The content below has been gleaned from the S.C.C.U Bulletins only.
Archive for the ‘History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960’ Category
More on Mardle’s debut for England
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 on July 31, 2025| Leave a Comment »
The post created last year, Tom’s old friend plays for England (please use search bar), details Dennis Victor Mardle (of Luton, Bedfordshire) and his debut for England. Further information regarding that match has been found here on page 7: https://sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SCCUBulletin_1959_8.pdf.
M J M
Defining moment
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 on February 26, 2025| Leave a Comment »
When was the north/south divide removed from league chess, enabling a change of name and our league becoming the Bedfordshire Chess League? See below.
They were accepted, in 1952 it became The Bedfordshire Chess League. See below.
Mark. J. McCready
Local & national
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960, History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1960-1980, tagged dennis victor mardle, Luton Chess Club on December 16, 2024| 1 Comment »
We have Dennis Victor Mardle. Born and raised in Luton, a varsities champion who represented his country once in a match against Holland. Rarely out of England’s top ten players in the 50s.
We also have Michael McDonald-Ross, the man who Bedfordshire’s strongest player ever homegrown talent GM James Plaskett said was his toughest opponent ever in the Beds league in the 70s.
It’s 1965, the British Championship, and generations apart, they met over the board. The game itself was a draw and sadly uneventful, as the Sicilian Kan often is. Why is this game significant? It’s the first time two noted players from the Bedfordshire league met at the British Championship. They were both amongst the strongest our league has ever seen and met at the British championship in 65. I have no records of two eminent figures in Bedfordshire chess history doing so before them. If presenting Bedfordshire chess at a national level is important, this was the first recorded instance.
I did speak to Michael McDonald Ross about this and he does still remember the game. Fyi in terms of rating they were both about 2200-2300. Anyway, here’s the game, forwarded to me by Mr. Paul Habershon, he who continues to offer help and support when he can always.
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2064348
MJM
More on Bramwell Hirst from ‘old’ Tom
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960, History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1960-1980 on November 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
The Beds and Herts Pictorial 1950s (2)
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 on May 22, 2024| Leave a Comment »
I do recommend you scroll through the columns below as they will help you form a picture of what how chess was played in Bedfordshire then. There are noticeable differences to nowadays and it is a critical mistake to assume our county was unified back then -it most certainly wasn’t.
A contestable formation
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960, History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century on May 17, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Tom Sweby, in the reportage below, argues that the date of formation regarding Luton chess club which appears in the 1933 publication Chess in Bedfordshire is contestable. You will find the aforementioned publication on this site.
Kent’s club
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 on May 14, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Kent’s club Luton was well established in the Bedfordshire league for decades. How did it come about? Read on.
The Beds and Herts Pictorial 1950s (1)
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 on May 13, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Tom Sweby, once described as a ‘tame communist by a former pupil who went on to put pen to paper also, is perhaps best known for his column in The Luton News, which ran for decades and was quite readable. That began in 67, but prior to that he also wrote for them and other newspapers on a freelance basis too. Not only that, he had a column in The Beds and Herts Pictorial which predated that in The Luton News. They are more or less the same and vary content both local and international, and both exude that lack of attention to detail he too frequently fell foul of. As far as I know, I am the only one who reproduces his columns and with this it is hoped that a greater appreciation and understanding of chess in the 50s in Bedfordshire will emerge. It must be said that chess wise the 50’s isn’t a decade which exemplifies strength and depth in Bedfordshire. This view is based on club and county results which were reported, the team members also indicate that the clubs in our league were not terribly strong back then.
Two poor adverts not one!
Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess from 1940-1960 on May 12, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Well done Tom Sweby, the one armed bandit, for posting an objection to evenings of chess in Luton. But was anything ever done about it? I thinketh not!
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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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