Martyn advised that the first team squad had made great efforts to try
and play in every match despite the long distances from work to home for some of the players and this loyalty plus some good match play had
enabled the team to finish in third place in Division 1 of the Bury League.
Martyn was also appreciative of the way in which other team members met him at the station and taken him to games.
2 team members also deserve special mention:
Richard narrowly missed out on player of the season, due to a loss from a won position in his final game.
Martyn won the Bury League 1ST division game of the season award.
Mike reported that the team had finished second from bottom in Division 2. It had been a struggle to field a team with Fraser being unwell and Geoff needing an operation towards the close of the season. Our problems were helped by the offer of two strong players from Warboys to help us out if matches did not clash with their club. Thus Marcus Misson and John Beck played for us and also Richard Donaghay and Mike Bradley from our first team helped out. The second team had one horrendous evening when a blizzard arrived three hours early and made travel home a nightmare. .
Michael said that he tried to run a composite team in the Team 550 Competition with players from Warboys and Ely Chess Club
and Charles Richmond from Newmarket. The rules of the competition meant boards 3 and 4 had to be less than 150 BCF if banding rule used.
This caused problems as very few players were eligible for the lower boards and if
like some Warboys players you played for their other team more than once you could not play for the composite team again.
The team played four matches of the six scheduled and had to default two games which meant that we finished bottom of the Southern pool,
and the defaults affected the outcome of the pool.
2/11/09 Ely/Warboys 3 CambridgeB 1
9/12/09 Ely/Warboys 2.5 Royston 1.5
20/01/10 Cambridge A 2.5 Ely/ Warboys 1.5
03/03/10 Cambridge B 2.5 Ely/Warboys1.5