This has been an annual pre-season jaunt for decades, designed to get the brainwaves back into operation after the summer break. The buzzer itself was constructed by Fred Hodge in his garden shed many moons ago, and works perfectly.
The organisation is simple. Set the buzzer going at opening time, in our case 6 p.m. and anyone can arrive at any reasonable time. (a) Write your name on the results chart. (b) Wait for a fellow member to be free. (c) Toss for colour. (d) White makes the 1st move on the next convenient “buzz”. However obvious the reply, Black must wait the 10 seconds till the next buzz before making his/her reply. And so on. (e) Fill in the result on the chart
At the start of each game, those 10 seconds seem like an eternity, but once in the middlegame that same time span is reduced to the blinking of an eye, as one searches desperately for the best continuation; is it better to attack or defend in this fiendishly complicated position?!
Here is the completed chart. The grades are their current rapidplay grades, or standard grade where they don’t have a rapidplay grade. Of course, the Buzzer tournament is technically not rapidplay (it’s much worse than that) but it does give a clue as to relative skills.
| Name | Grd | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Total | |
| 1 | Chris Scott | 149 | X | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6½ |
| 2 | Meyrick Shaw | 177 | ½ | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| 3 | Kevin Hurst | 183 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4½ |
| 4 | Bob Jones | 137 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| 5 | Simon Blake | 105 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 6 | Steve Murray | 141 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 7 | Ivor Grist | 87 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Fred Hodge | 135 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 1 |
RapidPlay is proving to be a forte of Chris Scott, who certainly played above his grade on this occasion.
Nearest facing: Murray vs Scott: Hurst vs Grist; Hodge awaiting an opponent & Blake vs Shaw.
Shaw makes the winning move against Blake
