This year saw many strong entries and the Awards Committee took on a tough task in reviewing and voting on them all. I was delighted to find that clear winners emerged across all the categories, and I did not have to use my casting vote.
President’s Award for Services to Chess – John F Wheeler; Malcolm Pein
Contribution to Junior Chess – Paul Lam
Contribution to Women’s Chess – The Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls Chess Academy
http://www.ellenwilkinson.ealing.sch.uk/3680/ews-chess-academy
Contribution to Chess in the Community – Jonathan Arnott
Contribution to Accessible Chess – Voldi Gailans
Online Chess Contribution of the Year – James Connors
Club of the Year – 3Cs Chess Club
https://www.3cschessclub.com/
Small Club of the Year – Radcliffe and Bingham Chess Club
https://radcliffeandbinghamchessclub.org.uk/
No award was made for the Congress of the Year category
The following information covers the citations made for the successful 2024 ECF award winners. Other than standardising fonts (where possible) and some light editing, these remain essentially as submitted. NB Each nomination also had supporting evidence from a third party and many citations were supplemented by further supporting documentation, including photos, media news articles and video clips. For simplicity these have not been reproduced here.
Complete document including citations
All the documentation submitted as a part of the nomination process was, however, considered by the Awards Committee. Each winner will soon receive a glass trophy, £250 to support their club or organisation (with the exception of the President’s Awards) courtesy of the Chess Trust, and be entitled to make use of the appropriate ECF Award Winner’s logo.
As Chairof the Awards committee, I would like to formally thank the committee members – Julie Denning, Sarah Longson, Natasha Regan, Jack Rudd, Nigel Towers and Peter Wells – for their hard work in reviewing a high number of nominations (fifty-five in total)
The ECF also thanks the Chess Trust, yet again, for its generous sponsorship of the ECF Awards scheme.
— Keith Gregory, ECF Awards Committee Chair, 19th August 2024