Mechanical Clocks

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Roger de Coverly
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Mechanical Clocks

Post by Roger de Coverly » Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:16 pm

Don't be in too much of a hurry to throw away those old BHB clocks, no matter how embarrassing the branding.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1226619551 ... hess-clock

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John Upham
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by John Upham » Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:15 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:16 pm
Don't be in too much of a hurry to throw away those old BHB clocks, no matter how embarrassing the branding.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1226619551 ... hess-clock
I've been told that the Maidenhead equipment is branded as from BR Eley Chess Supplies.
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Roland Kensdale
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Roland Kensdale » Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:24 pm

Garde chess clocks now offered by Chess and Bridge (I think they are £100 ).

LawrenceCooper
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by LawrenceCooper » Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:59 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:16 pm
Don't be in too much of a hurry to throw away those old BHB clocks, no matter how embarrassing the branding.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1226619551 ... hess-clock
I have one of those Brian Eley clocks but will sell for much less than the price in the link :oops:

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Stephen Westmoreland
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Stephen Westmoreland » Thu Jun 23, 2022 8:43 pm

OK... after work two of the kids wanted to go to our local pub for pizza. The pizza is REALLY good and I had a couple of pints. Mallinson's real ale from the Royal Oak at Upperthong. Anyway, to stop meandering after clicking on that link... Am I hallucinating here?
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Paul Habershon
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Paul Habershon » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm

LawrenceCooper wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 7:59 pm
Roger de Coverly wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 6:16 pm
Don't be in too much of a hurry to throw away those old BHB clocks, no matter how embarrassing the branding.

https://www.etsy.com/listing/1226619551 ... hess-clock
I have one of those Brian Eley clocks but will sell for much less than the price in the link :oops:
More Eley merchandise still extant: in the late '70s at one of his congress bookstalls I bought fifty Brian Eley and Co. chess scorebooks (50 games). Can't remember if I got a discount. I intended to resell or give them as prizes at the school chess club I ran. Any extra I would use for myself, even now still copying my games from scoresheets by hand. I am glad to say an English GM told me he still does the same.

I am on my 57th book overall (starting in 196O) and still have 15 of the Eley books to use. I don't think I am likely to fill them all in my lifetime. I am still wondering what advice to give my heirs about my personal game collection. The books will probably remain in an offspring's loft for decades, be buried with me or, more likely, be sent for recycling.

Ian Thompson
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Ian Thompson » Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:36 pm

Paul Habershon wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm
I am still wondering what advice to give my heirs about my personal game collection.
You're a good enough player that you must have played in some events where John Saunders would publish the game scores on BritBase.

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Joey Stewart
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Joey Stewart » Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:20 pm

A lot of those old mechanical clocks seemed to have parts that could be swapped around, I guess you could remove the offending name, rip the clock apart and put its bits into something manufactured by a more savoury company like Sutton Coldfield - they have always been a good bunch of lads !
Lose one queen and it is a disaster, Lose 1000 queens and it is just a statistic.

Graham Borrowdale
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Graham Borrowdale » Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:31 pm

Paul Habershon wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm

I am on my 57th book overall (starting in 196O) and still have 15 of the Eley books to use. I don't think I am likely to fill them all in my lifetime. I am still wondering what advice to give my heirs about my personal game collection. The books will probably remain in an offspring's loft for decades, be buried with me or, more likely, be sent for recycling.
Paul, have you considered publishing a games collection? There must be some gems, or at least flawed masterpieces, amongst the games of players of your ilk. You might not sell many copies or make any money, but at least the games would not be lost to posterity in the great house clearance that we will all one day face.

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John Saunders
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by John Saunders » Thu Jun 23, 2022 11:33 pm

Paul Habershon wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm

I am on my 57th book overall (starting in 196O) and still have 15 of the Eley books to use. I don't think I am likely to fill them all in my lifetime. I am still wondering what advice to give my heirs about my personal game collection. The books will probably remain in an offspring's loft for decades, be buried with me or, more likely, be sent for recycling.
By a weird, almost Plaskettian coincidence, I was browsing a 1970s CHESS magazine only this afternoon and, as is my wont, inputting a handful of game scores as I went along, one of which was this one...



If we can find enough volunteers to do the necessary inputting work there will always be a home for the Habershon oeuvre at BritBase.info.
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Paul Habershon
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Paul Habershon » Fri Jun 24, 2022 8:46 am

John Saunders wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 11:33 pm
Paul Habershon wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm

I am on my 57th book overall (starting in 196O) and still have 15 of the Eley books to use. I don't think I am likely to fill them all in my lifetime. I am still wondering what advice to give my heirs about my personal game collection. The books will probably remain in an offspring's loft for decades, be buried with me or, more likely, be sent for recycling.
By a weird, almost Plaskettian coincidence, I was browsing a 1970s CHESS magazine only this afternoon and, as is my wont, inputting a handful of game scores as I went along, one of which was this one...



If we can find enough volunteers to do the necessary inputting work there will always be a home for the Habershon oeuvre at BritBase.info.
Thanks for your interest, John. Your scholarly attention to detail may like to know that the July date of that game was the 28th and it was Round 3 of 5. I see I was back in the game just before my 31st then should have gone Rxc7 and Rc8. No doubt I was managing the clock badly.
Thanks also for the earlier kind comments and suggestions from Ian and Graham. I am too lazy for vanity publishing. I shall make do with BritBase and databases such as the 4NCL where the games of mere mortals may reside in perpetuity.

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JustinHorton
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Jun 24, 2022 11:16 am

Paul Habershon wrote:
Thu Jun 23, 2022 9:27 pm
Any extra I would use for myself, even now still copying my games from scoresheets by hand. I am glad to say an English GM told me he still does the same.
Me too: for most of that time I had no choice if I wanted to preserve the games, not so much from the convenience of having the games in one place as from the catastrophe which constitutes my handwriting. Absolutely necessary to get them written out again in some kind of legible form, and as quickly as possible too while I could still remember (or work out) what had been played when the scoresheet made no sense. Even then there's the occasional asterisk and footnote about.

You don't have to do any of this now, of course, but after several decades of compiling an almost complete record I thought why stop?
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Matt Mackenzie
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Matt Mackenzie » Fri Jun 24, 2022 4:11 pm

I have a series of Chess Direct scorebooks which cover 40 years and 1100 games.

(just bought a new one in which I will input most of the past season's games sometime this summer)
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JustinHorton
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by JustinHorton » Fri Jun 24, 2022 4:14 pm

Heh, I have made similar pledges in the past and boy did the summers and the scoresheets pile up
"Do you play chess?"
"Yes, but I prefer a game with a better chance of cheating."

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Graham Borrowdale
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Re: Mechanical Clocks

Post by Graham Borrowdale » Fri Jun 24, 2022 5:56 pm

JustinHorton wrote:
Fri Jun 24, 2022 4:14 pm
Heh, I have made similar pledges in the past and boy did the summers and the scoresheets pile up
Indeed. It seems that the games are somehow ‘safer’ in scorebooks than on a Chessbase database, and the version I have will not run on my latest pc. I am seriously considering copying them all (45+ years) out again, as some of the old scorebooks are getting very worn, and the handwriting very faded, but that will take more than a summer to do.

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