Last week I received a email from the HBCC and in it was a calendar. Having not played since the Elwood bendigo tournament in Nov I was excited to play.
I live around the corner in Spotswood, so it was a short drive to the club for the first round of the Purdy cup.
I arrived about half an hour before the start of play, and played a couple of games of blitz before hand- it was good to see some friends and have a chat-
I was asked if I intended to play and of course I said yes-
They started the pairing, and the DP asked what my ranking was and they duly started the pairing( I was still playing blitz at the time)They then proceeded to call out the pairings-I thought I must of missed my name and I was right-the Dp said that I was not in the draw because "I had turned up late"-
He explained that they had a week prior arranged the numbers and it was odd number if I was included- I argued that
a) I was not late- but what he said that was because I had not turned up a week prior when they had taken the first entries and that because there was an odd number no- I was- I asked weather it was stated that entried needed to be in prior to the start date - the answer was no, but I had missedout becaue there was an odd number and that I had a point bye-
b) That I was not the lowest ranked player by a long shot and therefore I should not receive a bye
c) I asked weather this was a closed tournament to HBCC members and the answer was "no" so why were there certain exclusionary conditions in place. And all the DP saidwasthat he was acting under instruction of the president
d) That I took the email of the calendar as invitation to both members and non members- I was told in response that I was late because I had not turned up a week prior ( the calendar said " no chess" - a social night) when the entries were considered - there was no email once this had occurred to the effect- therefore not protecting players from turning up and wasting there time
At the same time that I was arguing my case the treasurer said" but you’re not even a member" - I referred back to point
The DP said he would love me to play but had been guided by the president - who did not offer any comment but that of" shush" - disappointing to say the least.
Don’t get me wrong I have played many tournaments at the HBCC AND THOUROUGHLY ENJOYED THEM_ but this set of circumstances was a let down_
The DP told me that I was in the draw for next week-
I was also a disappointed that they knew the situation earlier and called out the draw- surely the decent thing to do was to let me know prior
My question to you is
i) is this a normal situation
ii) Should a say Guy West or some other highly ranked player turned up would they have been treated any differently
iii)should have the draw been done and ranking consideration BEEN APPLIED?