{"id":2957,"date":"2026-09-30T11:14:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-30T11:14:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/?p=2957"},"modified":"2026-09-30T12:29:25","modified_gmt":"2026-09-30T12:29:25","slug":"agm-seasonal-change-and-this-years-successes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/2026\/09\/30\/agm-seasonal-change-and-this-years-successes\/","title":{"rendered":"AGM-Seasonal change, and this year’s successes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At the Annual General Meeting of the club on Tuesday 29 September, our Chairman Bill Tracey reported on the year’s successes : fielding 5 teams across 4 Divisions, increasing membership ( now 38), stable finances, recognition for the best premises in the League, being the only club in the League to run 2 sessions\/week etc etc …( for full details, members will shortly receive the Minutes of the meeting). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill went on to award some remaining trophies ( Bill Luxton<\/strong> having already been presented with a Sussex League award for the best score in Division 4, and James Lumsden<\/strong> also having received his Grand Prix Series award). At the AGM Mike Chapman collected the superb-looking Club Championship Trophy ( pictured below) on behalf of Luke Chapman<\/strong>, this season’s winner after tough battles against the talented runner-up Andrew Fleming<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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After an amazing season, Luke , at the age of 15, can also celebrate his joint title in the Hastings Club Championship this year, battling through a long tournament there. His other club successes included individual Grand Prix tournament wins plus his 11 wins, 3 draw and only 1 loss in the recent Simultaneous Display ( his first).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the AGM was in session, the final match in the Gordon Cup was taking place in the adjacent quiet room, between David Pratt<\/strong> and David Slidell<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

David Pratt<\/strong> emerged afterwards as the winner. Here he is pictured , after a ‘slugfest’, ‘ding-dong’ scrap, i.e. a memorable, good-humoured and challenging contest, accepting congratulations from Bill ( the Gordon Cup trophy will follow on another occasion). The two Davids have known each other since schooldays at Grove School, so this is epic lifelong rivalry!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Your club Secretary, Lawry Rhodes<\/strong> ( below) was pleased to receive a new award for the season’s top score for the club ( 9\/12 games) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The meeting confirmed that the current committee members ( apart from one) are remaining in place, and welcomed Steve Blewitt<\/strong> onto the committee, in his absence ( apologies for missing the meeting having been received from him).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our chairman took time to outline the achievements of the one departing committee member, Joe Sharp<\/strong>, who will be leaving to live with family in Perth, Australia. Being a lifelong player and the longest standing member for over 20 years, Captain, Chairman, Secretary, Tournament Controller. For his services he has been awarded the position of Life President. There followed a deluge of recollections and endorsements from members, explaining that, although this year the club is 130 years old, it is highly unlikely it would be existing today without Joe’s single-handed determination in reviving it in the 1970s from days when Joe played at Hastings ( alongside Alan Ticehurst who recalled this). Then the above -mentioned David Pratt explained that Joe’s various roles ( outlined above) were performed by him simultaneously, not sequentially!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the new season, there was anticipation for success again this year in the Annual Open Rapid Tournament on November 28th<\/strong>, with an appeal by Bill for early entries please! <\/strong>Reflection on an intensive year just past with 5 teams, was the background to the committee’s decision to field 4 teams in the upcoming season. Michael Hayward<\/strong>‘s tireless efforts in team co-ordination were recognised and thanked. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was overlooked by Bill, who concluded the meeting by thanking others ( full details in the Minutes), that, as Chairman and Treasurer, he was unanimously recognised by the committee at its last meeting as this year’s outstanding club member.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul Lendon <\/strong>proposed a vote of thanks to him, which the meeting unanimously expressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the Annual General Meeting of the club on Tuesday 29 September, our Chairman Bill Tracey reported on the year’s successes : fielding 5 teams across 4 Divisions, increasing membership ( now 38), stable finances, recognition for the best premises in the League, being the only club in the League to run 2 sessions\/week etc […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2957"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2970,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2957\/revisions\/2970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexhillchessclub.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}