Another season is coming!

Hello folks, Graham here.

I was at a League Management meeting the other night. It's the Summer one, where all the doings for the new season are decided, so I thought I'd update everyone...er, at least everyone who reads this blog, which may well just be me.

As predicted, division 5 has disappeared. Division 4 will have ten teams, including three from Downend! Bristol Grammar School will not be there, but they will be replaced by a team of juniors under the baton of Pete Saunders, to be called Pete's Potentials. Here in simple Yate, we will just have to call them Pete's Potatoes...
Teams will be asked (it's not compulsory, but it's considered polite) to play with a shorter time limit in the matches against the juniors, 65 mins. on the clock instead of the usual 90. We may give Mike "Father Time" Bradford the evening off.
Despite my efforts, the A team will be back in division 3. This will have nine teams.
Clifton chess club have been chucked out of the Polish church, and have gone back to one of their (many) previous venues, the Polish club! They have also changed nights to Wednesdays.
I hope it's not going to be a problem, but division 3 has four teams which play on a Thursday, namely Bath University, Harambee, Patchway and South Bristol.
Richard Lobb has told me he is giving up chess. It is sad to lose one of the longest standing and most stalwart members of the club, but it can't be helped. I have to say, this is not the first time, so we can hope that he may reappear anyway. This leaves us with a team of 6 and a team of 4, and ten players to 'choose' from, assuming everyone else is coming back. I've heard from most, but not all. There will inevitably have to be some movement between the teams, but I'm waiting to see the new grades before deciding who will do what (and to whom). Most likely Mike or James will be registered for the A team, and be able to play down. I will probably chuck in Kevin Langmaid as well. He can only play on Wednesdays, which means potentially three matches during the season.
The cup draws came out as follows. Amazingly, we didn't get drawn out in the preliminary round of the Minor KO this year. I think this is the first time, certainly for a while. So in the first round, which is also the quarter final, we are at home to Downend. I seem to remember that happened last year.
There are 8 teams in the 'proper' KO, so no need for preliminaries. That's the good news. The other news is that we are away to Horfield. Oh well...

Finally the teams in our respective divisions are as follows-

Divison 3 - Bath University, Cabot, Clifton D, Downend C, Harambee, Keynsham B, Patchway, South Bristol B, Yate A.

Division 4 - Clifton E, Downend D, Downend E, Downend F, Hanham B, Horfield D, Nailsea, University B, Pete's Potatoes, Yate B.

Fixtures, grades etc. will be published soon.