Posted in History of Bedfordshire Chess, tagged Luton Chess Club on May 2, 2024| Leave a Comment »
Chess in Bedfordshire (1933), pg. 1
Chess in Bedfordshire (1933), pg. 2
We can assume, then, that arranging matches with local clubs was a priority. Regarding the renewed matches with St. Albans, at least one has been reported on.
Reportage which refers to the matches against St. Albans and embellishes them can be found below.
Posted in Luton Chess Club, tagged Luton Chess Club on July 27, 2023| Leave a Comment »
Luton Chess Club appears to be going from strength to strength. Not only does it have a secure and modern premises to operate from, there are now more than enough members to resume competition in the Beds. league. There’s also now a website which keeps you up to date with what’s going on there. https://www.lutonchessclub.com/
Onwards and upwards… .
MJM
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, tagged Luton Chess Club on July 31, 2017| Leave a Comment »
“Admiration, by eroding our substance, depresses and ultimately demoralizes us; hence we turn against the admired — anyone guilty of having inflicted upon us the task of raising ourselves to his level.”
Emile Cioran
Luton Chess Club will now play every Thursday -not Monday– @ Wardown Bowling Club, Wardown Park, Luton not Bedford.
New home of Luton Chess Club
Concerns over the lack of a fixed schedule along with uncertainty whether anyone will actually turn up caused doubts amongst the members of the bowling club. Given that their own club night is Thursday, whilst finishing off my seventh pint of cider at the bar just before I staggered into the toilets, I decided that Luton Chess Club should meet on that night too, I then told Mick Josephs who, believing ‘it shouldn’t be a problem’ agreed. This ensures that club matches can go ahead without teams arriving from afar Mondays, finding that the clubhouse is locked and remains locked because no one has the keys. The principle corollary of this I hope to be that all Luton players, now assured of an abode, will quickly storm towards the Division 1 title…here’s what to expect at the club now.
Inside the new club.
There is a caveat: the dominoes being played may cause noise pollution raise the decibel level at times…I suppose when you blunder, at least you have a ready made excuse! Also, don’t puke up in the bogs and fall asleep in them for days like I did.
Predictions for next season on a postcard [please see below for my address]
Name: Mark ‘sub-standard county chess player quality chess player’ McCready
Address: Planet Earth, Inner Solar System, The Milky Way, The Universe
Posted in Bedfordshire Chess, tagged Luton Chess Club on July 7, 2017| Leave a Comment »
Our contortions, visible or secret, we communicate to the planet; already it trembles even as we do, it suffers the contagion of our crises and, as this grand malaise spreads, it vomits us forth, cursing us the while.
Emile Cioran
The cursed Luton chess club has found a new venue within Luton itself !!?? It can now be found in Wardown Bowling Club. It’s the best location had for some time in what is. perhaps, the prettiest part of Luton.
Mr. P. Montgomery in action.
Wardown Park
The bowling club
It can be found in Wardown Park itself by the bowling green as the pictures above suggest. It’s a friendly clubhouse with a bar itself and members who are welcoming. As you know British people are the best in the world at bowls but the Kazhaks are second to none, as the video below shows.
At the new venue, Luton Chess Club meets every Thursday. Don’t turn up tipsy like I just did.
Posted in Luton Chess Club, tagged Luton Chess Club on October 2, 2016| 3 Comments »
“You are never dedicated to something you have complete confidence in. No one is fanatically shouting that the sun is going to rise tomorrow. They know it’s going to rise tomorrow. When people are fanatically dedicated to political or religious faiths or any other kinds of dogmas or goals, it’s always because these dogmas or goals are in doubt.”
Pirsig, Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance -An Enquiry into Values.
If something reduces in size ad infinitum, there comes a point when it stops being what it is, wouldn’t that be right? Was it altogether unsurprising that when the beleaguered Luton Chess club lost its home of nearly 40 years and several of what few members it clung onto left thereafter, its footing within the town was finally and begrudgingly lost? I think not.
For the first time in its recorded history, Luton Chess Club no longer plays within the confines of the town. Those who wish to represent Luton at chess must now travel up the A6 to Bedford, whose chess club has kindly accommodated what is left of its historical south Bedfordshire rival.
“To accuse others for one’s own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.”
Epictetus
At several points both before and after, as well as during the two great abysmal wars of the 20th century, Luton had no chess club, however, some years later, after the Great English Chess Explosion occurred, the town had more than half a baker’s dozen clubs and almost 20 stunningly mediocre teams -with the odd exception! The latest set back, endogenous or otherwise, is of course, like life itself and all things in it, temporary in nature…let us hope that a resolution is found sooner rather than later but if not then so be it.
Should you wish to play for Luton, please take note of the following e-mail address: pmontgomery@ntlworld.com. Peter will assist you in your endeavours over the board, however sublime, egocentric, stupendous, uninteresting or nefarious they may be.
“True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.”
Seneca
A Lutonian speaketh…
Seneca? Epictetus?
Posted in Luton Chess Club, My own warped humour, tagged Luton Chess Club on August 25, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Searching for a new home, Luton Chess Club, whilst eagerly awaiting permission from Bedfordshire University to relocate there, have acquired a second option at a venue ‘just outside the town’ I was informed by e-mail. The Bedfordshire Chess Association, keen to know whether Luton Chess Club will participate in the forthcoming season or not has quickly rejected it, stating the following:
‘Dear Luton Chess Club Secretary, Mr I. Adjust,
Regarding your applications to relocate, pictures of the venue alone is insufficient. At the very least, we require a physical address and directions in order to assist visiting teams, and I might add, the proposed second location looks a bit further away than ‘just outside the town’ as you put it -we are not in agreement at all!
Note that travel to a venue is limited to vehicles belonging to team members and does not usually involve spacecraft from third party sources. We are most displeased with the effrontery of your proposal for an, albeit potential, second venue given how incredulously close to collapse the club is. Please reconsider with greater sensibility.
Mr. J. Doube,
Bedfordshire Chess Association.
The images submitted by the Luton Chess Club over its ‘just outside the town’ second option, can be found below.
The first option
The second option
View from the first second option venue
‘Just outside Luton’
A side note on how to read old Tom Sweby's columns
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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