Scannell Lifts Hammel Cup for Sixth Time

Steve Scannell made it a summer of success by lifting the Hammel Cup for a record sixth time. Scannell, who lifted the Ulster Championship already this summer added the Hammel Cup to his ever-growing collection of Ulster Chess trophies.

The Hammel Cup is the trophy name given to the summer tournament held at Civil Service each year from May - September. Scannell scored 10 points from 11 matches giving him a rounded score of 91%. Only fellow teammates John Masterson and Calum Leitch were able to prevent Scannell from scoring 100%.

There were also prizes for the winners of each of the three Grading Bands. Iain Woodfield of Fisherwick was the winner of Grading Band A and despite only scoring 58% his performance emphasised the importance of playing 10 games - the minimum requirement for attaining a prize.

Grading Band B was won by another Fisherwick player -  John Bryars. Bryars scored an impressive 8.5 points from 12 games and was the clear winner in this particular Grading Band.

Fisherwick made it a Grading Band hat-trick as David Seaby was the joint winner of Grading Band C. Seaby's 11 points from 15 games was exactly matched by Bangor's Brian Belshaw.

It is tradition to round of the Civil Service tournament with a handicap rapidplay tournament. On this occasion, Eddie Whiteside beat Damien Lavery in the deciding game to win the tournament. A further kick in the teeth was to come for Lavery as he was beaten to second on tie-break by David Seaby. This rounded off an impressive showing at Civil Service this summer for Seaby. Steve Scannell found the handicap time limits a bit too demanding on this occasion and could only manage a 7th place finish among the 20 entrants.