Archive for November, 2025

Before Milton Keynes

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on November 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

In some shape or form there has always been a rivalry of sorts beween Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire it seems, or at the very least, a propensity for teams within both to play each other.

M J M

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National events reported locally

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on November 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

This does have some significance as it shows we were on the map back then as it were or were in the loop I should say instead perhaps. It is correct to presume this event has been reported on and written about before, which confirms one player from Bedfordshire attended, and one from Hertfordshire (female). 1 It should be noted that the second such event, in 1898, had W. Ward (played for Luton several times) as joint winner.

  1. Worth spending time on and points towards the publication the event is featured in. https://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/pgn/189006cambridge-viewer.html ↩︎

M J M

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Bedford’s first claimed match.

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on November 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

It is argued, a home match against Luton it was, and that Bedford Chess Club formed in 1887. I do not have any sources which confirm or deny this.

M J M

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Dixon is located

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on November 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »

W. B. Dixon, who would go on to become county champion, 1 and beat American champion Harry Nelson Pilsbury -albeit in a simul only- can be found playing for Dunstable here:

With the exception of William Ward, he was arguably the strongest player found on record in Bedfordshire prior to the great war.

  1. More about him can be found here. https://mccreadyandchess.com/2025/10/10/w-b-dixon-and-updates/ ↩︎

M J M

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Some corroberation, a little clarification, a bit more context…

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess, Life beyond the chess board on November 14, 2025| Leave a Comment »

Birds’ Nests
The summer nests uncovered by autumn wind,
Some torn, others dislodged, all dark,
Everyone sees them: low or high in tree,
Or hedge, or single bush, they hang like a mark.


Since there’s no need of eyes to see them with
I cannot help a little shame
That I missed most, even at eye’s level, till
The leaves blew off and made the seeing no game… .

Dear fellow players of Bedfordshire, I do hope you are well and good, and may your play in both our league and beyond it be resplendant and wonderous. Peripatetic, yes perhaps I am, but this does not preclude me from commenting further upon how things were once reported on. 1

Since I myself have no ambitions to write a book on Bedfordshire chess as such, this is the only one in existence Chess in Bedfordshire. This publication states that the beginning of Luton Chess Club came in 1878. (see below)

With myself being something of a post-modernist, I am inclined to suggest the handling of that is unambitious indeed. Why is there emphasis on the exact date? Because it constitutes a change of status? And what else? The propinquity of matches against St. Albans is left unexplained almost, something which the post in the footnotes cites 2, only St. Albans being a relatively new club also is offered up. The difficulties Luton faced on formalizing matters and establising itself in its infancy are not touched upon. I add below a recently discovered match against St. Albans and some of the challenges presented and also ambitions which traverse our county lanes and the fallow fields which stretch beyond them.

A year on some light is shed here on county chess but feint it is… .

‘Tis safe to assume the reporter meant County Chess Team and not County Chess club. The reportage below tells of much great intention to make things work and suggests that rivalry between St. Albans and Luton was not solely a matter of chess.

…’Tis a light pang. I like to see the nests
Still in their places, now first known,
At home and by far roads. Boys knew them not,
Whatever jays and squirrels may have done.


And most I like the winter nests deep-hid
That leaves and berries fell into:
Once a doormouse dined there on hazel-nuts,
And grass and goose-grass seeds found soil and grew.


Edward Thomas

M J M

  1. But what does, however, is concede that all this began over a decade ago now, and keeping it all together has already become a tough task, one which I am becoming weary of, if I am being frank. Over 140 posts already! Many of which I cannot remember and I really do not want to start repeating myself as it is rather embarrassing per se! ↩︎
  2. William Ward (who came 2nd in the British Championship in 1908, only ever beaten on a national level by GM Plaskett, plays for Luton against St. Albans. W. Ward plays for Luton ↩︎

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