The past year, starting 1 October 2023, was one of the most unsettling in the club's recent history.   It began with an abrupt reduction in the number of adult members, a group of whom had decided to play elsewhere, which created some uncertainty over the club's ability to meet its league commitments.   Fortunately, others have more than adequately filled the gaps and Watford's first team was noticeably stronger in 2023-24 than it had been in 2022-23.   Then came the totally unexpected news that Barclays Bank were closing the club's bank account - this was not unique to Watford Chess Club but an experience shared by a number of non-profit organisations.   It took some three months to set up a new account elsewhere and, naturally, the fact that the club had no bank account during this period created further difficulties.   Fortunately, the club has now moved on and the committee can report as follows.

 

At date of writing, and subject to recount, the club has 11 adult and 45 junior members although this disregards several persons who have not paid 2023-24 subscriptions but may yet do so.   There's an obvious imbalance but this report is probably not the place to discuss it.

 

 

In 2022-23 Watford "A" had finished 10th of 12 teams in Division 3 and thus avoided automatic relegation.   However, the subsequent loss of several adults meant that the club could not assemble, in sufficient time, a 2023-24 team capable of performing well in a Division 3.   It was also foreseen that 4NCL weekends taking place in Warwick and Telford rather than Daventry and Milton Keynes would act as a deterrent to some players.   Watford "A" therefore opted for voluntary demotion to Division 4 where it won five and drew one of its 11 matches, finishing in mid-table.   In retrospect, it was a mistake to re-enter Watford "B" as it was possible to assemble a second team for only one of the five weekends.

 

Watford's decline in the Hertfordshire League - not so long ago, it regularly had two teams in the top division - has been remarkable.   Its second team now languishes in one of the lowest divisions and the past two years have seen Watford 1 suffer successive relegations to Division 3.    In 2023-24, as a result of the departures mentioned earlier, the Watford 1 team was reconstituted and easily stemmed (+6 =2 -4) the relegation process.   In fact, at full strength, Watford 1 was almost certainly the strongest team in its division and it's a matter of conjecture why it managed to lose four matches and so didn't finish higher than third.   * 

 

The club had some difficulty assembling a Watford 2 team for away matches in Division 4, two of which it defaulted.   Its record (+4 =1 -9) left it tied on match-points with three other teams but the defaulted matches meant that it lost out in the game-point tie-break and was relegated.   If the team had played and drawn just one of those two defaulted matches, it would have survived in Division 4.

 

 

Watford Juniors "A" and "B" competed in all-junior Division X against their counterparts from Harrow and Uxbridge.   The "A" team finished runners-up (+7 =0 -3) while the "B" team finished fifth (+3 =0 -7) of the six teams.    Again here, it was often difficult to raise "B" teams for away fixtures.    Our youngest players were just 6 years old.

 

Playing in matches against Harrow, Uxbridge and St Albans - sometimes over as many as 20+ boards - Watford Juniors generally more than held their own over the top dozen boards but tended to be appreciably weaker than their opponents below the top 12.   Consequently we lost most of these matches, most by quite narrow margins.

 

Watford Juniors were due to play an over-the-board friendly against the UK Parliamentary Chess Club, having played them earlier in an online match, in June but this had to be postponed due to the small matter of a General Election.    It is hoped to revive this after the election is over and it becomes clear which of the UKPCC team are still present in Parliament.

 

One Watford team competed in the Online 4NCL, variously two or three Watford Juniors teams played in the Online Junior 4NCL, and one Watford Juniors team took part in the World Chess League.live - an international event featuring a total mix of teams with the most successful including grandmasters and international masters.

 

 

The club played at Herts Bowling Club on Monday evenings throughout the year.   Facilities there were regarded as very good and often commented on favourably by visiting clubs.  Having said that, it was under-used by the adult membership, many of whom appeared only for inter-club matches.   Juniors, on the other hand, were much in evidence.   In the past few months, we have begun to experiment with a satellite venue in North Watford and it is hoped to expand this.

 

 

In 2023-24, the club did not have an abundance of committee members or team captains.   Any shortage in team captains, in particular, impacts on the number of competitions in which the club can take part.  It also diverts committee members from considering longer-term matters.  This issue will doubtless be discussed on 22 July.

 

At time of writing, 4NCL venues for 2024-25 are still unknown.   Also, the Hertfordshire Chess Association - responsible for running the Hertfordshire League - has its Annual General Meeting on 19 July while the Hillingdon League has its Annual General Meeting on 17 July.    Assuming Watford Chess Club is represented at these meetings, it should be possible to report back to the 22 July AGM any relevant developments at those meetings.   However, this report is a historical record which is unlikely to be affected by those meetings.

 

Within the past few days, the club has made an application to the English Chess Federation to be recognised as a "Centre of Excellence" under the ECF's junior development pathway.   If successful, Watford would appear to be on course to be the first club to attain this status.