EPSCA U11 (Mixed) Southern Zone, 15 March 2003

Latest, and unofficial, news is that Wey Valley were placed second behind Essex in this year's U11 Mixed Teams Zonal.

Four Nations Chess League, Rounds 5 and 6, 8-9 March 2003

Our chart of female performances in 4NCL has been updated to include the latest weekend, and can be seen Here.

Easter Chess Courses

These Chess Courses, which are suitable for all standards from Beginner to Advanced, from age 6 to 14, are organised by the popular Surrey chess teacher, Emma-Jane Billington at Hersham, Surrey. The first course is 15-16 April, (2 days) and the second from Tuesday 22 to Thursday 24 April. The cost is £10 per day. Each day lasts 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Please contact Emma-Jane on 07770 367901 to enter or for more information.

Blackpool Chess Conference, 7-9 March 2003

Victoria Crompton of Cheshire and Amisha Parmar of Derbyshire each shared the prestigious Sharon Furlong Trophy, both girls scoring 4/5 in the Standard section. For these and other girls' scores at Blackpool, please click Here.

Surrey Hundreds Championships, New Malden 2 March 2003

Employing Mike Basman's latest Feudal system! The full results, boys as well, can be seen Here. Be warned, it's a long table!

Wiltshire and West of England Chess Congress 1-2 March 2003

Courtesy of Helena Thomas, girls' results from the above event can be seen Here.

Cheshire Girls win at NCCU, 1 March 2003

Cheshire junior organiser George Davison writes: "The Finals of the Northern Counties Chess Union Junior Open Championships were held at Frodsham Community Centre on Sat 1st March. Cheshire & North Wales Girls were NCCU Open Champions beating Lancashire girls by 9 1/2 to 2 1/2 over 2 rounds. Star performances by Captain Elizabeth Roberts (Stockport), Vicky Crompton (Tameside), Vicky John (Stockport), Mary Fortune (Warrington) with 2/2 ( all selected previously for England Girls) & helped by Lydia Norwood (Leftwich 1/2) & Kay Findlay (Warrington 1). This is the first Major Title won by the girls after several runners up places & close matches over the years. The match was effectively decided in round 1 when the score was 5 1/2 to 1/2 in favour of Cheshire NW."
Lancashire girls' organiser Ian Hughes adds: "I noticed that George has sent the Cheshire results to you from last Saturday. I can supply the names and perhaps significantly the ages of the [Lancashire] team.
Board 1 Hannah Mercer Year 6 (Aughton St.Michaels)
Board 2 Alice Ellaby Year 6 (Salford)
Board 3 Rebecca Burns Year 7 (The Ormskirk School)
Board 4 Rosanna McCurrie Year 6 (Aughton St. Michaels)
Board 5 Joanna Smith Year 6 (Aughton St. Michaels)
Board 6 Sophie Williams Year 4 (Aughton St. Michaels)
Joanna scored 1.5 points and Sophie 1 point A very young team who tried ever so hard against their older, more experienced opponents!" Well done Lancashire! - Ed

New Venue for ECGCF Grand and Minor Finals

I am very pleased to be able to announce that an excellent new venue for the ECGCF Inter-County Finals has now been found, and this year these important events will be held alongside each other at The Refectory, The Open University, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. Full details and maps will be available later. The date is, as previously announced, Saturday 28 June, with the start of play at 12 noon for both Finals.

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