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SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:05 am
by Kevin Thurlow
Browsing this morning...
https://sccu-chess.com/bulletins/SCCUBu ... 969_70.pdf
Page 9 wasn't what I was looking for, but I observed in the Surrey vs Middlesex Junior Match, Board 17, J Speelman 0-1 D Sedgwick
There are a fair few other familiar names in those pages...
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 1:44 pm
by NickFaulks
Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:05 am
J Speelman 0-1 D Sedgwick
That was the year that Speelman was British U-14 Champion, so you have to wonder what he was doing on Board 17 - apart from losing his game.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:56 pm
by John Townsend
Thank you for the stroll down Memory Lane, Kevin.
What is that you're referring to on page 9? (There seem to be two numbering sequences). Do you mean the Civil Service default against S. Reuben?
I was surprised to see my win for Berkshire against Middlesex, also the match result, as I don't recall success against Middlesex being our team's usual practice!
Other forumites spotted in the lists: L. W. Barden, R. Lancaster (the same one?), G. V. Cadden. Are there others? I didn't notice T. D. Harding or R. de Coverly.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Sun Aug 01, 2021 7:27 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
I was unfamiliar with some of the CS names, and wish I had seen that earlier! I imagine David has the score sheet on display in his trophy room.
I love things like those old Bulletins as you get all the names for 50-board matches, much better than "X beat Y 51-49, Z winning the top-board clash".
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 12:42 am
by Richard Thursby
John Townsend wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:56 pm
Other forumites spotted in the lists: L. W. Barden, R. Lancaster (the same one?), G. V. Cadden. Are there others? I didn't notice T. D. Harding or R. de Coverly.
In the same match as Jon Speelman vs David Sedgwick, John Foley was on board 21 (for Middlesex, rather than Surrey) and board 29 was Colin Crouch. Also Nigel Povah board 3 (has an account, as of now has never posted).
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:02 am
by Neill Cooper
When I was on the SCCU executive, in abut 2010, Richard Haddrell was passionate about having all the past SCCU Bulletins digitised. Richard would have been delighted by Kevin’s discovery!
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:02 am
by Neill Cooper
Neill Cooper wrote: ↑Mon Aug 02, 2021 9:02 am
When I was on the SCCU executive, in abut 2010, Richard Haddrell was passionate about having all the past SCCU Bulletins digitised. Richard would have been delighted by Kevin’s discovery, only made possibly by the digitisation.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:09 am
by Graham Borrowdale
Yes, fascinating reading, and good to see these SCCU bulletins preserved. Other names I noticed: JC Saunders, and B Valentine, as well as the news that Berkshire has a new match captain, Nigel Dennis.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 10:46 am
by John Townsend
Yes, I think Berkshire was lucky to get Nigel. He has been an outstanding match captain.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 3:07 pm
by David Sedgwick
I'll tell the full story of the Sedgwick v Speelman game when I have a bit more time.
However, one thing that immediately struck me about that issue of the SCCU Bulletin is that it announced the election or appointment of a new SCCU Treasurer - PETER EZRA.
The name was more familiar to me than it seems to have been to some members of this Forum, but I had no idea that he had ever held that particular office.
Then, a matter of hours later, his misdeeds were mentioned on another thread.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Mon Aug 02, 2021 5:37 pm
by Roger de Coverly
John Townsend wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 2:56 pm
I didn't notice T. D. Harding or R. de Coverly.
I appear later in the season. For the 1969-70 and 1970-71 seasons look in Cambridge (University) county teams, otherwise Bucks from 1968-69 onwards.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:12 am
by John Clarke
Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑Sun Aug 01, 2021 11:05 am
There are a fair few other familiar names in those pages...
Thanks for this, Kevin. I always enjoy these trips down Memory Lane. No mention of me there, but it's hardly surprising - I was having a virtually enforced spell of chess inactivity at the time. But lots of my acquaintances and opponents appear, too many to list individually. A few random comments:
- Amusing to see how the editors were so punctilious about titles and honorifics - all those Majors and Commanders, to say nothing of Lady Herbert (wife of Sir Alan) on p8, playing for Queen's Gambit.
- County matches over fifty boards! Those were the days. (But I'd hate to have been organising on that scale.)
- That Cambs-Suffolk fiasco on p5 - I'd say Suffolk had loaded too much of their admin and organisation on to one individual, who for some reason happened to be MIA that day.
- I note Martyn Corden on p6, playing down at Board 4 for Oxfordshire vs Kent. A few months later he was competing in the Hastings Premier! Botterill, Whiteley and Hollis could have been forgiven for feeling just a teeny bit hacked off.
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:22 am
by Roger de Coverly
John Clarke wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:12 am
I note Martyn Corden on p6, playing down at Board 4 for Oxfordshire vs Kent. A few months later he was competing in the Hastings Premier! Botterill, Whiteley and Hollis could have been forgiven for feeling just a teeny bit hacked off.
He was in the Hastings Premier by virtue of winning the Hastings Challengers the previous year. A couple of years earlier, Whiteley had played in the Hastings Premier as possibly had Hollis earlier in the decade. That said, some of Corden's contemporaries felt there were gaps in his knowledge and understanding and that he scored his results by using what were then unfashionable tactically based openings rather than playing 1. Nf3 .
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 12:03 pm
by Kevin Thurlow
"County matches over fifty boards! Those were the days. (But I'd hate to have been organising on that scale.)"
It was even worse as you had to telephone (or write to) everybody. A friend of mine was a county captain in the 70s or 80s and had to make 83 phone calls to get his team of 20 out...
Re: SCCU Bulletin 1969
Posted: Tue Aug 03, 2021 1:34 pm
by Matt Mackenzie
Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:22 am
John Clarke wrote: ↑Tue Aug 03, 2021 11:12 am
I note Martyn Corden on p6, playing down at Board 4 for Oxfordshire vs Kent. A few months later he was competing in the Hastings Premier! Botterill, Whiteley and Hollis could have been forgiven for feeling just a teeny bit hacked off.
He was in the Hastings Premier by virtue of winning the Hastings Challengers the previous year. A couple of years earlier, Whiteley had played in the Hastings Premier as possibly had Hollis earlier in the decade. That said, some of Corden's contemporaries felt there were gaps in his knowledge and understanding and that he scored his results by using what were then unfashionable tactically based openings rather than playing 1. Nf3 .
But how many of them beat Smyslov in tournament play?
Corden did.
And he did OK more generally in that Hastings, unlike some other qualifiers of that era who propped up the table - sometimes decisively.