SCCU bulletin archive

Historical knowledge and information regarding our great game.
Richard Bates
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SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Richard Bates » Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:47 pm

Not sure if it's been mentioned on here (or exactly how long it's been there), but if not and for anyone interested I've just noticed that the SCCU bulletins dating back to 1958 have been digitised and are accessible on the SCCU website, as a result of Richard Haddrell bequest.

1958-78

1978-99

Roger de Coverly
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Roger de Coverly » Mon Jan 13, 2020 11:18 pm

Some fascinating stuff there, particularly old (junior) team lists from the 1960s.

David Gilbert
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by David Gilbert » Tue Jan 14, 2020 11:23 am

Richard Bates wrote:
Mon Jan 13, 2020 8:47 pm
....as a result of Richard Haddrell bequest.
... and thanks to many hours of work by Middlesex’s Anthony Fulton.

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Christopher Kreuzer
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Christopher Kreuzer » Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:13 pm

That is excellent work. Not just image scans, but OCR of the text as well as the text can be searched in the PDFs (I've dabbled in scanning documents, but haven't got beyond scanning just as plain images yet, as OCR is a bit too advanced for me at the moment, though it is probably relatively straightforward).

Is it possible to search the entire text content of the bulletins? That would be a useful feature if the OCR'd text can be extracted and made searchable in some way (with an indication of which file the text is in). Of course, OCR is not perfect, so you can't rely on finding all instances of a person's name (for example), but it would help.

Are there plans for the ECF (or other chess unions) to digitise any of their older archival content in a similar way?

Roger de Coverly
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Roger de Coverly » Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:48 pm

Christopher Kreuzer wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:13 pm
so you can't rely on finding all instances of a person's name (for example), but it would help.
Beware the numerous misspellings or mistypings though.

In the era of Richard Hadrell, the bulletin did learn the spelling of "Niedzwiedzki". Earlier years had numerous variants.

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John Saunders
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by John Saunders » Tue Jan 14, 2020 3:45 pm

Roger de Coverly wrote:
Tue Jan 14, 2020 12:48 pm

Beware the numerous misspellings or mistypings though.

In the era of Richard Hadrell, the bulletin did learn the spelling of "Niedzwiedzki". Earlier years had numerous variants.
Good advice from Roger, nicely exemplified by his own misspelling of 'Haddrell'...
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Adam Raoof
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Adam Raoof » Tue Jan 14, 2020 4:56 pm

Work of genius

RIP Richard Haddrell

anyone got copies of all the Charlton Chess Club magazines from the same period?
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Kevin Thurlow
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Kevin Thurlow » Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:14 pm

This is excellent work - I always enjoyed Richard's writing, even when he libelled me. It was better when he libelled other people of course. He did criticize people entirely correctly as well. And it was nice to see a spirited style of writing.

When I have a few spare days, I'll read all of it...

Richard Bates
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Richard Bates » Tue Jan 14, 2020 6:24 pm

I perused a few from the late 80s/early 90s and I’ve already stumbled across references to Ray Keene and the mysterious English Chess Association, the setting up of the BCF direct membership scheme and slimming back of the BCF board (apparently partly at the insistence of a potential sponsor!), flag fall and mating material, frequency of grading lists....

ben.graff
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by ben.graff » Thu Jan 23, 2020 11:56 am

I very much enjoyed reading through this fascinating archive. Wonderful. I did smile at A.E.Hopkins editorial in the second bulletin - November 1958:

"May I thank all those who have written in to express their appreciation of Chess Fare No.1. That it is being well received is gratifying but may I once more stress that the entire success of this venture rests on each county to send in local news, criticisms, short articles on topics members are interested in and short snappy games you have played while battling for your county. This month beyond the county results, (and not all those are to hand), very little news has been forthcoming and in consequence it presents the appearance of a very bare skeleton...."

Now clearly, things did pick up. I suspect though, that many who have worked on club newsletters and the like in the past, have written similar words on occasion!
Ben Graff
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NigelCollins
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by NigelCollins » Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:16 am

I’ve looked up the old SCCU bulletins but they don’t seem to have the grading lists. Out of curiosity I’m interested in my old grade from 77-78 and 78-79 (although I think I only played a couple of college games in the latter season). If anyone has an SCCU list from that era, I’d be grateful if they were to message me.

Ken Norman
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by Ken Norman » Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:51 pm

NigelCollins wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 12:16 am
I’ve looked up the old SCCU bulletins but they don’t seem to have the grading lists. Out of curiosity I’m interested in my old grade from 77-78 and 78-79 (although I think I only played a couple of college games in the latter season). If anyone has an SCCU list from that era, I’d be grateful if they were to message me.
The 1978 SCCU Grading list shows an N.E.COLLINS club ASHFORD with a 1977 grade 142 and a 1978 grade 135

NigelCollins
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Re: SCCU bulletin archive

Post by NigelCollins » Tue Aug 31, 2021 7:15 pm

Ken Norman wrote:
Tue Aug 31, 2021 3:51 pm
The 1978 SCCU Grading list shows an N.E.COLLINS club ASHFORD with a 1977 grade 142 and a 1978 grade 135
Thanks, Ken.