John Lewis II

"Due to the breakdown of communications between the organiser of Richmond Rapidplay and Hampton on Thames Community Association the Trustees are left with no option but to cancel the 108th event planned for Sunday 7th July 2013 and all future events. The Trustees have attempted to solve the difficulties that have arisen regarding this event but, as a registered charity which receives no central or local government funding, they are unable to continue to host this event in its present form."


I would be grateful if you could publicize this fact via your website.

The Trustees
Hampton on Thames Community Association
The White House
45 The Avenue
Hampton
TW12 3RN

We mentioned this last week - see comments here - but with the date approaching it's worth repeating. If only because the event wasn't removed from the ECF tournament calendar until yesterday and up to Sunday evening it had been advertised as going ahead on the London Academy of Chess and Education website (which, incidentally, seems to have gone down at some point in the last 24 hours).

Helping in the attempt to make sure that nobody wastes a journey this weekend isn't the end of the story, though. There's also the question of why the venue doesn't want the tournament back. The answer, as it happens, is because the Hampton on Thames Community Association is owed money for rent dating back to March of this year.

Lawrence Cooper had contacted me after the original John Lewis ... article, so I got back in touch and asked him about the rent issue. This, word for word, was his response:-

Sabrina has my full support and I'll continue to organise events with her. People should stop kicking her when she's down and circling around her events and students like vultures.

Fair enough. No doubt it expresses sentiments others would share.

Still it seems to me, regardless of what else might be going on, the venue not being paid is an issue. I'm not convinced that avoiding the reality of the situation helps anybody.