Having emerged from the AGM in June with absolutely no County teams personnel at all, the ECA is happy to announce that the four rating-limited teams entered for the County Championships now have team captains and, what’s more, one deptuty team captain.
Team Captains for 2023-24
U2050 – Michael Spurr; Deputy Captain, James Robinson;
U1850 – Mark Murrell;
U1650 – Sean Horan;
U1450 – Sean Horan.
We still have no Match Captain nor Assistant Match Captain. Does this matter? In practical terms, no; the team captains can run their teams and the matches will take place. However, the Match Captain is the Executive Officer to whom team captains report.
The Match Captain and Assistant M/C are elected by the AGM and each has a seat on the Executive. The team captains are appointed by the Executive. The Match Captain traditionally runs the Open team but, since we are currently without sufficient support to run an Open team, there does not appear to be a particular need. However, without an elected Match Captain, the chances of reviving support for an Open team are slim to none. But the Match Captain’s duties also include acting as a co-ordinator for the other team captains. Without a Match Captain to report to, the team captains can only report to the Executive. If all goes smoothly, there will be no problem, but a season of County chess usually throws up some problems along the way and the team captains in the past have always had someone to whom they can refer problems, i.e. the Match Captain.
Link: Teams 2023-24