Bedford’s first claimed match.

November 16, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

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

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century | Leave a Comment »

Dixon is located

November 16, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

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

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century | Leave a Comment »

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

November 14, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

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 ↩︎

Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess in the 19th century | Leave a Comment »

My meme 31

October 17, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

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W. B. Dixon and updates

October 10, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

Dear fellow chess players and enthusiasts from Bedfordshire, courtesy of his sustained efforts on his truly excellent website Britbase, archivist John Saunders has done what no one else has online and provided us with games from a reported former county champion of Bedfordshire. This means W. B. Dixon, formerly of Leighton Buzzard, becomes the first reported county champion who we have games for and can thus establish his chess playing prowess to some degree, and his successes further afield also.1

Who exactly was W. B. Dixon? I have twice posted about him,2 although I must say the evidence is rather depressing as he was indeed peripatetic but do click on the links in the footnote.

The exact page you need on John’s excellent site is already linked about but here it is again- Britbase. May I suggest you scroll down before you look at the games provided? Should you do so, you will note that W. B. Dixon not only did exceptionally well in the tournament he played in in Kent but also beat American champion H. N. Pilsbury in a simul. That game can be found as number 19.

N.B. Establishing exactly when the Bedfordshire County Championships began and who the first champion was is problematic as its inception has been left undocumented. There is a list of former county champions on Adrian Elwin‘s site, which can be found here –Former County Champions, however, this only begins in 1926/7. The local reportage in a previous post cites W. B. Dixon as county champion in 1906 and describes him as ‘the champion’, from which we must assume he was the current champion otherwise they would have described him as a former champion one would expect. How he also became champion of Buckinghamshire -I have no material pertaining to that. Until further evidence is uncovered, we can only state that W. B. Dixon is the first to be reported as county champion. We have no evidence that former multiple champion of London and participant in the Anglo-American cable matches as well as runner-up of the 1908 British Championships William Ward, was ever Bedfordshire County Champion.

In reaching out for further assistance on the English Chess Forum, further info on W. B. Dixon was provided by the knowledgeable contributor Jon D’ Souza-Eva

Pictures of his grave from the links above are shown below.

  1. There are only two games and in both a lack of king safety is abundantly clear and proves decisive. It is commonly argued that in Victorian times -from which the players involved emerged- chess was focused on attack and gambits much more than defence. Both games seem to lend support to that argument. ↩︎
  2. https://mccreadyandchess.com/2024/05/09/w-b-dixon-of-leighton-buzzard/

    Regarding Our Clash of Future Champions, you will need to scroll down to find him.
    https://mccreadyandchess.com/2016/02/12/our-clash-of-future-champions/ ↩︎

M J M

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My meme 26

October 6, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

M J M

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My meme 22

October 5, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

M J M

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Reflections 20

October 5, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

Only the good die young…

Not sure about you but I always preferred the peanut ones.

The American version of Smarties.

It’s probably human nature to like someone who seems a bit different, or at the very least, to take an interest in them. It’s true there weren’t many I encountered like that long ago, but some there were. And function as an exemplar at that stage in my life they did -and by that I mean I wanted to be like them in certain respects when I was young.

It’s also commonplace to like someone who shares the same interests as you, especially when you both dress the same way, have a similar background, have the same initials even, and you find them uplifting. This was true of Marcus Misson, who used to captain the Hunts & Peterborough county team in the 90s in the EACU. I took a liking to him for many reasons. Nowadays, I am mostly known as Marcus even though this is not my actual name (Mark is), although I should add this is only so informally, mostly amongst friends and colleagues. Many do like to change their name but he is the original inspiration behind that little namesake shift of mine, partially successful in reducing self-loathing some! 1 He used to have long hair tied back, as I did, he was my age also and a super-friendly guy. Working class like me and very extrovert -not at all your archetypal chess player. He always seemed to have a smile on his face and I liked how organized he was. Whenever I had the opportunity to chat to him I did for he had such great interest in everything and was very approachable. Because of this I looked up to him – as the county team captain- and often watched how he went about things with some admiration – as you do when you like someone, for example -how he would fill in results on the team sheets whilst on the go by standing and leaning on doors or walls for support whilst scribbling and chatting away quietly to team-mates unfussed by anything.

In 1992 I was into grunge and changed how I looked accordingly. I almost always wore either Nirvana T-shirts or cartoon based ones with another T-shirt underneath and some funky hand-me-down cardigan on top -much like Kurt Cobain used to. I also used to wear hairbands of different colours on my forearm and sometimes several of them -Marcus pointed that out once and thought it was cool as it was only us who had long hair that’s for sure (his blonde, mine brown, roughly the same length). We were both much younger than everyone when playing for the county and a bit more colourful than most you could say. My last recollection of him comes from that same year at Bedford Modern School, one Saturday afternoon in April I think it was.

Although long overdue, I recently chased up where he might be now only to find he died long ago and left a young family behind after succumbing to illness. Details of his life and how active he was can be found here: http://www.cambschess.co.uk/Special.php.

He even has a tournament named after him: http://www.adrianelwin.co.uk/EACU/GrandPrix.html

Marcus with short hair.

I am sure he is sadly missed by many “A lovely guy. Tragic” -Kevin Williamson. I am inclined to concur with Kevin here: for someone who loved his chess, was perspicacious and so upbeat all the time, that it is yes. 😦

“Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself in your way of thinking.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

  1. I should add that my home club also had someone called Marcus, who I was loosely friends with for many years. That’s all it was though. I did not look up to him and want to befriend him like I did with Marcus Misson. Most consider Marcus to be a Roman name, like in Marcus Aurelius for example. I don’t. It’s a chess name for me -positive, inspirational and an easy choice. ↩︎

You may find me on Lichess if you so wish…olc is a Gaelic word.

Even in Starbucks they know me by the name Marcus.

M  J  M

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Cartoons anyone?

October 4, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

If so, you may find this of interest: https://chesscartoons.wordpress.com/

M J M

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My meme 20

October 4, 2025 by mccreadyandchess

That she is, as I was as a teen.

M J M

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