Eric Wins 25th Welsh Open

The 25th Welsh Open – held in its constant, coastal town of Barmouth since 1993 (when Matthew Macfadyen gained the first of his 16 consecutive wins) – was held on the weekend of 24-25 June 2017. Organised again by Helen & Martin Harvey, the event passed off smoothly and enjoyably, despite Martin's sun dance needing improvement, although the rainy periods meant it was a good time to be indoors. 31 played in at least 1 of the 6 rounds, including two 3-dans, two 2-dans, 4 shodans and down to a 13-kyu. Participants could take a bow for having travelled from across the UK – from as far away as the Isle of Man, Durham and Winchester. Numbers at the evening meals were further-swelled by non-playing partners.

The now-customary venue – the large Min y Mor hotel and restaurant – once more provided draught Abbot Ale, 2 quiet playing rooms and an analysis lounge for game reviews.

There was a new winner for the tournament – as has been the case for the 7th year in a row – 3-dan Yangran Zhang ('Eric' to his Manchester pals), who won all 6 games. The Brian Timmins Plaque was duly presented to Eric by Kathleen Timmins. On 5 wins was Gong Cheng 2d, from London City.

There being no drawn games, prizes were also awarded to all the 6 who won 4 games: Xinyi Liu ('Sugar') 3d Manchester, Ian Marsh 3k Bracknell, Rich Bentley 3k Durham, Geoff Kaniuk 6k Cambridge, Wayne Walters 6k Wanstead and Roger Daniel 7k Central London. A prize was also won by Peter Collins 5k Bristol, who won all his 3 games. Last but not least, the traditional Fighting Spirit award went to Kathleen 13k Shrewsbury (who skipped rounds 5+6).

Excellent weather on Monday rewarded the 18 who stayed over on the Sunday night. The Pitchfords and Harveys took the splendid walk out across the combined railway and pedestrian bridge, over the River Mawddach estuary, out to nearby Fairbourne, only to there bump into Messrs Roads and Leedham-Green. The 'small party of 4' took the train back, but the ticket for that was anything but 'small', measuring just over a staggering 1.5 metres, honest! (Just as well the trip didn't involve Llanfair­pwllgwyngyll­gogery­chwyrn­drobwll­llan­tysilio­gogo­goch.)

It was reported that accommodation was a bit hard to find this year, for those who hadn't booked early. Well, to avoid this for 2018, please may we suggest people book earlier. The weekend of 30th June and 1st July has been agreed with the venue.

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