Wimborne Chess Club
Chairman's Report Summer 2025
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Graham Hillman - Chair
1- The season 2024-2025 :
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This season has been a year of transition , away from Merley to central Wimborne . Hopefully the stress of 2 location moves for the club is now behind us and we can settle down in our new Location .The continued dwindling of our core cohort of players needs to be addressed and we also need to adjust our Team’s participation to the known membership at the time. Currently we have 17 registered ECF active players and 1 player registered who only plays A team games This season Wimborne fielded 6 teams in 2 Leagues , 4 x B&CDL and 2 in DCL , but during the year there were 2-3 people who’d signed up but basically never played or dropped out . This in turn stressed the commitment to 6 teams and basically caused some players to burn out as the season progressed . I think our focus should be to further reduce the number of teams we commit too and to build the core in the Wimborne Club by means of internal competitions and getting new members to attend on Wednesday evenings I also need to have a fully participating Committee of a Secretary and a Treasurer
There were some extremely positive aspects of the year and they are :
Wimborne B winning the BDL div 3 - well done John Bowley and the guys in particular Charlie Foster and young David Lewis , coming in at 87 with a grade on the up !
Some great performances by individual players , especially Peter Wilcock who has won the Boardman trophy . Well done Peter .
Bill Adaway putting up a great new website - thanks Bill
Friday mornings is thriving with regular appearances of 12-15 players
Junior Chess is going with regular 10-15 attendees.
The Handicap K/O is going well with us in the final ! The last win of 5.5 to 0.5 was a super win against Highcliffe
2- New Venue Kings Head :
Now we have a new and hopefully settled playing venue we need to turn it to our advantage . Its central location and proximity to Buses needs to be exploited somehow. We can hopefully keep the Subs at current levels , but the quid pro quo is we are supposed to buy a drink over the Bar during the evening. I think we need to be sensitive here on 2 fronts , 1- The Kings head are not charging us for the room , 2 Some individuals are cash strapped and may not be able to afford the Bar prices . I think we should keep a Wednesday evening event going until August and break for 6 weeks until the new season . The start of the next season's games is unclear as yet and possibly it may start 2 -3 weeks early to accommodate changes in Div A changes . This will become clear after the B&CDL AGM on June 10th
3- Junior chess
Simon Young , Graham White & myself have kept this up and running . We are getting between 10-15, occasionally more every week The main point is that to create a meaningful Chess School we should implement Chess Curriculum’s where Chess disciplines are taught and measured t- We cannot do this with 2-3 people , we need a minimum of 4or 5 so focused groups can be spun off . At the moment we have some decent attendance numbers but its difficult to implement a proper Curriculum - We can see the potential though in some of the Juniors and have at least 5-6 players who could go into Baccus League as I understand that will run 25-26 Season We shall take a break from July 5th for the Summer . I think both Simon and myself are finding the commitment too much with current resources being too scant. I think it's fair to say we are considering what to do come September if we cannot get more resources. All help is welcomed even on a once a month basis . External Games being played at Library over Folk Festival Saturday morning - Advertising material required - I have something printed up
4- Internal Competitions
At the AGM we shall discuss the following Competitions
4.1 Club Knock out Championship - open to all . Time Control 1 h + 30 sec increments - , toss for colour . Rated games for ECF submission
4.2 Time/Grade Handicap competition , to be called the Phil Wallace trophy - Start date Immediate Not rated for ECF purposes Time control : TBA - Start date mid June
4.3 . Inter group Ladder Tournament Group 1 Wednesday night, Group 2 Friday mornings Time control 45 mins + 15 sec increment , not rated for ECF purposes . To commence ASAP , each player plays 2 games against their opponent . To run up to Christmans
5- Summer League
Wimborne have entered a team and our dates are below :
Away to Bournemouth Monday16-Jun-25
Away to Ringwood Monday23-Jun-25
Home to Highcliffe Monday30-Jun-25
Home to Southbourne Monday07-Jul-25
Away to Poole Monday14-Jul-25
Please confirm your availability and willingness to play -
6 Looking forward :
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Wimborne Town is designated Dorset’s Town of Culture 2026 and to that effect there are proposals to have many events throughout the year . I am proposing a Grandmaster simultaneous display as part of that event and have applied for funding to achieve that . Watch this space I think we shall still have at least 3 teams in the B&DCL + 2 Dorset League teams We shall require new Team Captains for this purpose