Hastings Chess Club had the pleasure of entertaining our French counterparts from the town of Bethune on the weekend of the 23 24th of September
The weekend started with the French arriving and receiving a warm welcome from the local seagulls They checked in at the Chatsworth hotel at 3 PM and after being checked in we took them for a walk along the seafront to the West Hill lift once safely on the hill we visited St Clements caves
after this and having got settled in to the hotel we invited them to an evening of chess at the His Cafe Robinson Street this comprised of a buffet and a five rounds Swiss tournament after initial speeches by the club chairman and his Bethune counterpart we got down to the chess which was Won by Howard Tebbs
a cross table for the tournament is shown below
| 1 | Tebbs | Howard | EnG | 2060 | 25+Â | 8+Â | 12+ | 2= | 11+ | 4.5 | |
| 2 | Wheeler | Jim | ENG | 1922 | 22+ | 20+ | 10+ | 1= | 3= | 4 | |
| 3 | Sugden | John | ENG | 2170 | 13+ | 19+ | 16= | 5+ | 2= | 4 | |
| 4 | Rayner | Francis | WLS | 2186 | 14+ | 16- | 18+ | 19+ | 8+ | 4 | |
| 5 | Wallart | Jean | Fra | 1990 | 15= | 21+ | 24+ | 3- | 9+ | 3.5 | |
| 6 | Cosens | Derek | ENG | 1682 | 11- | 23+ | 20- | 22+ | WIN | 3 | |
| 7 | Bryant | Marc | ENG | 1738 | 20- | 13- | 23+ | 25+ | 16+ | 3 | |
| 8 | Christophe | Lucie | FRA | 1810 | 17+ | 1- | 22+ | 21+ | 4- | 3 | |
| 9 | Blewitt | Steve | Eng | 1814 | 18+ | 10- | 14+ | 16+ | 5- | 3 | |
| 10 | Meuriot | Philippe | FRA | 1910 | 24+ | 9+ | 2- | 12- | 20+ | 3 | |
| 11 | Damarez | Philippe | FRA | 1930 | 6+ | 12- | 13+ | 20+ | 1- | 3 | |
| 12 | Elliston | Bob | ENG | 2012 | 23+ | 11+ | 1- | 10+ | 3 | ||
| 13 | Courreur | Alexandre | Fra | 1640 | 3- | 7+ | 11- | 14= | WIN | 2.5 | |
| 14 | Dubois | Philippe | FRA | 1690 | 4- | 15+ | 9- | 13= | 25+ | 2.5 | |
| 15 | Cload | Adrian | ENG | 1690 | 5= | 14- | 19- | 23+ | 18+ | 2.5 | |
| 16 | Christophe | Jean Luc | FRA | 1780 | 21+ | 4+ | 3= | 9- | 7- | 2.5 | |
| 17 | Chander | Gregg | ENG | 1258 | 8- | 18- | 25- | 26+ | 21+ | 2 | |
| 18 | Bugny | Francis | FRA | 1500 | 9- | 17+ | 4- | 24+ | 15- | 2 | |
| 19 | Pallaro | Jean Yves | Fra | 1770 | 26+ | 3- | 15+ | 4- | 22+ | 2 | |
| 20 | GonZales | Mathias | FRA | 2010 | 7+ | 2- | 6+ | 11- | 10- | 2 | |
| 21 | Jozwiak | umberto | Eng | 1274 | 16- | 5- | 26+ | 8- | 17- | 1 | |
| 22 | Lecluse | Claude | FRA | 1470 | 2- | 26+ | 8- | 6- | 19- | 1 | |
| 23 | Coudenis | Christian | FRA | 1530 | 12- | 6- | 7- | 15- | 26+ | 1 | |
| 24 | Hossack | Keith | ENG | 1602 | 10- | 25+ | 5- | 18- | 1 | ||
| 25 | Poslednik | Patrick | FRA | 1620 | 1- | 24- | 17+ | 7- | 14- | 1 | |
| 26 | Stewart | Lona | ENG | 700 | 19- | 22- | 21- | 17- | 23- | 0 |
on the Sunday we play a Scheveningen style tournament in 2 sections which Hastings won 49.5 32.5
a cross tables is below
| F.Rayner | J.Sugden | H.Tebbs | R.Norinkeviciute | J.Wheeler | M.Woodhams | |||
| Gonzales Mathias | 0.5-0.5 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-0 | 2 | |
| Wallart Jean | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1 | |
| Damarez Philippe | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-0 | 1.5 | |
| Meuriot Phillippe | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 2 | |
| Christophe Lucie | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 2 | |
| Christophe Jean-Luc | 0.5-0.5 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 3 | |
| 4 | 5.5 | 5 | 6 | 3 | 0 |
| Marc Bryant | A.Cload | J.Kimber | p.Buswell | A.Pontonutti | G.Chander | L.Steuart | ||||
| 1738 | 1690 | 1592 | 1585 | 1465 | 1258 | 700 | ||||
| Pallaro Jean-Yves | 1770 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 2 | |
| Dubois Philippe | 1690 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 3 | |
| Courreur Alexandre | 1640 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | .5-.5 | 1-0 | 3.5 | |
| Poslednik Patrick | 1620 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-0 | 4.5 | |
| Coudenis Christian | 1530 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 2.5 | |
| Bugny Francis | 1500 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0.5-0.5 | 1-0 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 3.5 | |
| Lecluse Cla | 1470 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 0-1 | 1-0 | 2 | |
| 7 | 7 | 5.5 | 2.5 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
This was followed by a traditional English beef roast dinner at the His cafe Robinson Street I like to take this opportunity to thank all the staff at the His cafe. Kevin Boorman of Hastings Borough Council, Gregg Chandler for his help in showing French around and his translating Dana and Lyla Woodhams For their help at the His Café ,Mrs Woodhams for her help in fairing things around and the preparation of the goody bags and finally Mason Woodlands Jim Wheeler and Paul Buswell for all their help in making this a great success which everybody seemed to agree was a very entertaining event
a letter received from the Bethune president shown below
Dear Mason,
I held, by this short note, to express you all our gratitude for the splendid stay which we passed to Hastings, in the name of all the participants.
Your reception was, like always, remarkable. We could appreciate the charms of your so beautiful city, that some among us discovered for the 1st time.
The funicular was very impressive, and allowed us to overhang your city and thus to have a splendid sight of it.
You still showed that you were strongest in the match which opposed to us. Cheer with you.
We very sincerely hope to re-examine you in 2 years with Béthune, where we will continue our friendly tournaments on the chess-board and, especially, will continue to weave these staunch links of friendship which link our 2 clubs and our 2 cities for a long time already.
Still thank you for all and with the pleasure of re-examining you very soon.
Philippe DUBOIS Secretary of AEB
Marc A Bryant
chairman