Match Report: 28/11/12
Thursday 28/11/24
Urmston 6 – 0 Eccles (Cancelled)
Matchcard: https://lms.englishchess.org.uk/lms/fixture/73116
MCF – B Division
After five years of Eccles hosting League matches in five different local leagues Eccles had only defaulted a board once and that was because a player decided to have a nap before a match and overslept. Up until now Eccles has never, ever cancelled an MCF league match.
“Eccles had to cancel an MCF match due to no fault of their own.“
This must be one of the saddest defeats I’ve ever experienced. After always trying to field our best team (this does not necessarily mean our strongest team) and the effort players have put into always turning up on time alongside many years of me bragging about how the Eccles teams have never cancelled an MCF league match – it’s finally happened!
Let me explain in more detail…
There I was, sat at home happily doing chess stuff when at 7.40 the phone rang, I noted it was Urmston player Mark Davies, I picked up the phone and heard these three dreaded words, “where are they?” Well, that was it, panic mode set in, Mark said he received a call from Elliot Barnett (the fixtures secretary) at 7.40 saying that the Eccles team captain Dave Toole had rang to say “they were on their way but was stuck in bad heavy traffic due there being a football match at Manchester United, and they would not be able to make it in time”. He also told me that the Urmston players had started their clocks.
In shock and disbelief I got into gear as the race was on to find out what was going on. I apologised profusely and said I would ring back ASAP and hung up.
I immediately rang captain David Toole not once but three times but he failed to answer, this was probably because he did not want to deal with me alongside everything else that was going on inside the car. I then texted questions like, where are you etc…but alas to no avail.
There was nothing else I could do other than to ring Mark back without any further news. I apologised again for any inconvenience caused. Mark was very understanding and said, “Don’t worry. It happens sometimes. We had to cancel a match the previous month against Manchester University.” Even though he showed understanding of the situation it did not relieve me of the fact that not only did players have a wasted journey and their games cancelled, but Eccles had broken its own personal record of not cancelling a single MCF match since they reformed back in 2017. I was pretty upset about this to be honest and I needed to know more.
Urmston Chess Club is approximately three miles away for Manchester United Football Ground.
Eventually I managed to get through to David Toole and, after getting a bit shouty like I always do (lol), I managed to find out the events which led to the cancellation and this is what he said…
‘I phoned Elliot at about 7.20ish whilst on the way to the match explaining that we had to avoid roads near the United ground and were sent on a diversion, which doubled the distance. There had been two crashes which added at least another twenty minutes to the journey plus delays on both M60 routes this was well before we get to Urmston, and wouldn’t arrive until 8.10 if not later. The driver and players were stressed and the journey had turned into a complete farce.’
David also sent his apologies to all the players at Urmston and whilst on the phone he asked Elliot if there was a possibility of a deferral and Elliot said it shouldn’t be a problem because it was on a club match night. David also said if anyone would like a full report of what happened to give him a call.
Thank you David for providing me with a better understanding of the events leading up to why the match had to be cancelled and I hope the players of Urmston have a better understand also.
Sadly, Mark Davies who was Urmston’s acting captain on the night told me he was going to claim the match by default, but would it not have been better to play the match instead?
John Reyes who is the official captain of all the Urmston teams -now has a better understanding of how and why the match was cancelled. We now respectfully ask that he would reconsider the unforeseen circumstances that Eccles found themselves in on the way to the match.
I am now aware of the severe disruption that can be caused by traffic problems connected with Manchester United home games. The traffic problems will impinge especially heavily on matches taking place at Urmston and Chorlton, and probably also Altrincham. The traffic problem also has to be faced by the players of both clubs, it is not a problem unique to Eccles. We also have to bear in mind that players coming to Eccles may also face problems if they are caught in football match traffic. My personal feeling is that CONSIDERATION should be given to postponing chess matches when they clash with Manchester United home games. This ensures fairness and equity of treatment for the players of all clubs.
In future we will pay much more attention to the potential adverse issues that football match congestion can cause. As far as Eccles is concerned, I have put a system in place whereby I will be advised in advance of any such clashes. I will then disseminate this information to captains and players, who can build it into their travel plans. Hopefully this will mean that there is no recurrence of this bad experience.
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In light of the above Eccles would like to ask the Urmston Club captain John Reyes for a rematch/defferal
Thank you to all at Urmston for being understanding and please will you reconsider Eccles’ request to defer the match and agree a date for when it can take place.
We look forward to hearing from you and thank you for your consideration.
From all at Eccles Community Chess Club.
Next Match Report:
Tuesday 03/12/24
Monday: Ladies & Learners in Chess
Wednesday: Chess for Fun with friendly or ECF RapidPlay games.
Thank you for reading My Chess Journal: by Barbara Farrar