Winter league 2019 took place from May through September, with 19 players taking part.
Typically the winter league is a round robin tournament with players divided into groups according to their strength. This year, a five round McMahon style tournament was tested. Pairings were pre-drawn based on player rankings at the start of the tournament. This allowed games to be played in any order (as typical for the winter league), while allowing players to all compete in a single group.
The trial format seems to have worked well. In particular, it allowed for players who had previously been seeded at the top of bottom of their groups to play both stronger and weaker players.
Congratulations to Andrew Davies for winning the tournament. Lloyd Rubidge placed second, with Chris Welsh and Andre Connell sharing third place. Vincent Varkvisser, Stephen Martindale, and Calvin Brizzi all earned promotions during the tournament.
Final standings:
1: Andrew Davies, 4d
2: Lloyd Rubidge, 1d
3: Chris Welsh, 3d, and
Andre Connell, 2d
5: Paul Edwards, 1d
6: Vincent Varkvisser, 4k
7: David Gale, 2k
8: Christiaan Maasdorp, 5k
9: Michael Rapson, 4k
10: Stephen Martindale, 4k
11: James Gelant, 5k
12: Marc Loon, 5k
13: Pablo Casado, 5k
14: Gordon Wells, 7k
15: Alastair Sloan, 8k
16: Tinus Cloete, 9k
17: Neville Eisenberg, 9k
18: Calvin Brizzi, 13k
19: Cameron Davies, 15k