First Win For Crewe

Crewe  2.5  Alsager  1.5

The new Crewe Chess Club had their first competitive win last night, beating Alsager by 2.5 - 1.5 in the South Cheshire Shield.

New Grading List Published

The July 2014 Grading List has now been published and is available to view from here or the tab at the top of the page.

Two Out Of Two For Newcastle

Newcastle  2.5  Crewe  1.5

Newcastle notched up their 2nd successive win in the South Cheshire Shield with a 2.5 - 1.5 victory against Crewe last night.

Mobile App Status Update

The maintenance work on the Club Contacts tab on the mobile app has now been completed and everything is running normally again.

2014 AGM Minutes

The Minutes of last night's AGM are now available and can be viewed here.

NSDCA Mobile App Status

The Contact NSDCA tab on the mobile app is currently unavailable as we are making changes to it. If you try to use it the screen will freeze. We are endeavouring to get it up and running again as soon as possible.

Composition Of Leagues & Draw For Cups

Click on the links below for the composition of the Divisions for 2014/2015. All references to Holmes Chapel are currently provisional as there was no representative at last night's AGM but this is what we understand to be the case.

Division 1
Division 2
Division 3
Division 4
Division 5

Open (8 Board) Cup

Macclesfield - Bye
Holmes Chapel - Bye
Newcastle v Alsager
Cheddleton v Stafford

Major Cup

Newcastle v Holmes Chapel
Crewe - Bye
Cheddleton - Bye
Alsager - Bye

Intermediate Cup

Crewe v Alsager
Kidsgrove v Meir
Newcastle v Cheddleton
Stafford v Holmes Chapel

Perry Trophy

Alsager v Newcastle
Cheddleton - Bye
Meir - Bye
Fenton v Crewe

Club & Player Details For Robert Milner

Can I please remind everybody about another point that Robert Milner raised last night. Robert MUST have the following information from all clubs by the end of October at the latest :

Name Of Club
Venue
Club Night
Club Secretary's Name
Club Secretary's Email Address
Club Secretary's Tel No(s)
List Of All Players Registered With Club
This List To Include Full Initials, Date Of Birth (Optional But Helpful), ECF Membership No, ECF Grading Code.

Failure to submit this information involves Robert in a lot of unnecessary and time consuming work and could result in games not being graded. It will also lead to missing or incorrect information on the NSDCA website and mobile app, which many people rely upon for their information. It is also a requirement under Article 2 Rule 3 of the NSDCA Playing Rules.

NSDCA AGM

I'm sure that Robert Milner will be publishing the full Minutes from last night's AGM very soon but, in the meantime, here are some of the salient points :

Martyn Harris has sadly resigned all of his positions in the NSDCA. His will be big shoes to fill as without a Fixtures Secretary there would be no league. We can only hope that this is a temporary state of affairs and that he will be back soon. A vote of thanks for his services to the NSDCA was carried unanimously.

Roger Edwards agreed to step in as Fixtures Secretary and myself as Results Secretary.

Bill Armstrong announced that this would be his last year as Treasurer.

David P Price (Crewe) and Phil Cattermole (Macclesfield) were voted onto the Committee as new members.

Roger Edwards was appointed as the second NSDCA Rep to the County, replacing myself as I already have a place on the County Committee as Tournament Secretary.

The title of Publicity Officer was abolished and replaced by Webmaster.

Robert Milner urged all clubs to support the Staffordshire County Cup competitions. These are open to all clubs affiliated to the NSDCA, regardless of whether or not they are actually in Staffordshire. NSDCA clubs have been under represented in these competitions in the past few years and this is a situation we would like to see rectified.

League fees for the coming season have been increased to £10 per team for Divisions 1 and 2 and £8 for Divisions 3, 4 and 5.

Crewe Chess Club's application to join the NSDCA was passed unanimously, bringing the number of affiliated clubs up to 10.

The composition of the Divisions was decided, as were the draws for the various Cup competitions, and these will be published in the next day or so.

Next year's AGM will be held on Monday 13th July at Fenton Chess Club.

A Motley Crewe

Crewe Chess Club now have their own very impressive website - www.crewechessclub.com.

2014 Leek Chess Congress

Full details, including entry form, of the 2014 Leek Chess Congress being held over the weekend of 12th/14th September can now be found here.

NSDCA Players At The Commonwealth Championship

Ian Jamieson of Kidsgrove and Simon Edwards of Cheddleton both played in the recent Commonwealth Chess Championship in Glasgow. They both scored a very creditable 4/9 so well done to them. Thivyaa Rahulan of Cheddleton played in the U10 Championship, also scoring 4/9 so well done to her as well.

Newcastle Off The Mark In South Cheshire Shield

Newcastle  2.5  Kidsgrove  1.5

Newcastle opened their account in the South Cheshire Shield last night with a 2.5 - 1.5 win against Kidsgrove.

2014 Leek Congress

The 2014 Leek Congress will be held over the weekend of 12th/14th September. Full details will appear here in the next few days.

NSDCA AGM Documents

All of the documents relating to the forthcoming NSDCA AGM can be viewed/downloaded/printed from here.

ECF Grading List

Please note that the ECF Grading Database has been moved onto a new server and can now be found here or from the tab at the top of the page.

NSDCA AGM

Please note that the NSDCA AGM on 14th July will start at 7:45, not 8:00 as I stated in an earlier posting.

Alsager Open South Cheshire Shield With A Win

Alsager  2.5  Crewe  1.5

The opening fixture of this year's South Cheshire Shield was played last night, Alsager beating Crewe by 2.5 - 1.5.

Brian Birchall Wins Fenton Club Championship

Brian Birchall has won the 2013/2014 Fenton Club Championship, beating Rob Taylor in a play-off last night. With both players finishing on 4.5/6 it went to 2 rapidplay games. These were both drawn so it was decided by an Armageddon game which Brian won.

If your club has any news about internal tournaments, congresses that your players have entered, etc., etc., then please let me know and I'll be happy to publicise it.