Oxfordshire A win the Chiltern League Open

Congratulations to the Oxfordshire A team who won the Open section of the Chiltern League on Sunday (31st March) with a 9 – 7 victory against Buckinghamshire. It was played at Cumnor and 25% of the team were Cumnor players; Eldar, Nick, Nigel and Ian.

All four players achieved 50% or more over the course of the season with Eldar getting 100%, with 3 wins from 3 games.

The table can be found here and the result here.

ECF President’s Award for Steve Rumsby,

Cumnor Chess Club would like to offer our congratulations to Steve Rumsby.

The following was taken from the ECF Newsletter that has just been published and the Oxfordshire Chess Association website:

ECF President’s Award for Steve Rumsby, Banbury

Congratulations to Steve Rumsby from Banbury Chess Club, who was presented with his ECF President’s Award for Services to Chess.

The Award recognises that for over 30 years Steve has been the Chairman of Banbury Chess Club. Steve has overseen the growth of the club from initially fielding two teams in one league to the latest season where the club fielded four teams in the Leamington League, three teams in the Oxford League and entered all the available league cup competitions. In recent years, Banbury entered a team in the 4NCL. Virtually every year, Steve has captained one of the club teams.

Steve’s wider contribution to chess is seen in his work for the Leamington and District Chess League. He is, and has been for a number of years, both the league’s webmaster and fixtures secretary. At the start of the 2016-2017 season Oxfordshire County were unable to find a volunteer to captain the Under 150 county Team. Steve at short notice volunteered and led the county team to 5 wins from 6 matches. They ended that season as Chiltern League Champions. Steve has continued in this county captaincy role. Steve is highly regarded by chess players in an area stretching from Birmingham down to Didcot.

Steve (right) receives the President’s Award from Leamington League chairman Ben Graff