Oh what a night – to remember – on 9th September 2025 as we held the 11th Annual Time & Point Handicap with a massive 56 players taking part; 60 members attending in a record turn-out plus a number of spectators and parents sat around the hall’s perimiter.
As usual the night started with a little expected chaos, as two members failed to arrive out of the 55 entries which caused hiccups with 1st round pairings. This was compensated for by two late entries and just after a bye was awarded to the odd numbered mid range player, we had another new arrival.
This was the first time the club was using its Swiss Manager software and Harry Gardiner took on the challenge of sorting byes, withdrawals, new players and pairings which was pretty daunting. Harry did a phenomenal job, after Keith Dudeney had expertly input all the 1st round results, as we emerged with pairings for the 2nd round at 8.25pm, a little behind schedule. However the 2nd round started at exactly the same time as the 2024 event, which was a credit to Harry’s efforts bearing in mind we had 20 more players than the previous year
After this things ran a little more smoothly as the Events officer started reducing time allowed in all games with an excess of 20 minutes in total. As regular readers will know this 5 round event is unique as it gives handicaps to most players to add to their scores as well as extra time for lower rated members. This makes it very difficult for the top players to win the competition as they need to score 5/5 to have a chance.
By the time we got to the end of Round 4, it was time to work out who had a chance of winning before we started the final round. And what excitement this created as it was announced 3 players were on 4.5 pts after 4 rounds (incl handicaps) and then there were a further 11 on 4pts, with 3 players on 4/4 and others on 4 pts due to their handicaps being added to their running scores. On top of all this David missed one other player who was 4.5 pts !
Luckily as the results rolled in for round 5, just one player emerged with 5.5 pts which was Richard Fish who had scored 4/5 plus his 1.5pts handicap. From the group of 3 who were on 4/4, two players drew and eliminated themselves from the Trophy chase, as Carmel Barwick was the only member to complete the course with 5/5 which guarantees an automatic share of 1st place.
And so we came to the conclusion of the competition which required the Armageddon tie-break to be applied. Carmel won the toss for choice of colour, selecting white thus gaining an extra minute on her standard allowance of 5 mins, while Richard had 11 minutes and just needed a draw to win the trophy.
See the play-off game here …. which ended in dramatic style with Carmel emerging victorious with just two seconds to spare. A great credit to both finalists who played in such a sporting manner, with chairman Dave applying his Arbiter skills in a tense climax.
The scores and results can be seen on the sheet below taken from Swiss-Manager, with handicaps added afterwards to show Final scores and positions
Congratulations to Carmel who becomes the 10th different winner of this event, with Richard as runner-up. There were some great performances as youngsters JJ Patrick and Jack Patullo finished joint 3rd with 5 pts alongside the ever-youthful Mal Green.
Thanks go to everyone who played and contributed to a fantastic night, and special mentions go to Harry and Keith for their work with the Swiss-Manager software and the team of clock setters (Harry, Dave Price, Lukasz) as well as those that set up the room at the start of the evening (Barrie, Doug, Harry & Dave P).