City of Belfast wrap-up

After my visit to the City of Belfast Championships on Saturday, I didn't find the time to pay a visit on the second and final day to see how things turned out . However, UCU Tournament Director, Ross Harris, very kindly e-mailed me the results. Pending what I am sure will be a more comprehensive report at the UCU's official website, here's a summary:

Nemtzov Cup

WFM Karina Kruk during Round 1

Going into the final round, Gareth Annesley had a half-point advantage over Ulster Champion, Gabor Horvath, They had drawn their individual game but Horvath had also conceded a draw to John O'Doherty in Round 5. However, Gareth went down  to a last round defeat to Stephen Rush while Gabor won against Mark Newman to move into the top spot. Karina Kruk has won the supporting Henderson Cup on no less than four occasions but this time she was just above the grading limit. However she kept up her good form in these Championships by finishing in third place after holding Ulster Masters winner, Calum Leitch, to a draw in the final round.

Henderson Cup

Pat McKillen first won the Henderson back in 2006 and took the title again last year. The defending champ was only seeded ninth but romped home to a three-timer, conceding just one draw and finishing a full point ahead of 2000 winner Stewart McConaghy with Richard Gould, Robert Lavery and John McKenna a further half-point behind. Only unbeaten player other than McKillen in the Henderson was Martin Kelly, joint winner with Kruk in 2011.

Final Crosstables for the Nemtzov and Henderson Cups

City of Belfast 2015

The City of Belfast Championships are being held over the 11-12 April weekend at the Maynard Sinclair Pavilion. 29 players have entered the lists, a bit down on the numbers playing in the Ulster Masters and Williamson Shield earlier in the season. However, it's still up on the recent editions of the City of Belfast - sufficient to return to the usual two sections.

There are eight players in the Nemtzov Cup with the top four in the Williamson Shield - Gabor Horvath, Gareth Annesley, Calum Leitch and Mark Newman - renewing their rivalry.

Nemtzov Cup players

No Name            Rtg  Club        

1. Gabor Horvath   2098 Lindores    
2. Gareth Annesley 1976 Muldoons    
3. Calum Leitch    1889 Lindores    
4. Mark Newman     1760 NICS        
5. Stephen Rush    1664 Ballynafeigh
6. John O'Doherty  1655 Ballynafeigh
7. Martin Sloan    1621             
8. Karina Kruk     1610 Ballynafeigh

Nemtzov players in action during Round 1

There are 21 competing in the under-1600 Henderson Cup. Pat McKillen is defending his title and three other previous winners - Stewart McConaghy, William Storey and Martin Kelly - also play.

Henderson Cup players

No  Name                Rtg  Club         

1.  John McKenna        1513 Belfast South
2.  Richard Gould       1510 Lindores     
3.  Robert Lavery       1504 Ballynafeigh 
4.  Stewart McConaghy   1403 Bombardier   
5.  Jim McLean          1331 Lindores     
6.  Cathal Murphy       1326 Belfast South
7.  William Storey      1324 Belfast South
8.  Martin Kelly        1311 Belfast South
9.  Patrick McKillen    1289 Muldoons     
10. David Barr          1251 Lindores     
11. Robert McDonald     1244 Belfast South
12. Roy Stafford        1206 Bombardier   
13. Stephen Scarborough 1171              
14. Christopher Roe     1163 QUB          
15. Andrew Todd         1128 Bangor       
16. Edward Doak         1076 Ballynafeigh 
17. John McGann         994               
18. Paul Anderson       753  Ballynafeigh 
19. Norman Rainey       698  Ballynafeigh 
20. Ben Campbell        610  QUB          
21. Craig Stevenson    

Irish Chess Union - interesting times

On the 27th January 2015 this official announcement appeared on the ICU website, authored by its Chairman:

"Rules Governing ICU Membership and Participation in Tournaments

Pat Fitzsimons

With effect from the 1st of February the following rules will apply to all tournaments (other than international team tournaments held under the auspices of the ICU, such as The Glorney Gilbert International) held in Ireland which are ICU rated:

All participants in such tournaments, irrespective of their nationality or native chess federation, must be fully subscribed members of the ICU.

No person can be accepted as a participant in any tournament governed by these rules unless he/she fulfils the above condition.

The responsibility rests with the organisers of the tournaments in question to ensure that these rules are fully implemented.

Where a person wishes to become a member of the ICU in order to participate in a tournament or event, the organisers should facilitate the collection of the requisite fee prior to the commencement of the tournament or event through the use of the ICU online subscription form.

Where a player who is not a member of the ICU participates in a tournament governed by these rules, the tournament or event organisers will be liable.

The ICU reserves the right to take action in cases where it perceives that the organisers of a tournament have been negligent in applying these rules or have been persistent offenders in this regard. Such action may include refusal to rate the tournament as a whole, withdrawal of grants to the organisers in question, and any other action which the ICU deems appropriate."

Essentially, despite the ICU Executive's two well-known attack dogs blithely claiming tht the ICU was merely implementing existing policy, this was an attempt to make tournament organisers cough up membership fees for players resident outside Ireland (and for "Ireland" read "Republic of Ireland"). Previously players from outside the island of Ireland had never been required to become ICU members if competing in ICU-rated tournaments. The position with regard to Ulster Chess Union players is admittedly more complex and I'll come back to it later.

However, to return to the general point, it does seem extraordinary that the ICU would change membership rules in the middle of the season and particularly without any consultation with tournament organisers. It may also have been in breach of Article 5.2 its own Constitution. The suspicion is that the ICU saw how many non-ICU players were entering Bunratty, Ireland's biggest Congress, and decided it would like to get a bigger cut of the money flowing into the Congress coffers.

Well, Bunratty was having none of it: this appeared on its website

"Due to some uncertainty regarding the recent posting by Pat Fitzsimons on the ICU web regarding ICU membership and entry into chess tournaments I have set out below the position regarding the upcoming Bunratty Chess festival. 

We have a contract with players who have entered the event, these are set out in our Terms and Conditions and are binding on all players; http://www.bunrattychess.com/terms.php.

We also have a contract with the ICU in their Bye-laws for Membership of the Irish Chess Union http://www.icu.ie/icu/membership_byelaws particularly paragraph 10.
Therefore we will run Bunratty 2015 as we have run the event since 1994 namely:

• Foreign based players including those of the Ulster Chess Union will be exempt of ICU membership as per the aforementioned Paragraph 10.

• First time players and those with no rating will not be required to have ICU membership.

• Established players resident in the Republic of Ireland will be subject to our aforementioned Terms and Conditions.

We will assist the ICU Membership Officer in these matters as we have done in the past. 

Signed, Ted Jennings FA

On behalf of the Bunratty Chess Festival Committee."

Rumour was that Bunratty was heading up a number of major Irish Congresses who were making it plain that they wanted this new edict withdrawn - and were just as happy as the ICU to play hard-ball. The ICU quickly had a re-think; this announcement went up on its website on 1st February, the day the amended Membership Rules were intended to kick in:

"Since announcing the decision to strictly apply the above policy with effect from 1 February 2015, a number of concerns about its operational impact have been expressed to the ICU Executive by tournament organisers. Having regard to these concerns, the Executive has decided to: 

• defer the implementation of the decision; and 

• establish a working group representative of the ICU Executive and tournament organisers to examine all of the issues involved and to report back to the ICU Executive with recommendations/options for the implementation of the policy.

The terms of reference and the membership of the working group will be posted on the website in due course."

Now to return to how this affects Northern Ireland players. In 2005 the Ulster Chess Union left the ICU. When that happened, attempts by the UCU to forge a new relationship with the ICU got nowhere. The UCU Constitution was changed so that it became a Northern Ireland-only body. Also, despite expressing its regret at the UCU move, within months of the split the ICU Constitution was altered significantly: Article 2 had read:

"GENERAL POWERS AND AUTHORITY OF THE UNION

2.1. As the Union is affiliated to and officially recognised by the International Chess Federation (F.I.D.E.) it shall have the sole power and authority to confirm the entry of all individual Irish players and teams invited to tournaments or events directly sponsored by that body and shall have the right to confirm the entry of any Irish player or team invited to compete in an International tournament or event as a result of F.I.D.E. membership. It shall also have all necessary powers to enable it to act as the supreme authority in Irish Chess (including the power to award national chess titles and other titles connected with Irish Chess and to recommend to F.I.D.E. the award of F.I.D.E. titles) provided however that in the exercise of such powers it shall have due regard to the powers and duties existing at the date of adoption of this constitution of: 

(a) The Leinster Chess Union, the Ulster Chess Union, the Munster Chess Union and the Connacht Chess Union in their own functional areas. 

(b) The Irish Correspondence Chess Association. 

(c) The Braille Chess Association of Ireland. 

(d) Any club or other organisation involved in Irish Chess. 

2.2. The Union shall also have the power to bestow honorary offices in or honorary membership of the Union for Life or otherwise on any person whether such person is a fully paid-up member of the Union or not."

This was changed to:

"2. The Union is the governing body of chess in Ireland, and is affiliated to the World Chess Federation (FIDE) and the European Chess Union. In this capacity it has the sole responsibility to nominate individual players and teams to represent Ireland in international chess tournaments or events organised under the auspices of these bodies."

Article 4 had read:

"MEMBERSHIP 

4.1. Individual membership of the Union shall be open to all persons who agree to be bound by the provisions of this Constitution (which shall be deemed to include any amended version which may be duly passed in accordance with rule 15) and who comply with the bye-laws of the union. In addition the Leinster Chess Union, the Ulster Chess Union, the Munster Chess Union, the Connacht Chess Union, and such other bodies or organisations connected with chess in Ireland as the Executive Committee of the Union may from time to time decide to admit to membership, shall on payment of their affiliation fees as prescribed by the bye-laws mentioned in rule 4.2. be members of the Union and shall be entitled to send two voting delegates to every general meeting of the Union. 

4.2. The fees and subscriptions to be paid for such membership, the subscription years, the affiliation regulations for affiliated bodies and the venues for general meetings of the Union shall be regulated by bye-laws entitled "Bye-laws for Membership of the Irish Chess Union". Notwithstanding the powers of the Executive Committee in relation to bye-laws generally the said bye-laws shall only be made repealed or amended by the Committee after 8 weeks notice of the intention to make or repeal the same and the text of any intended amendments have first been given to members of the Union."

A new Article 4 was inserted in relation to a Code of Good Conduct for Children and the old Article 4 was replaced by new Articles 5 and 6:

"MEMBERSHIP 

5.1 Membership of the union shall be open to all persons who agree to be bound by the provisions of this constitution and who comply with its bye laws.

5.2 The fees and subscriptions to be paid for membership shall be determined by the Executive annually in advance of the Annual General Meeting and shall be reported to that meeting in the Treasurer’s Report. 

PROVINCIAL CHESS UNIONS 

6. The Union recognises the special role played by provincial chess unions in helping it to promote the sport. These bodies are affiilated to the Union and have a right of representation on its Executive and to send two delegates each to General Meetings of the Union. The Union may recognise other bodies or organisations connected with chess in Ireland as affiliates."

In relation to Provincial Chess Unions, at this page on the ICU website, it is explained that Bye-laws for affiliation are "rules for bodies such as the Connaught, Leinster and Munster Chess Unions." ]

So, post 2005, it is clear that in its formal documents that the ICU has removed any reference to the Ulster Chess Union. Also the ICU has not made any attempt to organise in Northern Ireland. The one place where a different approach is taken is at the heart of this recent dispute - Article 10 of the ICU's Bye-laws for Membership of the Irish Chess Union:

"Foreign players whose ordinary residence is outside the island of Ireland shall not be subject to payment of any fee or subscription to the ICU for participating in Irish tournaments (other than the Irish Chess Championships), upon production of proof that they are affiliated to another national body which is a member of FIDE."

When the UCU left in 2005 it was with the intention of becoming a member Federation of the world governing body, FIDE. However, with amendments made to FIDE Rules, this became an impossibility and the UCU will have to accept that, despite England, Scotland and Wales all having separate membership of FIDE, this will not be extended to Northern Ireland.

It may well be that Bunratty and other Congresses in Ireland will push to retain the status quo since 2005 of not requiring Northern Ireland players to be ICU members and that they get their way. However, if the outcome of the negotiations between the ICU and tournament organisers results in a membership fee being payable by "foreign" players, Northern Ireland competitors would just have to accept it.

However, at the moment, my understanding is that the ICU proposal is that "foreign" players would pay a reduced 20 euro fee, whereas UCU players would be required to pay the full 35 euro fee. So, while this membership issue is being addressed by the ICU, it may be a good time to re-examine the precise nature of the 2005 split and finally to establish a sensible working relationship between the ICU and the UCU.

It seems to me that such a relationship must accept that the ICU and UCU are separate bodies but that they would mutually recognise that members of one body would be eligible (without any additional fee) to compete in competitions in the other jurisdiction. [In view of the lower membership fees in the UCU, it would probably be necessary to restrict UCU membership to those born or resident in Northern Ireland].

I would also suggest that, as proposed by it in 2005, the UCU accepts the right of the ICU to organise various "all-Ireland Championships" - the advantage to the ICU would be that if these events were to be held in Northern Ireland, the financial responsibility would be borne by the UCU.

There is a small window of opportunity here - I reckon it would be a good idea for the UCU Executive to take action as soon as possible on this.

Williamson wrap-up

Round 2 action

Ulster champion Gabor Horvath conceded only a single draw to Lindores club-mate Calum Leitch on the way in adding the Williamson Shield to his growing palmares in Ulster chess. It was a 1-2-3 in matching order for the top seeds with defending champion Gareth Annesley second and Leitch third.

In the Challengers section John Phillips overcame his surprise first round loss and executed a perfect submarine gambit with five straight wins to take first prize in the Challengers. John McKenna was a half-point behind in the runners-up spot.

Crosstables for both sections and more photographs

New Year Williamson

The Williamson Shield has moved in 2015 to the first weekend of the year and there were sufficient entries to run a Challengers section. The Williamson Shield itself has 14 competing, including four young Dublin players - the Gonzaga CC trio of Ben Cullen, Andy Keenan and Marc Lincoln, plus Fiachra Scallan from Rathmines CC. Top seed is Gabor Horvath, who last weekend added the UCU Blitz title to his 2014 Ulster Championship win, Second seed is the defending champion Gareth Annesley and third is Calum Leitch, winner of the Ulster Masters in October 2014.

In the first round all the games were won by the higher-rated players. During my visit during Round 2 Annesley was well on his way to a win over Brendan Jameson, a sharp kingside attack having netted a piece; Horvath had a Knight firmly entrenched deep in Cullen's territory and was typically taking his time to work out the most precise way to cement his advantage; Leitch had reached a Rook and 5 pawns endgame against Mark Newman with the latter having a number of weak pawns - however it might well be a difficult task to disprove the old adage that all Rook endings are drawn.

Annesley, Jameson, Cullen and Horvath (left to right)

There are 24 competing in the Challengers. Play in Round 1 was less predictable that in the Shield: although top seed Richard Morrow won, youth upset experience (and the seedings) on boards 2-4 with Chris Roe and Andrew Todd both drawing with John McKenna and Peter McGuckin respectively, while Paddy Magee went one better by beating John Phillips.

Round 2 panorama

Christmas chess cornucopia

The Belfast and District Leagues will soon be taking a short Christmas break but local chess players can enjoy a veritable feast of festive chess. In the space of three weeks all three formats of the game can be consumed.

First up is NICS Lackadaisical #1, the initial event in the returning Civil Service CC Rapidplay Grand Prix series, now renamed in honour of Alan Burns. There will just be room for a final week of league fixtures for 2014 before tucking into turkey in all its forms for a few days. After that it will be time for the 4th UCU Blitz Championship, now a regular feature in the immediate post-Christmas slot and returning this year to the Belfast Boat Club.

The final offering in this particular menu is the main course and it's back to the Civil Service Pavilion. Having been played in February or March for the past three years, the Williamson Shield will this time round occupy the first weekend of the New Year. So just enough time to recover from celebrating the arrival of 2015 before tucking into two days of the long form of the game. After that there might just be enough time to take down the decorations before getting stuck into the second half of the League season.

Good turn-out in Omagh

The decision of the Ulster Chess Union to hold a new rapidplay event in Omagh was vindicated with 34 players competing in two sections. There was a good geographical spread of entrants and the turn-out would be viewed as excellent if the event had taken place in Belfast - further evidence of both the growing enthusiasm for tournament chess and the strides being made by the Omagh club.

I'm sure there will be a full report in the new few days at the official UCU website but while you're waiting for that, here's a listing of the results from both sections.

Confused@Ballynafeigh.com

Regular readers will remember Tweedledee and Tweedledum. Last year the League Controller aka the Ballynafeigh supremo seemed to forget the League Rules before just giving up on trying to adhere to them. This year we have a new League Controller (in fact more of a dynamic duo). He/they decided the floating juniors were turning up everywhere like wild mushrooms and the League Rules for 2014-5 needed a bit of a tweaking.

After viewing the new Rules the Ballynafeigh supremo complained that the dynamic duo had sunk the floating juniors. Batman and Robin replied that the under-1350s were still allowed to float but there was a restriction on doing it within the same week. In fact, the privilege granted to under-1350s has been extended to a wider group of players (but indeed everyone is confined to playing for only one team within the same week).

Looking at the Squad Lists for this season, the Ballynafeigh supremo still seemed to be having trouble with the designated player rule. Instead of just assigning 5 players to each team, he went overboard with 7 for each of his Division 1 teams. Having realised the error of his ways, he then sought the permission of the dynamic duo to amend his designated player lists. My understanding is that two players, one from the Ballynafeigh 1 list and one from Ballynafeigh 2 have been re-designated to Ballynafeigh 3 and perhaps there have been further consequential amendments. However, as far as I can see, nothing has been published at the official UCU website about any of this, though perhaps the various team captains have at some point been made aware of the changes.

Anyway, looking at this week's results, either the Ballynafeigh supremo is still confused (or I am!)

Wednesday 19th November, Division 2
Belfast South 2         Ballynafeigh 3 
Green, Neil        =-=  Lavery, Robert
Jaffa, Bernard     1-0  Black, Chris
Critchlow, Stephen 0-1  Carey, Eoin
Storey, William    1-0  Lavery, Bill
Murphy, CJ         1-0  Bannon, Gerard

Thursday 20th November, Division 1
Lindores 1              Ballynafeigh 1
Horvath, Gabor     0-1  Houston, David
Leitch, Calum      1-0  Jensen, Søren 
Harris, Ross       =-=  Rush, Stephen 
MacDonald, Fred    0-1  Jamison, Brendan 
Kilpatrick, Ian    1-0  Lavery, Robert

In search of the donor of the Williamson Shield

In 1904 H. B. Williamson presented a Shield to Standtown Chess Club to be used in connection with a Championship tournament. However, very little is (or was) known about the donor of the Shield. Contemporary newspaper reports only refer to Williamson being a member of Strandtown Chess Club while on an extended trip to his native land. Over 60 years after Williamson had donated the Shield, Albert Long, the secretary of the Ulster Chess Union, resolved to find out more. Below is the information he found out and then recorded in his ring binder on the history of the Ulster Chess Union.

Enquiries were made during 1968 and with the help of the Secretary of the Ulster Unionist Council [Mr J. O. Bailie], Miss Dorothy Williamson, 8 Tweskard Park, Belfast (his niece), the Pharmacy Board of New Zealand, the Department of Justice, Wellington, the New Zealand High Commission, London and the "New Zealand Daily Herald" the following facts were obtained.

Hugh Bellis Williamson was born in Coleraine about 1850, the eldest child of Hugh Williamson and Sarah Williamson, nee Caskey. A younger brother was Councillor Dr. Williamson.

H. B. Williamson, having studied chemistry, married Jessie Margarette Allen in Dublin in 1876 when aged 26 and emigrated to New Zealand about the same year, where he set up business as a pharmacist at New Plymouth (1876) and then at Wanganui. 

He had four daughters.

He died Tuesday, 23rd March, 1926 at his home in Epsom, a suburb of Auckland, where he was living in retirement.

The announcement in "The New Zealand Daily Herald" reads:

Williamson - On March 23 at his residence, 648 Manukau Road, Hugh Bellis, late of Wanganui. No flowers.

There was no obituary or photograph, and although his niece, Miss Dorothy Williamson (mentioned above) tells me she has numerous family portraits, she is unable to identify any as being that of her uncle. She was very young when he was last in Belfast on a visit in 1904.

Unfortunately Miss Williamson appears to have died shortly after these enquiries were made. However in December 1968 Albert Long was again in contact with J. O. Bailie, who was able to tell him a close friend of Miss Williamson, Mr William Kennedy, a Unionist M. P., had acquired some of her personal effects. In Long's ring binder a note dated 22nd April 1969 reads as follows:

Through the courtesy of Mr. Wm. Kennedy (M. P. Cromac) 8 Cooke Street, Belfast, I was able with the help of Mr. Larmour, to search the photograph albums belonging to the late Miss Williamson, and succeeded in finding one of H. B. Williamson, taken in Wanganui, and dated 1887.

In a letter to Kennedy Long says:

I need hardly say how grateful I am for you kindness in this matter, which has pleased me beyond all expectation and will be a source of great interest to a large number of people.

So, in the hope that this information is of interest to a new generation, here is the photograph of Hugh Bellis Williamson, generous benefactor to the chess players of Belfast.

Postscript: This Time Traveller article was originally published in August 2001. Julia Rhodes, H. B. Williamson's great granddaughter, contacted me a dozen Augusts later and she pointed me in the direction of the obituary that had eluded Albert Long.

OBITUARY.

MR. H. B. WILLIAMSON.

FORMER WANGANUI RESIDENT.

Many friends in New Zealand will learn with regret of the death of Mr. Hugh Bellis Williamson, of 648, Mamikau Road. He was formerly a resident of Wanganui, and since his retirement from professional life, had lived in Auckland. Born in Ireland, Mr. Williamson came to New Zealand in the 'seventies. He carried on a chemist's establishment for many years at Wanganui, and was highly esteemed by all who knew him. He took a keen interest in chess, and for many years he was secretary of the chess club, which, in company with the Hon. John Ballance and the Hon. John Bryce he helped to found. Mr. Williamson was a vice-president of the Auckland Chese Club, and it was whilst playing a game there last week, he had a stroke, which was the cause of his death. Deceased was a prominent Freemason having been associated with Lodge Tongariri, English Constitution, since 1878, doing yeoman service in the early days of that lodge. His kindly disposition and readiness to extend a helping hand to those less fortunate endeared him to all who knew him. His Masonic brethren accorded him the last service prior to cremation yesterday at Waikumete. Captain W. H. Feldon, W.M., of Lodge Te Awamutu, conducted the service assisted by Mr. A. Eady, W.M,. of Lodge Prince of Wales. 

Source: Auckland Star, Volume LVII, Issue 72, 26 March 1926, Page 10

Ulster Masters finale

Senior Section

On the top two boards in Round 5 Gareth Annesley and Calum Leitch won respectively against Soren Jensen and Brendan Jamison, leaving them a full point ahead of Jensen, Gabor Horvath and Mark Newman going into the final round.

Normally players on the same points total play each other in a Swiss but the two leaders had already played earlier in the tournament - Leitch apparently had a winning advantage but Annesley conjured up a check and Leitch chose the wrong King move and went on to lose. Therefore they both floated down to players on 3 points, leaving five players still in with some sort of shout at winning the Alex Beckett Trophy. Making things interesting was that the leaders would both have to play the Black pieces, Leitch against Jensen and Annesley against Newman.

Horvath, the third player on 3.0 points, floated down to Robert Lavery and won to end the tournament on 4.0. Any chance of the defending champion making a successful defence was scuppered when Jensen-Leitch was agreed drawn in an endgame where neither player could risk more.

Now if Annesley could draw, his tie-break would almost certainly be better than Leitch's. However Mark Newman was not playing ball, having won an exchange and also having a dangerous passed pawn. Both players had little time left, Leitch was too nervous to watch his rival's game, fearing that Annesley would turn the tables but Newman found a quick way through to a victory.

So the 2014 Ulster Master title went to Leitch with Annesley having the consolation of taking second prize on tie-break from Horvath and Newman.

The Alex Beckett Trophy was in hiding on the day...

... but I was able to get this close-up of the impressive Des Forson Memorial Trophy

Intermediate Section

In Round 5 the sole leader Peter McGuckin lost to Pat McKillen. So going into the final set of games, McKillen, Matthew Chapman and Andrew Todd were in the lead on 4.0. McGuckin, William Storey and Martin Kelly, last year's Intermediate champion, were half-a-point back and still in with a chance for the prizes.

The three top games all ended in White wins. McGuckin beat Todd, but the young Bangor player had the consolation of picking up a grading prize. McKillen got the better of Chapman to secure outright victory and possession of the Des Forson Memorial Trophy for a whole year.

In the final game to finish in this section, Kelly had lured Storey into grabbing a poisoned pawn and went on to join McGuckin on 4.5, but there was to be no prize this year for Kelly with McGuckin's front-running securing second prize on tie-break.

Final Crosstables and photographs of the Senior and Intermediate winners