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
Archive for November 16th, 2025
Before Milton Keynes
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess on November 16, 2025| Leave a Comment »
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.
- 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
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
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.
- 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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A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
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Not perhaps, but quintessentially, Old Tom Sweby is best thought of as a passionate devotee to the newspapers he wrote for. He was well read and knowledgeable of the Bedfordshire chess scene and well beyond, given that he was the president of the S.C.C.U. once upon a time. He was generally well-respected and rubbed shoulders with many, if not all, of those eminent within British chess circles. It would, however, be a critical mistake to see his column is primary source material entirely. That it is not. You will also find secondary source material quoted too, and the reliability of that is not quite as Tom hoped. Given that he wrote for decades, this is to some degree inevitable, and after all we are all prone to error whether we realize it or not. Thankfully, with regards to old Tom Sweby, they are infrequent and for the most part old Tom continued to document events and developments in the Bedfordshire league from the get go as best he could but, of course, everything lies open to interpretation. Despite this, and generally speaking. this does indeed make him informative and thus worth reading. Dare I say his columns constitute a narrative describing the latest developments, match reports and changing nature of the Beds league...he knew his audience and wrote according. This manifested itself over decades but brevity was always in play courtesy of the restictions imposed by writing a column. Should you wish to read a in instrumental figure of the Beds' league post WW2, you are quite welcome to peruse what has been posted here... . :-) I should, however, point out that as the decades wore on he gradually moved on away from narratives concerning the Bedfordshire league towards affairs both historical and international. The reasons for this are multifarous, old age was a predominante factor presumably, however, the bottom line is with regards to how the Bedfordshire chess scene developed post WW2: old Tom Sweby is your go to guy. He wrote more about chess in Bedforshire than anyone else did but given he was a Lutonian and writing for a Luton newspaper there is both bias and greater coverage of his hometown than the rest of the county.
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