AGM, 17 May 2006: 2005-2006 League Committee Report

1. The season began with the Charity evening, with a rapid-play event and trophy presentations, at the Wigston club on 22 September 2005.  Many thanks to Neil Beasley for organising the venue and to Cyril Johnson for his hectic work as the controller.  A substantial sum was raised for the President's chosen charity.
2. At the start of the season the League contained 47 teams from 19 clubs in 6 Divisions.  18 of these teams came from just three clubs, Littlethorpe, Syston and Wigston.  Early in 2006 the Leicester University team resigned from Division 6, but their place (and their results up to that point) were taken over by Littlethorpe's 9th (!) team.  Later in the season the LPSCA team from Division 6 also seemed to disappear without trace, and towards the end of the season Shepshed 2nd team defaulted their remaining fixtures in Division 2.
3. The League fixtures were arranged using new principles, the aim being to ensure that adjacent teams from the same club did not have matches in the same calendar week, hence maximising playing opportunities for individuals.  The new system seemed to work very well, with entirely positive feed-back, and many thanks are due to Mike Thornton for the hard work involved in this crucial task.  The version of the fixture list printed in the LRCA handbook was unfortunately not the final one, but the correct list was available on the Association's Web site from the first.
4. There were no significant disputes associated with any of the League matches during the season, and only a few minor queries about barred players, board order etc.  Thanks to all club officials for making things run so harmoniously.  Reporting of the results to the Web site also worked very well – the Association owes Sean Hewitt a great debt for the layout and regular updating of the site.  A modest number of matches in the top two Divisions used the experimental 3-hour playing sessions, and in a few matches the number of boards exceeded the minimum.  A number of teams lost points because of board defaults and/or failure to submit their results in good time.
5. Division 1 was won by Braunstone 1, with Wigston 1 a close 2nd: the relegation places were taken by Thurnby 1 and Shepshed 1.  Winners of Division 2 were Wigston 2.  They were the only team in the whole League to go through the season undefeated, but Loughborough 2 finished only 1 match point and half a game point behind them.  Littlethorpe 3 and Shepshed 2 were the bottom two teams in this Division.  Division 3 was won by Birstall 2, with Thurnby 2 second, and Syston 2 and DSS in the relegation positions.  Braunstone 2 won Division 4, with Littlethorpe 4 close behind: Wigston 5 and Syston 3 filled the two bottom places.  Division 5 was easily won by Littlethorpe 6, with Braunstone 3 second, and Ashby 2 and Hinckley 2 in the bottom spots.  Braunstone 5 won Division 6, with Littlethorpe 8 in 2nd place.  The tie break-rules were used in only two cases, to decide the relegation positions in Divisions 2 and 5.
6. Possible changes to League rules etc for 2006-7 are outlined in a separate paper.  Click here for details.