Suffolk Chess

Considering the closeness of the event (just an hour's drive from Ipswich), surprisingly few of the 96 competitors in yesterday's 11th Cambridgeshire Rapidplay, held at Whittlesford Memorial Hall, came from Suffolk.   There were eight from the Bury St Edmunds club, three from the Bury Knights Junior club and just one from Ipswich.   Bury's contingent included five juniors.   Other entrants travelled from as far afield as Oxfordshire, Kent and Lincolnshire.

The tournament was split into four sections: Open, Major (u160), Challengers (u120) and Juniors.   To qualify for the latter section, juniors had to be under 12 and graded below 80.

The event was competently run as usual by Paul Kemp, aided by Chief Arbiter John Wickham, and Controllers Patrick Ribbands and Francis Bowers.   Paul is hoping to find someone else to take over the reins for future Cambridgeshire Rapidplays.

The main winners, both on 4½ points out of five, were David Coleman (Linton/Royston) in the Open, and Russell Goodfellow (Tunbridge Wells) in the Major.   No Suffolk player won any prizes!