Chess Scotland
Juniors
designed by kids,
for kids!
Trinations Tournament
Craig Tara 2006
By
Donna Officer
Photos
This year was Scotland’s turn to play host to the Trinations Tournament, an annual event held between Scotland, Ireland
and Wales. The big question was where to hold the event. Traditionally the tournament is held on the
grounds of a university but because of the timing of the event, that was not
possible this year as the Scottish Universities had already started
preparations for their respective Fresher’s
Weeks. After a great deal of head
scratching, the venue at Haven Holidays Craig Tara, Ayrshire was
approached. Haven offered us 8 berth
caravans in virtually unlimited amounts and a playing venue adequate for our
needs. Problem solved, Craig Tara was
booked and invitations sent out.
The hosting
country has to supply filler teams to prevent teams from having a bye and
invitations were issued to players to consider playing in the filler
teams. Selections for the national
teams were made and the players contacted and quickly things were organised (far
too easily, in my opinion – my worries were soon to be realised!)
When the dates
for the Trinations were being considered the main
concerns were not to clash with either the Grangemouth
Congress or the European Youth Championships.
The 8-10 September seemed to meet this criteria and the venue was
booked, however the EYCC organisers in their infinite wisdom, decided to
change the dates of the European Youth and the inevitable happened – the two
dates clashed! Not to worry – Scotland was
sending only a few players to the EYCC – we could replace them fairly easily
although our teams would be weakened.
Then, worries started creeping in about the organisation of the World
Youth – the venue, Batumi
in Georgia,
was gong to be very difficult and expensive to travel to and there were
concerns about organisation and safety.
At the last moment a decision was made to decline the WYCC invitation
and send our squad to the EYCC instead.
Now we were 7 players short for the Trinations
Teams. The Under 16 Team was going to
lose Amy, the Under 14 Team would miss Ian but the Under 12 Team was hardest
hit, losing Rhian, Jonathan, Ali, Andrew and Calum
Fraser. Quickly new selections were
made and the places were filled by moving players up from the filler teams
and making new selections.
On 8 September
the players started arriving at Craig Tara from lunchtime onwards. Norrie and
Maureen Mathie were on site ready to welcome the
visitors and home players. By 9pm
almost everyone had arrived. Jacob and
his wife Anne had met the Welsh at Glasgow
Airport and Norrie
and Maureen met the Irish at Prestwick Airport. The caravans had been allocated and players
installed in their accommodation. All
that remained to be done was the team talk.
This was the largest team talk I had ever done for Scottish teams –
all in all we had 44 players assembled at the meeting area. Veterans of the International Squad can
recite my team talk by heart now – in fact I often select members to do so. This time it was Andrew Green’s turn and he
recited my words of wisdom with amazing accuracy! (Actually I really shouldn’t
be surprised as this was the 6th time I had chaperoned Andrew at an
international event.) For the
newcomers, the reminder that they were representing their country and would
be expected to act responsibly and sensibly at all times was well
received. The news that we were to be
having curfews did not go down so well but we tried to set relevant and
appropriate curfews which were mutually acceptable.
The joy of using
Craig Tara was that all entertainment was on site and mostly free. The players were free to entertain
themselves until their allotted curfew time.
The adults wandered off to find something to eat – it had been a long
and tiring afternoon and evening. We
had a host of adults who had kindly consented to act as chaperones and
players for the filler team. Norrie and Maureen are well known junior chaperones and
extremely well liked amongst parents and players alike. Similarly Alex MacFarlane has been
supervising and arbiting junior events for many
years and is also a popular member of the team. This year he was accompanied by partner
Lara Barnes, who is a well known friendly face at many Congresses. Our merry band of parents was made up of
Mike Scott, Andy MacQueen and Jacqui Thomas. We were also very fortunate in having the
McCulloch family along who were able to act as extra fillers as needed.
And so the Trinations 2006 commenced. It was great to have some of the old faces
from previous Trinations – Robbie, David and Lloyd
are now too old to play but had kindly accepted the invitation to attend to
bolster the filler teams. Once again
the chat was very good!
Team Captains
were nominated and selected by the players and the 2006 captains were Stuart MacQueen, Connor Woods and Andrew Green. Well done boys! One of their duties is to write a report on
their team event and will be posted as soon as they are received.
The Irish had
problems organising teams and sadly could not manage to send an U/14 team which created a few problems but Alex managed
to work things out – this resulted in the U/14 team playing the Welsh twice. Two rounds were played on Saturday and one
round was played on Sunday morning.
The Saturday
night was free time for everyone and the players and parents made use of the
many facilities on offer. It must be
confirmed here that all players made a great effort to stick to the curfew
and get back to their respective caravans on time. Well done to everyone!!
Sunday was to be
a very rushed affair as the Irish and Welsh had booked early flights back
home. It was going to be very tight to
have breakfast, a round of chess and prize giving all before 12.30!! Nevertheless we managed and by 12.15 we
were setting up the hall for prize giving.
Donald Wilson, in the capacity of new Chairman for Chess Scotland, had
kindly agreed to make a speech and present the prizes and Jacob Aagaard, in the capacity of new International Director
for Juniors, agreed to conduct the prize giving. Scotland had won the U/16 and
U/14 Sections and come second in the U/12 Sections - an excellent
result! Everyone was presented with an
award commemorating the event.
Norrie and Maureen had been given the very
difficult task of selecting the Man of the Match for each age group. After a great deal of deliberation they
came up with the following names:
U/16
Blair Hawthorne
U/14
Connor Woods
U/12
Jonny Scott
Well done boys!
A big surprise
at the very end was an award made to me by the members of the Youth Squad to
mark the end of my term as International Director for Juniors. Blair made a lovely speech to thank me and
I was presented with a beautiful crystal bowl and slipper. A card was also presented which had been
signed by everyone present at the event – I was eventually able to read the
messages through the tears and was very touched by the sentiments
expressed. Many, many thanks to
everyone for all the support and encouragement I have received over the last
three years. I have thoroughly enjoyed
almost every minute of my term of duty.
‘My boys’ (and girls) have been excellent company and wonderful
ambassadors for the game of chess. I
have accompanied them on many international trips and have lots of wonderful
memories to keep with me for years to come.
Many, many
thanks must go to my squad of helpers for the Trinations. Norrie and
Maureen were wonderful! (No more to be said!)
Alex and Lara did a fantastic job arbiting
and chaperoning and the parent chaperones did a great job. I can’t thank the filler teams enough for
their enthusiasm and willingness to fill in wherever they were needed. Thanks to Jacob and Anne for stepping in at
the last minute to chaperone not one, but two caravans. And many thanks to Donald Wilson for
visiting the event and presenting the awards at the end.
Now – David –
when is my trip to Ibiza??
Andrew – would
you like one last certificate?
Robbie – who
will you get all the ‘chat’ from now?
Donna
Officer
|
