The cost of going to the event may have stoped the ECF geting players to go.I know when we took Peter it cost about £1500 for us to go which we paid for in case any one was wondering
I know you could ask ECF for help but as i said before who would want ECF officers looking at your income?.I would never have allowed any one in the chess world to look at our income. i do remember something funny that happend over the paying of one of our trips to the eurpeans we sent off money to the ECF. A few days before the event received a letter /invoice saying that we had not paid! of course i had checked and knew that cheque had gone though ok so phoned them up to ask what was going on any way it turned out the letter should have been sent to some one else who was going.I never did find out who had not paid on time and was the money ever paid.
Well it will soon be time for a nice cup of tea before taking dog for a walk.
when you are successful many losers bark at you.