Richardson & Spens

[Andy Howie]

Reducing GL from 8 to 6 is thin edge of wedge and bad news, slow death. Don't like

I actually agree with you but with declining numbers it is unfortunately a consequence

[Jonathan Livingstone]

The Edinburgh & Lothian League (or Edinburgh league as some wrongly refer and know it as) is in no better shape. Has always been 6 boards and approx. 40 teams but it looks bigger than it actually is. There are lots of struggling clubs just getting by. Defaults increase as you go down the leagues, and the rules that allow players to play for more than 1 team at their club prop it up. Is only a matter of time before we see changes like teams leaving the league setup, or dropping to 5 boards.

As Andy H says, it just all fits in with Ice Age.

[amuir]

Well I was right. The new Richardson/Spens rules have led to administration taking the place of playing and one-sided finals.
Who would have thought the multi-titled Glasgow Polytechnic team and the multi-talented Glorney Cup team would have surrendered so meekly ?
I bet the team captains had a nightmare in setting up team pools at the start of the season and having to select and submit the team 24 hours in advance. Let's keep it simple and just turn up on the day and go back to the 2016-17 rules.

[Ianbrownlee]

No

[amuir]

Ian , how do you justify the one-sided finals ? The players have voted with their feet. John Shaw, Andrew Greet, Larry Kirk. The Glorney Cup team.
None of them there on finals day.

[John Watkins]

Well I was right. The new Richardson/Spens rules have led to administration taking the place of playing and one-sided finals.

I bet the team captains had a nightmare in setting up team pools at the start of the season and having to select and submit the team 24 hours in advance.

No nightmares from my team’s perspective.  They actually enjoyed the advance notice of opponent and board colour, as is the case for so many other tournaments.

Perhaps the introduction of increments in line with other tournaments may enhance the event.

[Ianbrownlee]

Ian , how do you justify the one-sided finals ? The players have voted with their feet. John Shaw, Andrew Greet, Larry Kirk. The Glorney Cup team.
None of them there on finals day.

I dont have to justify them. Playing in the richardson isnt a prison sentence. If you dont want to play it's not for me or anyone else to force them. Your logic escapes me so i apologise for that. The Glorney team was an unfortunate series of mishaps and i cant explain anything else

[hamish olson]

I have heard John Shaw is having a break from playing chess, Andrew Greet was in Australia (which is quite far from Grangemouth), Larry Kirk was in Croatia (again quite a long way from Grangemouth).
I do not like the new admin either but you are not helping things Andy M by calling it a nightmare - just a nuisance. The argument given in favour is that you need this for making sure players are FIDE registered. The costs outweigh the benefits in my opinion. Poly struggled to field eligible players due to the player registration thing - I had to acquiesce to them playing players they had not registered in time (which was no problem at all).

My proposed solution - club must fill in player registration forms for any players it wants to field who do not already have a FIDE grade. Easy thing that gets checked anyway, much easier than trying to remember who has been registered previously and much less box ticking. Problem solved.

24hr notice is not a big deal - I am not the worlds most most organised person and even I get my team sorted well in advance of that. 

Increments would make the tournament much better. Even a 10 second increment would make a world of difference for games with no arbiters (Andy H and John know what I am thinking of!). No realistic chance of an overrun with 10s increment either. 30 seconds I have mixed feelings about. It's preferable if it can be done but I am nervous of overrun.

I am more than a bit frustrated that the final was held again in a venue half an hours drive from Edinburgh and Glasgow and 2.5 hours away from Aberdeen. That's just not a level playing field. 2016 they even started at 12 noon - convenient for Aberdeen! We have now reached the finals 2014 2016 2018 - we aren't going away.

[andybburnett]

Aberdeen isn't so far away that it takes 2 years to get there! See you in 2020 anyway Hamish