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Hammel Cup 2009

The UCU Summer Tournament was hosted this year by North Belfast Chess Club.
Hammel Cup 2009

Hammel prizewinners (l to r) Walls, Smith, Kelly and Scannell

This was only the second time the tournament had not been hosted by Civil Service. Initially players were slow to attend the new venue, but thanks to the hard work of Mark Newman, the Tournament Controller, there was in the end a very satisfactory turnout. Although overall numbers were down, the number of players completing 10 games (and therefore eligible for a prize) was the same as last year.

Going into the final round on Wednesday 30th September, three players - Stephen Scannell, Eamonn Walls and Raymond Smith - were still in contention for the overall first prize. Smith's chance went when he lost to Alex Beckett, but his overall total was still sufficient to win the Junior section prize. The other two were paired against each other, with Walls needing a win to overtake Scannell. In their decisive final round game in the recently finished Ulster Championship Scannell had won with the white pieces. This time Walls had the advantage of the first move and he gained his revenge - defeat for Scannell ended his successive wins of the Hammel Cup at 4. Although Eamonn now plays for QUB, he had started his career at North Belfast, so he was a very appropriate winner.

Scannell's total score was still good enough for second place overall, and the other prizewinner was Martin Kelly (Intermediate section).

Final standings

Played

Points

%

Seniors

 

 

 

Stephen Scannell

10

7.5

75.00

Eamon Walls

16

12.5

78.13

Mark Newman

10

7

70.00

Ian Woodfield

13

6

46.15

Christopher Kelly

4

1

25.00

Gerald Harvey

3

1

33.33

William McGrattan

10

2

20.00

David Baras

3

3

100.00

Sylwek Furman

12

5.5

45.83

Stewart McConaghy

10

4

40.00

 

 

 

 

Intermediates

 

 

 

Ron Henderson

15

7.5

50.00

Martin Kelly

13

8

61.54

Karina Kruk

15

9

60.00

John Bryars

9

5.5

61.11

Alexander Beckett

14

4

28.57

William Storey

14

5

35.71

Kevin Agnew

4

1.5

37.50

 

 

 

 

Juniors

 

 

 

David Seaby

17

9

52.94

John Monaghan

12

5.5

45.83

Cathal Murphy

14

8.5

60.71

Geoff Hindley

11

4.5

40.91

James Fairley

15

6

40.00

Raymond Smith

15

11

73.33

Kevin O'Neill

10

1.5

15.00

Philip Morrison

14

7

50.00

Nick Earl

2

1

50.00

Stephen Clarke

1

0

0.00

Craig Kelly

6

2.5

41.67

Gary Johnson

6

3.5

58.33

Conall Newman

1

0

0.00

Brian Belshaw

1

0

0.00





















































































































































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