Though we haven’t had a committee meeting, our next one will be in October, another update for our league is appropriate with the new season approaching. And what an update it is!

Steven Smith has jumped straight into the grading officer role and a definite hat off is needed for the work he has carried out so far. Behind the scenes there has been training, reading documentation, and catching up with several games that had been missed out last season. Thankfully, everything is new up-to-date and we’ll even be having the electronic match cards this season (more on that later).

Thank you to Bob Moore who popped by with the Division One trophy after working hard to add another level and finding the structure like adamantium (couldn’t resist the quote as I went to Wolverine and Deadpool this weekend). Adding another level was easier said than done. However, his excellent skills with a 3D printer, drill bits and plates manged to carry out the job that will now keep us going for many years to come. The Dr Hanson Trophy goes back to the 1933-34 season when Llanelly YMCA took the title and has many a forgotten name such as Gorseinon Institute, Swansea Bishops, University College Swansea (yes there was another before the modern era of the University) and Central. You can see the eras of the modern clubs (when Castell Nedd had worked it sway up to the top over three years of fighting), Nidum’s momentous 18 year continuous stretch on the top (they actually took it for 21 years but had a gap thanks to Whiteknights A), and when Morriston and Whiteknights started to be the contenders. There’s even a plate to commemorate the gap of the Second World War. Thanks to Bob, this trophy will keep on going.

There’s still plenty of work going on with the trophies, hunting down some (such as that of Division Two) that have gone missing with the gap of covid and the pause in the knock outs causing problems. If you want to learn more on the trophies I’ve heard Martyn Griffiths will soon be writing about them.

Another great leap forward is the new website thanks to the work of Adam Musson. He really has dug his heels into this one and we now have a place to go without being blasted with pop ups. On the Home page you’ll find the league tables and with the click of a button you can nip between the divisions. Fixtures will show you the matches to come. Please can the captains in Division One remember the second half of the season cannot be decided until the first half has been played, thanks to our new league structure. You can take a glimpse at the results, view the news and read documentation (such as AGM minutes and the yearbooks). Please note that we are in the process of transferring articles etc across but there are a lot of them (posts going back to 2014) so it will take some time. And all this is thanks to the work of Adam! Captains and secretaries will soon be contacted to show them had to use the match card side of the website (you can’t access it from the main page) and we do ask for patience if bugs or the errors pop up. Definitely contact us if you spot something out of place but Adam has put a lot of his time in and he definitely deserves a break at the moment. We’ll jump to it if part of the site is crashing but tweaks and ideas will probably take a bit longer unless they are quick fixes. Finally, do keep an eye on the old site. The new yearbook is currently held there, and there will be fresh news articles until we have finished transferring to the new site. We will be looking to close it down around January. www.westwaleschess.org

It's definitely a big thank you to those involved in the hard work and we’ll be looking to take things further in the new season. If there is anything the league can do for you, give us a shout and we’ll see what we can do. Good luck to everyone and enjoy the games before you.

Hywel