Worcester & District Chess League
2013-4: Ray Collett wins Ball Cup
Andrew Farthing, W&DCL Hon Sec presents Ball Cup and trophy to Ray Collett at the Worcester Open (Picture Kevin Markey)
Ten competitors in 2013-4
The Ball Cup is a trophy for the best league player graded under-150. Entry was free for anly player of a club affiliated to Worcester & District Chess League. The 2012-3 holder of the trophy was Joseph Friar, but his grade was above 150 for the 2013-4 season. You can see the names of previous winners since 1947 on the roll of honour.
There were 10 players.:Michele Clack (Redditch), Ray Collett (Worcester), Steephen Crockett (Redditch), Richard Collett (Greenlands), Peter Seeley (Redditch), Phil Smith (Worcester), Giles Stanton (Redditch), Ian Truscott (Greenlands), and Colin Vernon (Worcester) and Andrew Wiggins (Kidderminster).
The preliminary rounds were run as all-play-all tournaments for two pools of players and every entrant got at least four games. The winners of the pools competed in the knock out stages.The arrangements are shown below
- Two all-play-all groups of 5 players each;
- The winner and runner up of each group qualify automatically for the knockout phase;
- The knockout phase constituted semi-finals and final.
The group stage
| Group A | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Player | RaC | IT | MC | GS | CV | Total | Place | |
| Ray Collett | 142 | 1w | 1b | 1w | 1b | 4 | 1st | |
| Ian Truscott | 130 | 0b | ½w | 1b | w | 1½ | ||
| Michele Clack | 115 | 0w | ½b | 1w | 1b | 2½ | 2nd | |
| Giles Stanton | 114 | 0b | 0w | 0b | 0w | 0 | ||
| Colin Vernon | 70 | 0w | b | 0w | 1b | 1 | ||
| Group B | ||||||||
| Player | AW | PSe | RiC | PSm | SC | Total | Place | |
| Andrew Wiggins | 132 | ½b | ½w | 1b | 0w | 2 | ||
| Peter Seeley | 116 | ½w | 1b | 1w | 1b | 3½ | 1st | |
| Richard Collett | 115 | ½b | 0w | 1b | 1w | 2½ | 2nd | |
| Phil Smith | 100 | 0w | 0b | 0w | 1b | 1 | ||
| Stephen Crockett | 116 | 1b | 0w | 0b | 0w | 1 | ||
Semi-final Draw
Players with the white pieces in first game named first:
Ray Collett 1 - 0 Richard Collett
Peter Seeley 1 - 0 Michele Clack
Final
Ray Collett (Worcester) v Peter Seeley (Redditch)
Collett wins Ball Cup.. Player of the white pieces was determined by the final score of the winner (Bubba Watson) in the US Masters Golf. The final was played at Redditch on 22 April. After a Ruy Lopez opening, Peter didn't find the best move to maintain equality in the middlegame after a pseudosacrifice by white. White was an outside passed-pawn up at the first time control in a rook and knight ending and then increased his advantage to win thirty moves after black had injudiciously allowed the exchange of rooks. This is the second time Ray has won the cup: the last time was 1980.