Belfast and District League 2013/14

Yreval · 10-10-2013 3:54am #1

Since we have threads on the Munster league and the various Leinster leagues, I thought I'd do one for Ulster.

Fixture list
http://ballynafeighchess.wordpress.com/fixtures-and-results/

Preview
http://www.nichess.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/new-league-season.html

League structure
Each team plays the others once. After this round-robin phase is complete, the top six will play in a double round-robin group, retaining their points from the first phase, for the Division 1 title (currently held by Fisherwick) and, in a similar manner, the others will play for the Division 2 title (won last season by Mallusk, now Muldoon's). More details here - these are from the 2011/12 season but nothing major has changed since then.

The new season kicks off at, I make it, around 7:20pm next Monday when Fisherwick host Ballynafeigh 1.

L1m1tless · 10-10-2013 6:30am

Anywhere to view previous league tables? Just curious!

historian · 10-10-2013 8:42am

Records going back to 2003-4 on UCU website:

UCU League 1
(Click on Events tab)
UCU League 2
UCU League preliminary section (this format first used in 2010-11 season)

Yreval · 15-10-2013 1:20am

First result in: Fisherwick 3 - 2 Ballynafeigh 1

@CowboyDreams: this site has results from 2000/01 to 2002/03.

historian · 15-10-2013 7:42am

Have Ballynafeigh decided to give up on exotic names for their teams or are 1, 2 and 3 just placeholders until you think up this year's names? If it is any assistance to the communal Ballynafeigh though process:D, I believe it does the League secretary's nut in when Ballynafeigh produce a whole new set of names every season.

Anyway, who's playing for Team 1?

Yreval · 15-10-2013 2:37pm

Yep, the Sultans, Badgers and International are no more, it seems.

I don't know what the team was for last night's match was, but I'm pretty sure David Houston was on board 1.

cdeb · 15-10-2013 4:27pm

Yreval wrote: »

Yep, the Sultans, Badgers and International are no more, it seems.

I'm sorry - what? :eek:

Sparks · 15-10-2013 4:44pm

Yreval wrote: »

Yep, the Sultans, Badgers and International are no more, it seems.

historian · 15-10-2013 6:06pm

Rumour has it that the Sultan himself had escaped the cull and was holed up at Lindores Coffee House with some members of the International brigade. But now his name has disappeared from Lindores Members' List; I fear the worst:(

Better news though about the Badgers. As anyone who has read the English newspapers recently would know, they moved the goalposts.

Yreval · 15-10-2013 6:18pm

At the beginning of last season, around the time of the digital switchover and the postponement of the badger cull, the Badgers lost to Shorts and Damien couldn't help himself:

Badger Cull

Irrespective of what Channel 4 and BBC World Service reported yesterday evening the proposed Badger cull was not postponed in all areas, either that or the boys from Shorts need to retune their sets after the digital switchover, because they promptly turned up at Ballynafeigh and set about the Badgers team like hunters possessed. Even though the Badgers showed up well on the premier boards of 1 & 2 taking 1.5 points from a possible 2 with a Mallaghan victory over Newman and a Conlon draw against McNaughton Shorts bottom boards of Harris McConaghy and Stafford ruthlessly exterminated the Badger set of R Lavery Saad and Rajan.

http://ballynafeighchess.wordpress.com/chess-news-gossip/ (about 40% of the way down the page)

Anyway, I'm just about to head out the door to play for Ballynafeigh 2 against Belfast South.

Yreval · 15-10-2013 11:44pm

Ballynafeigh 2 2-3 Belfast South
Mike Redman 0.5-0.5 Ray Devenney
Damien Cunningham 0.5-0.5 Sam Flanagan
Robert Lavery 0-1 Bruce Maclean
Stephen Rush 1-0 John Bryars
Mark Hewitt 0-1 Bernard Jaffa

Yreval · 17-10-2013 7:40pm

Lindores whitewash Fruithill: http://lindoreschessclub.wordpress.com/2013/10/16/win-for-lindores/

Also, the new Fisherwick website has more details on their victory over Ballynafeigh 1: http://fisherwickchessclub.wordpress.com/2013/10/15/silver-king-rd1/

historian · 18-10-2013 11:33am

[HTML]<pre>
Civil Service 1.0 - 4.0 Lagan

Mark Newman Draw George Heathwood
David McAlister Draw Tom Esmonde
Alan Burns 0-1 Sam Moore
Drew Ferguson 0-1 Gerald Harvey
Adrian Dornford Smith 0-1 Chris Armstrong
</pre>[/HTML]

Yreval · 18-10-2013 4:23pm

Bangor beat Ballynafeigh 3 5-0, meaning that the league table after the first week of the season looks like this: http://ballynafeighchess.wordpress.com/league-tables/

e: Bangor 5-0 Ballynafeigh 3

Alan McConnell 1-0 Paddy Magee
Paul McLoughlin 1-0 John Price
Ron Henderson 1-0 Bobby Campbell
Garry Johnston 1-0 Norman Rainey
Craig Kelly 1-0 (bye)

Ballynafeigh Chess · 18-10-2013 9:31pm

Team three took a pounding but it is to be expected this season, gave up board five when two men were forced out of the game due to work

historian · 18-10-2013 11:06pm

Good on Ballynafeigh for entering three teams again this season. However I wonder if maybe you haven't got the mix quite right between the teams.

It might have been better to go for a more obvious top team and share out the remaining players equally between the other two teams. The way you have gone about it there is a danger that none of the teams will be capable of winning the League while Ballynafeigh 3 will really struggle - I'm not sure it does players much good to be facing a huge rating difference every time they play a League game. Having said that, I'm now bound to lose to Paddy Magee :eek:

Ballynafeigh Chess · 19-10-2013 12:57am

Don’t be swayed by a set of dubious scores in the first week, the first team were minus a few much stronger members as was the second team.
Team three were missing their four best squad members so you wont see Magee as high up as you perhaps a drop to board 5 required 

historian · 19-10-2013 9:15am

So. just lulling the rest of us into a false sense of security:D

I noticed the legendary Scannell was absent from week 1 but I'm scratching my head who all these other top-rankers are. Still at the rate Ballynafeigh enrol new members, I'm sure you've got it covered.

Yreval · 19-10-2013 6:00pm

He's living in Banbridge now, so he'll only be able to turn out a few times this season. There were efforts to set a club up there, but evidently that didn't come through in time.

Yreval · 23-10-2013 8:01pm

Fruithill 5-0 Ballynafeigh 3
Ballynafeigh 1 3-2 Lindores (more info)
Ballynafeigh 2 2-3 Muldoons

Yreval · 29-10-2013 1:07am

Week 2's other matches were:

Lagan 3.5-1.5 Bangor
Belfast South 3-2 Civil Service

The current league table, plus more details on each match, can be seen here.

Yreval · 03-11-2013 1:44am

Week 3:

Bangor 4-1 Fruithill (some uncertainty about this one; might be 3-2 instead)
Lagan 2.5-2.5 Belfast South
Civil Service 0-5 Muldoons
Ballynafeigh 2 2-3 Fisherwick
Ballynafeigh 1 4.5-0.5 Ballynafeigh 3

League standings, etc. can be found here. In other news, a UCU Monthly Newsletter has been established - subscribe via the UCU website.

Yreval · 08-11-2013 7:38pm

Week 4:

Belfast South vs Bangor: postponed
Ballynafeigh 1 3-2 Fruithill
Muldoons 3-2 Lagan
Fisherwick 5-0 Civil Service
Ballynafeigh 2 1.5-3.5 Lindores

As usual, league standings and results can be found here. Also, I've written reports on Ballynafeigh 2's two most recent league matches:

http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/ballynafeigh-2-vs-fisherwick/ballynafeigh-2-2-3-fisherwick
http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/ballynafeigh-2-vs-lindores/ballynafeigh-2-1-5-3-5-lindores

Yreval · 17-11-2013 12:18am

Week 5:

Bangor 0.5-4.5 Ballynafeigh 1
Belfast South 3.5-1.5 Muldoons
Lagan 1-4 Fisherwick
Ballynafeigh 3 0-5 Ballynafeigh 2
Civil Service 0.5-4.5 Lindores

Latest standings are here as usual and a decent summary of the week's action can be found on the Fisherwick blog.

historian · 21-11-2013 1:59pm

historian wrote: »

Having said that, I'm now bound to lose to Paddy Magee :eek:

Fortunately this possibility was avoided when I was on board 2 for NICS and Paddy on board 3 for Ballynafeigh 3 on Tuesday night. Still apparently some eagle-eyed player from another team noticed the Ballynafeigh board order was ever-so-marginally not in accordance with the rating rules and Paddy should have been on board two. So his fine win on board 3 was officially wiped out. :eek:

Apparently they're not too happy over at Ballynafeigh (Scroll down, if necessary, to Ballynafeigh stripped of Points.

Yreval · 21-11-2013 3:56pm

A cruel blow indeed for Ballynafeigh 3, although I should point out that Paddy will still be credited for his win in the form of rating points. Anyway, week 6 is now in the books:

Muldoons 3.5-1.5 Bangor
Fisherwick 3.5-1.5 Belfast South
Ballynafeigh 2 5-0 Fruithill
Lindores 4.5-0.5 Lagan
Ballynafeigh 3 0-5 Civil Service*

* original result was 1-4; result changed due to irregularity in Ballynafeigh 3 board order

Current league standings are here as always, but I'm waiting for official confirmation on the Lindores vs Lagan result before putting it up on the site.

Yreval · 28-11-2013 5:24pm

Week 7:

Muldoons 1.5-3.5 Fisherwick
Ballynafeigh 1 1.5-3.5 Ballynafeigh 2
Fruithill 4-1 Civil Service
Ballynafeigh 3 0-5 Lagan
Belfast South vs Lindores: postponed

The league table looks really interesting now: Fisherwick are the clear leaders, but beneath them five teams are seperated by only two points, including Lindores who have a match in hand over Fisherwick and must be considered the main contenders to Fisherwick at this juncture. Damien Cunningham's take on proceedings is well worth a read (Great Competitions are based on Equality).

Yreval · 07-12-2013 2:42am

Week 8

An eventful week which saw champions Fisherwick being held to a draw by Bangor, Ballynafeigh 3 quadrupling their points tally in one fell swoop (including a spectacular game played by a Grandmaster's mother) and Lindores failing to capitalise on Fisherwick's slip-up with a defeat to Muldoons.

Fisherwick 2.5-2.5 Bangor
Lindores 2-3 Muldoons
Civil Service 1-4 Ballynafeigh 1
Ballynafeigh 3 1.5-3.5 Belfast South
Lagan 3.5-1.5 Fruithill

Standings: http://www.ulsterchess.org/competitions/competitions/comp-2504/cvt_event/standings/238#tabhead

Yreval · 14-12-2013 2:56am

Week 9

Bangor 0.5-4.5 Ballynafeigh 2 (report will hopefully appear on the UCU site soon)
Fisherwick 3.5-1.5 Lindores
Muldoons 4-1 Ballynafeigh 3
Ballynafeigh 1 2.5-2.5 Lagan
Fruithill 0.5-4.5 Belfast South

Standings

Except for a postponed fixture between Belfast South and Bangor rearranged for next week, the Christmas break is now upon us - in the meantime, the Ulster Blitz Championship will take place at Ballynafeigh on the 28th.

Yreval · 17-12-2013 12:42am

The Bangor-Ballynafeigh 2 report is up now: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/bangor-vs-ballynafeigh-2/bangor-vs-ballynafeigh-2

Alternatively, for a more colourful account of proceedings take a look at http://ballynafeighchess.wordpress.com/chess-news-gossip/ (Karma and Chess)

Yreval · 20-12-2013 2:04am

The postponed match from Week 4 took place tonight:

Belfast South  |  2-3  |Bangor
---------------+-------+-----------------
Maxim le Clercq|  0-1  |Alan McConnell
Ray Devenney   |  1-0  |Paul McGuigan
Sam Flanagan   |0.5-0.5|Paul McLoughlin
Bruce Maclean  |0.5-0.5|William McGrattan
John McKenna   |  0-1  |Walter Wilson

Yreval · 25-12-2013 5:12pm

Some news regarding the second half of the season: http://www.nichess.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/an-early-morning-christmas-present.html

Belfast South to field second team
League to be split into two equal divisions of six teams

Yreval · 10-01-2014 6:40pm

Week 10

Lindores 4.5-0.5 Bangor
Civil Service 1.5-3.5 Ballynafeigh 2
Ballynafeigh 3 0-5 Fisherwick
Fruithill 0.5-4.5 Muldoons
Belfast South 1-4 Ballynafeigh 1

With just one round of fixtures (plus the postponed match between Belfast South and Lindores) to go before the split, the table looks like this: http://www.ulsterchess.org/competitions/competitions/comp-2504/cvt_event/standings/238#tabhead

In other news, it now appears that there will be not one but three teams joining the league after the split, with Muldoons fielding a second team and Ballynafeigh fielding a fourth, and an 8-6 split between the divisions.

Yreval · 17-01-2014 5:11pm

Week 11

Bangor 1.5-3.5 Civil Service
Lindores 5-0 Ballynafeigh 3
Lagan 1.5-3.5 Ballynafeigh 2
Fruithill 0.5-4.5 Fisherwick
Muldoons 5-0 Ballynafeigh 1

The postponed match between Belfast South and Lindores was also played this week, but its result is under investigation.

The teams will now be split into two divisions of seven teams each, as follows:

Division 1
----------
Fisherwick      56.5
Muldoons        50
Lindores         ?
Ballynafeigh 2  44.5
Ballynafeigh 1  42
Belfast South    ?
Lagan           36

Division 2
----------
Bangor          26.5
Fruithill       20
Civil Service   19.5
Ballynafeigh 3   3
Ballynafeigh 4   0
Belfast South 2  0
Muldoons 2       0

with play to resume in early February.

Yreval · 21-01-2014 3:21am

The schedule for the second half of the season has been finalised.

Yreval · 05-02-2014 10:35pm

A report on the week 1 of part 2 of the season is finally up on the UCU website: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-1/b-d-league-part-2-week-1-round-up

Here are this week's results so far:

Division 1
Muldoons 1 2-3 Fisherwick
Ballynafeigh 1 3-2 Belfast South 1

Division 2
Ballynafeigh 3 3.5-1.5 Ballynafeigh 4

Yreval · 12-02-2014 12:11am

Week 2 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-2-round-up/b-d-league-part-2-week-2-round-up

Week 3 so far:

Division 1
Ballynafeigh 2 2-3 Lagan

Division 2
Fruithill 2-3 Ballynafeigh 3
Muldoons 2 1.5-3.5 Bangor

Yreval · 20-02-2014 9:10pm

Week 3 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-3-round-up

Week 4 so far:

Division 1:
Fisherwick 3.5-1.5 Belfast South 1
Ballynafeigh 1 2.5-2.5 Ballynafeigh 2
Muldoons 1 P-P Lindores

Division 2:
Ballynafeigh 3 0.5-4.5 Muldoons 2
Fruithill 2.5-2.5 Ballynafeigh 4

Yreval · 23-02-2014 11:28pm

Week 4 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-4-round-up

Yreval · 02-03-2014 2:11pm

Week 5:

Division 1
Ballynafeigh 1 3.5-1.5 Lagan
Ballynafeigh 2 2-3 Muldoons 1
Lindores 2.5-2.5 Fisherwick

Division 2
Civil Service 1-4 Bangor
Muldoons 2 1-4 Ballynafeigh 4
Belfast South 2 4.5-0.5 Ballynafeigh 3

Report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00205/b-d-league-week-5-analysis

Yreval · 09-03-2014 6:15pm

Week 6 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-6-round-up

Yreval · 19-03-2014 1:08am

Week 7 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-7-round-up

The first two matches of Week 8 were played earlier tonight. Title rivals Fisherwick and Lindores were away to Ballynafeigh 1 and 2 - Fisherwick lost for the first time this season (3-2) while Lindores took advantage by winning 3.5-1.5. The title race has been blown wide open!

Yreval · 23-03-2014 8:00pm

Week 8 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-8-round-up

Yreval · 30-03-2014 11:15pm

Week 9 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-9-round-up

Yreval · 06-04-2014 12:26am

Week 10 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-10-round-up

Yreval · 14-04-2014 7:30pm

Week 11 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-11-round-up

Yreval · 22-04-2014 1:17pm

Week 12 report: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-12-round-up - in which Bangor seal the Division 2 title.

Yreval · 28-04-2014 11:08pm

I was a bit too busy over the weekend to do a full write-up on Week 13, but here's how it went:

Division 1
Lagan 1.5-3.5 Muldoons 1
Lindores 2.5-2.5 Belfast South 1
Ballynafeigh 2 2.5-2.5 Fisherwick

Division 2
NI Civil Service 5-0 Ballynafeigh 3
Belfast South 2 4.5-0.5 Ballynafeigh 4

This week is a free week, but a number of postponed matches from earlier this season are being played. Fisherwick beat Ballynafeigh 2 3-2 earlier tonight and Lindores are playing Muldoons 1 in their last match of the season - unless Lindores get a big win tonight their title challenge is effectively over as Fisherwick's last match is against bottom club Lagan, and I've heard that Lagan might forefeit that match as they will apparently be unable to field a team...

e: Looks like Fisherwick are officially the champs: (http://lindoreschessclub.wordpress.com/2014/04/29/muldoons-v-lindores/)

Lindores drew the match 2.5 – 2.5 with Muldoon’s last night. Unfortunately, due to a misunderstanding, our board 1 thought the match was the following night and didn’t turn up. As the games had already started before we realised we were a man down, this forfeited the match to Muldoon’s 5 – 0.

Gareth Annesley 1 v 0

Danny Mallaghan 0.5 v 0.5 Calum Leitch

Stephen Wood 0.5 v 0.5 Fred MacDonald

Des Moreland 0 v 1 Paul McNaughton

Nicholas Pilkiewicz 0.5 v 0.5 Ross Harris

This means that Lindores, having played all their matches, are still one point behind Fisherwick, who are champions for the fourth year in a row.

Yreval · 06-05-2014 11:13pm

Report on the free week: http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-free-week-update

Two of the final week's Division 1 matches were decided last night, leaving only our (Ballynafeigh 2) match with Belfast South 1 this Thursday night. Muldoons 1 whitewashed a weakened Ballynafeigh 1 team and Fisherwick were forced to forfeit their match with Lagan as their venue was unavailable. This means that the top three finish within a point of each other, with Muldoons sneaking into second place at the last minute, and leads to a couple of "for want of a nail" scenarios:

If Gabor Horvath had shown up for his game in the Muldoons vs Lindores match, Lindores would be champions.
If Damien Cunningham, Dennis Wilkinson or myself had drawn any of our games in the match against Fisherwick, Muldoons would be champions.

Yreval · 18-05-2014 12:33am

The report on the final week is finally up; http://www.ulsterchess.org/Members/ucu00312/b-d-league-part-2-week-14-round-up

Belfast and District League 2013/14

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