Events:
The Primary Schools team competition took place on 20th June. We had 12 teams of 4 turn up including 2 from Christchurch, Warminster and 2 from Abbey School in School who have become quite involved with Wiltshire in this last year or so. After some close fought matches St Sampson A from Cricklade ran out winners on 17 out of 20 but closely chased by Westrop A on 16 and then Abbey A on 13.5.
The Megafinal went off without a hitch at West Lavington again. We had 179 players on the day and they all enjoyed thenselves, were well behaved and played some very good chess. Results will be added once the details become available.
The dates for the Wessex Megafinal and the Wiltshire Junior Schools Team competition have been set.
Megafinal - Saturday 6th June at West Lavington school.
Wilts Junior School Team - Saturday 20th June at Westrop School Highworth.
Entry to the Megafinal is by qualification through your school event and if you qualify you will received an entry form from your school event.
The Wiltshire Junoir school team competition will be a school entry form which Cindy Acres will send out when ready but I will also add a copy onto this site when it is available.
Most of the Funday and county team selection events are now completed for the 2008 season. There is now a lengthy list of county team training and team events to complete as well as school team and UK Chess Challenge events.
Girls Funday on 28th March at Westrop School, Highworth SN6 7DN. Entry forms should be going out to all school contacts where we know girls play shortly and appearing on this website.
County Teams:
The re-arranged West of Engalnd and South Wales Jamboree was held on 20th June. This unfortunately clashed with the Primary schools Team competition so we could only field an U14 team. For a few players this was their last U14 tournament and the whole team acquitted themselves well and finished in 3rd position out of 4.
Both the U9 Southern zonal that we hosted in Wroughton and the U11 Southern zonal held in Basingstoke have come and gone this year. Wiltshire were last in both events but the teams did there best against some strong opposition. The U9's finished within 1.5 points of joint 6th Oxfordshire and Somerset.
All the results I have found are on the results page. I have also included an U11 team photo in the new polo shirtrs we have making them look very smart and a proper team. Well done to all those taking part and don't be disheartened at losing. It is a valuable experience and shows how much there is still to learn but also that you can enjoy chess in a competitive environment.
The Berkshire friendly took place on 25th January as planned. As usual Berkshire won all three ages categories, quite convincingly for the U9 and U11 ages but by only 1 point in the U14's. All the Wiltshire players tried hard but were ultimately out classed for the most part.
School teams
Three Wiltshire schools entered theEPSCA Junior Schools team competition again this year. For the first time in many years Lawn were unable to field an U11 team but their U9's finished 2nd to go forward to the semi-finals at Pontins, so look out next year, Lawn will return!
In the U11's Christchurch from Bradford upon Avon entered along with 2 teams from St Sampsons, Cricklade. Both the Christchurch and St Sanpson's A qualified for the semi-finals in 7th and 2nd places respectively. The St Sampsons B team struggled a bit more and finished 10th= on 11.5 points but this was still respectable out of 16 teams and only 1.5 points off the final qualifying place points total of 13 that Christchurch had achieved in this, their first attempt at the competition.
Individual Achievements:
Sept 2009
Three wiltshire children attended the Devon LJC Qualifier also known as the Riviera Tournament. Martin Oliver continued his excellent progress with 4/6 in the U16 events coming third overall only losing to the top two strong Devon players. Simon Garnett scored 4.5/6 and second equal overall to get his LJCQ U12 Major Qualification at the first attempt this year. Rhys White had a rough draw meeting two of the final top 6 (luckily not Simon though) in rounds 2 and 3 suffering a set back and only managing 3/6.
At the British Chess Championship held over the summer
U12 Martin Oliver got 4/7 to finish 15/32 (seeded 19th)
U13 Adam Burroughs scored 3/7 to finish 16/25 (seeded 17th)
Playing in the U16 as an U15 Luke Burroughs scored 3/7 to finish 24/36 (seeded 35th)
Megan Cleeves spent 4 days in Poland with the England team (including Dawn Burroughs our Chrairperson drafted in as a late replacement helper) playing a variety of matches, mainly rapid play. The whole team did wel with neveryone scoring more than 50%.
Simon Garnett as nominated Wiltshire U11 board 1 played in the U11 England trial in Liverpool. This was a strong competition as always with precious England places up for grabs and Simon fought hard and ended on a creditable 1.5 out of 6. Although he didn't make the England team he has played in a regional event South West versus Wales and is due to play in the Rest of England versus London on the 27th June.
Over the Easter break three Wiltshire players played in the Maidenhead Congress and perfomred very well. Megan Cleeves and Martin Oliver were equal second on 3 out of 5 in the U13 section. William Cleeves scored 7 out of 11 in the U9 and won the U7 section.
A number of our players attended the South of England championships either by invitation into the Closed event or by their own hand. With 1 notable exception the results/draw were not favourable however so although they all enjoyed themselves the final points rewards were rather low.
William Cleeves U7 equal first on 5/6
Pranav Satish U9 3/6
Simon Garnett U11 major 1/5
Megan Clleeves U14 closed 2/5
Martin Oliver U14 closed 1.5/5
Adam Burroughs U14 closed 1.5/5
The Wiltshire All Play All was furiously contested over the weekend of 10/11th Jan by the U11 Wilts players judged to be the top 6. The eventual winner was Simon Garnett who becomes Board 1 and gains the Wiltshire nomination for the England U11 trial. Contragulatoins also to the others who took part and made it such a tight competition, Rory Durham, Lucien Haith-Rowlett, Russell Hudson, James Saletes and Rhys White.
Simon followed this success with a half norm at the EPSCA Rapid Play tournament in Liverpool on 17th Jan with 3.5 out of 6.
2008 London Junior Chess Championships.
Congratulations to all those who qualified and attended this event. It was very good to see so many of teh younger age groups attend this type of out of conunty event and hope you have all gained in experience from playing in such a strong competition.
We have pulled all teh Wiltshirre players results together as a summary as follows. Full resutls for all teh sections can be found at the following link;
http://www.ljcc.co.uk/2008.htm
Robbie Coats U21/Open 2/6
Megan Cleeves U14 Minor 4/6 & Top Girl.
Adam Burroughs U14 Minor 3.5/6
Martin Oliver U14 Major 2.5/6
and U12 Major 5.5/9
Simon Garnett U12 Major 2/9
Rhys White U12 Minor 3.5/9
Arthur Copping U10 Major 4/7
Lewis Acres U10 Major 2/7
Connor Jefferies U10 Minor 2.5/7
Stefan Gillett U10 Minor 2/7
Oliver Hoone U10 Minor 1/7
Sascha Lee-Sekulic U8 3.5/7
Megan Cleeves won the British U11 Championship and qualified for the Engalnd U12 team congratulations.
Martin Oliver has received his 2nd half norm at the British Rapidplay at Halifax and has therefore qualified for the Engalnd U12 team, congratulations.
2007/8
Megan Cleeves won the All Play All to gain the Wiltshire nomination for the England U11 trial, she was joined there by Martin Oliver who qualified through England Trial qualifying tournaments. Unfortunately neither of them won a place in the England U11 team, however they are attending other events where they could still gain a place. Megan was nominated for the All England Girls match in May. Adam Burroughs travelled to the Ukraine in May to represent England with the U12 team.
Megan was invited to the European Community Junior Championship. Lewis Martin was invited to the World Deaf Chess Championship. Many of our players have taken part in external tournaments all over the country, including Dan Hall who attending the Glorney Cup, Dan also qualified for the British (not juniors), also came 2nd in the Wiltshire Open, with Toby Hall winning the Minor Wiltshire Open. The 4NCL Brown Jack were promoted to Division 2, with many junior players. If I have missed anyone I apologise, but it is recognised that our Juniors play in many events.
2 Wiltshire schools entered the EPSCA Primary Schools Event this year, Lawn U9 came 1st in the zonal, with Lawn U11 coming 3rd, and St Sampsons also qualifying for the Semi Finals. At the Semi finals, they all did well, with St Sampsons receiving a bronze trophy, Lawn U11 coming 5th with a gold trophy, and Lawn U9 coming 8th with a Silver trophy.
Chess Sets:
ECF’s offer of free chess sets hopefully will encourage more schools to take part in chess and more children to play. 26 schools took up the offer in the North of Swindon, the South Swindon area still have to let me know how many they have taken up. I am hoping this will increase our Fun Day numbers.
I would like to thank all the members of the committee for their time and commitment. I know it takes a lot of time to organise events and without the help from everyone we would not be able to do what we do for the children. Also thank you to Bev Schofield who does a lot behind the scenes for Wiltshire Junior Chess with the Megafinal, calendar and helping me with various questions. Also thank you to Seren Watson for keeping the website updated, and to everyone who helps out at the events that we run.
Treasurer
Wiltshire Junior Chess
New Committee Members
We are only able to run junior chess events and county teams because of the work of our volunteer committee and helpers. If anyone is willing to be more involved with organising junior chess in the county, please contact the Chairperson - Dawn Burroughs or myself (see the Wiltshire Junior Chess website for contact details).
Kelvin Garnett
Secretary, WJC
EPSCA National Schools team competition 2008
The first round of the EPSCA National Schools team competition has taken place. Lawn U9's won the U9 section. Lawn U11's were equal 3rd and for the first time St Sampsons entered a team and finished sixth to book the last place from that heat to the Semi-finals to be held in May. A good effort from the 3 Wiltshire teams for all to qualify.
Yateley Manor, the South West of England Competition 3 February 2008.
Some children attended Yateley Manor, the South West of England Competition on the weekend 2/3 February.
Adam was invited to play in the England Closed section (against all other England players) he scored 2/5.
Megan and Martin were in the Under 11 Major section (England qualifying event), Megan scored 3½/5 (and got her other half norm), and Martin 2½/5.
Simon Garnett was in the Under 11 Minor, and came joint first.
