Writing this while listening to the commentary on Alistair Cooke’s last innings, I feel I should start with another notable retirement – that of Jon Griffith after 17 years as Yorkshire Grader. Back in the days of BC (before Chessnuts), you could play several games but have no idea of your team’s standing in the league until a printed bulletin appeared about halfway through the season, and I am sure most of us have become used to seeing results and new tables within 24 hours of the match being played. This result service will, hopefully, continue to be available for another year for those needing it, but grades will be ECF only. On behalf of all Yorkshire chess players I would like to thank Jon for his magnificent innings.

The Yorkshire league continued as usual, although this year 3 disputes went to appeal. I feel here I should remind players of all the work done by Andrew Zigmond as Competitions Controller – without all the work done by organisers such as Jon, Andrew and all the team captains there would be little chess played. Congratulations to York A, (again!), Harrogate A and West Leeds for winning their divisions.

This year (for the first time?) Yorkshire fielded 5 county teams. This would not happen without volunteer captains, so I must thank Peter Ackley (Open), Jeremy Hamm (U180), Rupert Jones (U160) and David Mills (U140 and U120!) for all their work. All except the U120 team reached the national finals but only the U180 team were successful. The Open team lost 8-8 on board count to Lancashire for the second year in a row.

The downside of the success of the county teams is the drain on our finances – more venues have to be hired and refreshments provided. This is difficult to budget for in advance as we don’t know how successful we are going to be. The AGM increased fees for the first time in very many years and we may have to raise more money somehow if this success continues.

Finally I would like to note the magnificent efforts by Hull chess players in their support for the British Championships in July/August.

Jim Burnett