Richardson and Spens 2013-14

[Keith Rose]

Thanks Joe, Andy. Perhaps if I had looked more closely at the names I would have realised. Lazy.

[Alan Jelfs]

So players appearing for their club "A" team in the Richardson and in their "B" team in the Spens is now allowed?

[Jonathan Livingstone]

Alan I have to say I don't agree with that either. It benefits the bigger clubs. However it is a current rule, a Richardson player can play in a Spens game so long as they played on board 7 or 8 of the Richardson Team.

It does seem to give the bigger clubs an advantage, and benefit them and no one else. It should be one competition or the other for players. I'd like to see that rule removed.

[Andy Howie]

I must confess I didn't think that was allowed either

[Jonathan Livingstone]

I actually thought it was the norm with team competition. The Lothian/Edinburgh club league has a similar rule. I struggle to interpret what the rule is exactly, but something like you can play up the divisions for an A or B team etc, but limited to 2 games. Again same thing, I believe it benefits bigger clubs, and disadvantages smaller clubs. I am sure there are valid reasons for these rules being in place, presumably they are linked to the struggle many have to get a full team sheet together.

[Keith Rose]

I actually thought it was the norm with team competition. The Lothian/Edinburgh club league has a similar rule.

It is the same with TAFCA.

It does seem to give the bigger clubs an advantage, and benefit them and no one else. It should be one competition or the other for players.

In a way you are correct that this only benefits bigger clubs if only because smaller clubs wouldn’t have enough players. Other than that I don’t see how it disadvantages smaller clubs

Consider:
For clubs with a large membership - if only one competition allowed a number of players would not get a game. We surely want to enable more players to become involved, not limit them;
For the events – more competition with the extra team(s). With recent declining numbers of teams in these two events I suggest that anything which reverses the decline is a positive thing;
For CS – an extra entry fee . That’s the down-side for the bigger clubs.

The concession to allow a player to appear on a lower boards in the Richardson team and still represent the Spens team is there to allow some flexibility if short of a player. If you think that is unreasonable then you/someone could propose to remove it and debar any player from playing for both teams. I don’t have strong feelings about this clause but I do think allowing a club to have teams in both competitions is a good thing.

[George Neave]

Alan I have to say I don't agree with that either. It benefits the bigger clubs. However it is a current rule, a Richardson player can play in a Spens game so long as they played on board 7 or 8 of the Richardson Team.

It does seem to give the bigger clubs an advantage, and benefit them and no one else. It should be one competition or the other for players. I'd like to see that rule removed.

We can be sure Andy Muir will know the rules when Hamilton produced this one. Pulling out "club regular" Steve Mannion on Board 1 was also a nice touch ;P

[JRedpath]

To be fair George Steve has played for Hamilton in Richardson for a number of years now and until this season also in Glasgow League!

Certainly no worse than Poly who have benefited from one year students for many years! (more than 1/3 of their team in match against Edinburgh), not that I'm complaining...

[Iain Swan]

To be fair George Steve has played for Hamilton in Richardson for a number of years now and until this season also in Glasgow League!

Certainly no worse than Poly who have benefited from one year students for many years! (more than 1/3 of their team in match against Edinburgh), not that I'm complaining...

Actually everyone who played for us against Edinburgh also played for us last year, but we do tend to get our fair share of students through being based at the University.

[Ken_Stewart]

Crawford Macnab wrote "Kilmarnock expected their board one to arrive. He did not so after an hour he lost by default."

Why one hour? The standard CS time is now 30 minutes which is supposed to apply to all chess in Scotland unless stated otherwise in the rules of the competition. FIDE Law 6.6a states that the default time is 0 minutes unless otherwise specified which is why CS has introdued the general 30 min rule to avoid this "zero tolerance" situation.