Inter Union Matches

[Paul McKeown]

I have the, perhaps false, memory of a series of matches in the late 1980s or early 1990s between the geographical unions, NCCU vs. SCCU, etc. Can anyone remember anything about these matches? Did they take place at all, or are they merely a figment of my overheated imagination?

[Richard Haddrell]

Perhaps the deafening silence means no one remembers any such matches. I'm pretty sure the SCCU never played any in that period.

It was talked about. There was a friendly in 1986 between the champion Third Teams of SCCU and MCCU (billed as a national final, because they were the only Unions to have a Third Teams competition at the time). This led to talk, in the SCCU at any rate, about the possibility of matches between the Unions. They even elected an SCCU Match Captain. But I don't know that it got as far as conversations with the other Unions. The Match Captain remained in office till 1998 but, as far as I know, acted only once and never in an inter-Union match.

Richard Haddrell

[Roger de Coverly]

Perhaps the deafening silence means no one remembers any such matches. I'm pretty sure the SCCU never played any in that period.

I think they died out in the late sixties. You might find something in CHESS relating to their demise.

[Paul McKeown]

Richard, Roger,

Thanks for this. I have been busy with the Middlesex chapter of the RGW book, now finished (to a degree, more later in the RGW thread) and passed on to Simon Spivack and the MCCA, so that they can put in on the Middlesex website as a tribute. That having kept me busy, has stopped me posting on this topic, although I do have some information to share.

Firstly, yes there was at least one SCCU vs. NCCU match in the 1960's.

Here is the match score:

Code: Select all

Inter-Union Final
Leicester 1965
    NCCU          (County)             SCCU               (County)
 1  MJ Haygarth   Yorks.     ½ – ½     J Penrose          Essex
 2  N Littlewood  Yorks.     ½ – ½     KW Lloyd           Middx.
 3  CG Hilton     Lancs.     0 – 1     M Macdonald-Ross   Surrey
 4  RB Edwards    Yorks.     ½ – ½     DE Lloyd           Middlx.
 5  PC Hoad       Lancs.     ½ – ½     JB Howson          Kent
 6  AJ Booth      Cheshire   0 – 1 a   H Israel           Middx.
 7  TJ Beach      Lancs.     0 – 1     T Goodhill         Essex
 8  JH Beaty      Yorks.     ½ – ½     PB Cook            Kent
 9  D Lees        Lancs.     ½ – ½     PL Roe             Beds.
10  JD Taylor     Yorks.     0 – 1     PW Hempson         Essex
11  JH Pollitt    Lancs.     0 – 1 a   WB Haase           Herts.
12  AM Hallmark   Yorks.     0 – 1 a   NR Oliver          Kent

Result NCCU 16½ – 15½.

Key:
a indicates an adjudicated result

Source: Chess, Vol. 31 No. 493, End-October 1965, p. 41 and Vol. 31 No. 504, April 9th 1966, p. 255

Notes:
1. SCCU had white on the odd-numbered boards.
2. Match had been tied, but NCCU successfully appealed against an adjudication.

That it was a final indicates that there had been previous matches. Did such an event take place the next year? I'm missing Chess for several years after this...

Also, in 1992-93, there were two matches, Kent vs. rest of SCCU and SCCU Juniors vs. Rest of SCCU, to celebrate the SCCU Centenary.

I'm sure there were other such matches.

[Sean Hewitt]

The MCCU played a number of these matches as they are referenced in a book of 100 years of Leicestershire chess that I have from 1960.

I'm in Gibraltar at the moment - but will scan the relevant pages for you when I get back.

[Paul McKeown]

Brilliant, thanks.

[John Philpott]

During my term of office as President of the SCCU (almost certainly in 1997) a match between the MCCU and SCCU took place to commemorate the centenary of the MCCU. Details will presumably have appeared in the SCCU bulletin. I seem to remember that this was intended to have been organised over a large number of boards by reference to a series of grading bands, but a few days before the event it emerged that the SCCU Match Captain had been concentrating exclusively on the Open band. As a result of some frantic last minute ringing round by myself a number of late recruits to the SCCU side were rounded up and the event went ahead, albeit over fewer boards than anticipated and with one or two MCCU players turning out for the SCCU.

The change to the SCCU General Rules the following year abolishing the post of Match Captain was initiated by myself.

Although not technically an inter-Union match, an SCCU team did play against Essex in 1998 to celebrate the Essex Chess Association centenary over 48 or 49 boards.

[Richard Bates]

Pretty sure i played in some sort of inter-union match in the mid-90s. Somewhere in the Midlands. Presumably it was a one-off event though.

EDIT: should have read the previous post first!

[Paul McKeown]

John,
Regarding Essex vs. Rest of SCCU, I pinched the following from Richard Haddrell's SCCU website:

Code: Select all

THE ESSEX CENTENARY MATCH
Essex v Rest of SCCU at Hornchurch, 11th October 1998
Biggest match your Editor has ever played in. Essex had white on odd in round 1. In theory at any rate, but we’ve a feeling re-arrangements may have interfered here and there. A few Essex people helped out on the SCCU side, including board 3 where Surrey further confused the issue by turning out twice for Essex. (Don’t think this was planned.) All moves in 50 minutes, or less in round 2 if someone had a train or wife to catch. Thought it was going to be Rapidplay graded, but it wasn’t.
We’ve supplied county affiliations, on the SCCU side, and aren’t too sure about some of them. It was nice to see most counties well represented, and some titled players turning out at the top.
The buffet wasn’t bad, either. Thanks, Essex. Nice match, and we weren’t the only one to think so.
     Essex                                    Rest of SCCU

  1 Jonathan Rogers 223   0  1       1  0     Neil McDonald K 239
  2 Gary Kenworthy 206    0  ½       1  ½     Paul Littlewood ?  224
  3 Tim Pelling 197 (Sy)  1  0                Roy Watts E 160
                                     0  1     Mike Basman Sy 216
  4 Michael Twyble 206    0  1       1  0     Rawle Allicock Sy 204
  5 David Sands 207       1  ½       0  ½     John Quinn M 195
  6 Bill Stirling 187     1  1       0  0     Michael Macdonald-Ross Sy 193
  7 Robert Parker 176     ½  1       ½  0     Paul Cooksey Br 193
  8 Ivor Smith 173        0  1       0  1     Chris Majer H 177
  9 George McNally 172    0  1       1  0     David Sedgwick Sy 177
10 Bill Saunders 171      1  ½       0  ½     Robert Elliston Sx 175
11 David Millward 169     ½  0       ½  1     John Denton H 173
12 Ian Hunnable 166       0  ½       1  ½     Julien Shepley Sy 173
13 Dave Pearse 163        0  0       1  1     Mark Bowhay Br 171
14 Roger Farrow 162       0  0       1  1     Rod Nixon E 170
15 Les Crane 159          ½  0       ½  1     Barry Cheal H 170
16 Paul Salmon 154        1  0       0  1     Terry Turner H 169
17 John Davenport 154     ½  0       ½  1     Alvin Kissoon K 163
18 Colin Ramage 153       1  ½       0  ½     Howard Grist E 162
19 Laurence Trent 151     1  0       0  1     Nick Mackett K 161
20 Mike Bird 151          ½  0       ½  1     Terry Godwin K 156
21 Aidan Corish 150       ½  0       ½  1     Kerry Kingston K 155
22 Richard Manning 149    ½  ½       ½  ½     John Philpott E 155
23 Mustapha Rahaman 148   0  1       1  0     Richard Haddrell K 153
24 Stephen Wedlock 147    0  ½       1  ½     Mark Finch K 153
25 Steve Abbott 147       ½  ½       ½  ½     David Smith E 150
26 George Monk 145        1  0       0  1     Nigel Dennis Br 148
27 Joe Rosenberg 143      0  0       1  1     Chris Fewtrell M 148
28 Peter Walker 143       ½  ½       ½  ½     Colin Parker Sy 147
29 Ellen Walker 137       ½  0       1  0     Jonathan Melsom Bu 138
30 Michael Bradford 134   0  1       1  0     Kevin Wilkinson Sy 137
31 Dave Cannan 131        1  1       0  0     Timothy Woods Sx 135
32 Robert Payne 124       ½  0       ½  1     Caius Turner H 132
33 Dominic Allen 124      0  0       1  1     Fred Manning Sy 132
34 Satnam Johal 123       1  0       0  1     Daniel Hirsch Sx 132
35 Robert Ianetta 119     1  1       0  0     Keith Parr M 125
36 Terry Cole 116         0  ½       1  ½     Mark Ashkettle E 125
37 John Sneesby 115       0  1       1  0     Michael Jones K 124
38 Michael Bridger 112    0  1       1  0     K Griggs H e116
39 Graham Walker 112      ½  1       ½  0     Stewart Trent E 113
40 Matthew Cain 110       0  ½       1  ½     G Lunn H 113
41 Richard Joyce 107      1  1       0  0     Ivor C Smith K 103
42 Gavin Strachan 107     1  1       0  0     Tony Hargreaves K 106
43 Nigel Nice 104         0  0       1  1     David Shipp K 99
44 Jack Cooper 99         ½  ½                Bernadette Cheal H 99
                                     1  0     Harold Sims 87 
45 Jim Luck 96            0  0       1  1     Andrew Navias Br 93
46 Ron Prickett 96        0  ½       1  ½     Ben Purton Br 92
47 David D’Cruz 91        1  0       0  1     Alan Trent E 85
48 M Hussain 90           0  ½       1  ½     David Wilders M 78
49 Heather Walker 86      0  0       1  1     Bob Lee-Anderson K
                         20½ 21     28½ 27½
                               42 56

[Ben Purton]

ERMMMMMMMMMMMMMM Its me at 13!!! lol. I didnt realise I played this *Blush*

[Richard Haddrell]

During my term of office as President of the SCCU (almost certainly in 1997) a match between the MCCU and SCCU took place...

I missed this. I can fill in a few things now, including the match score and (probably) the date. But it's sketchy: -

In September 1997 the SCCU Match Captain informed the Executive Committee that he had not heard from the MCCU lately, but still hoped the challenge match would go ahead. Someone pointed him at an MCCU contact. Later that month it was announced that the match was expected to be over 50 boards, probably at Nuneaton and probably in grading bands, "some time in the next couple of months". Then a stop press announcement in the end-November Bulletin gives the date as 13th December 1997, still at Nuneaton but over 40 boards (10 x Open, 10 x U175, 10 x U150, 10 x U125). Then nothing, except a Matter Arising in the March Executive minutes recording (in the match Captain's absence) that SCCU had lost 14 - 16. The Bulletin is silent. Perhaps the SCCU Match Captain was also.

The full match details may still be out there, somewhere in the Midlands. Help, anyone?

Richard Haddrell

[Richard Bates]

I recall agreeing to play at very short notice at some event at Barbican the week (days?) before. Certainly consistent with SCCU struggling to put together a team.

[John Philpott]

Richard Haddrell wrote

The full match details may still be out there

I will check my own archives, but postings to date have helped remind me of a few specifics.

1. The match was definitely played at Nuneaton, and I can now confirm the 13 December 1997 date.

2. I believe that Richard Bates played top board for the SCCU.

3. Essex was almost certainly over-represented in the SCCU team.

4. MCCU had White on odds on the basis that the Board 13 result was Ray Forey (MCCU) 1 - 0 John Philpott (SCCU) in a mis-played Caro-Kann defence on my own part. Some good came out of this in that Ray Forey turned out to have past Essex connections and I was able to involve him in one of the centenary events the following year. That is one definite individual result from the match, which just leaves another 29 to track down.

5. I was sufficiently embarrassed at the proceedings to bring along bottles of port to present to Neil Graham and John Robinson.

I was also pleased to be reminded of the detailed results of the Essex v rest of the SCCU match, which was an altogether happier occasion. Although this was contested over 49 boards, the changes in personnel between rounds 1 and 2 on boards 3 and 44 meant that exactly 100 players participated in this centenary event.

[Richard Bates]

Richard Haddrell wrote

The full match details may still be out there

I will check my own archives, but postings to date have helped remind me of a few specifics.

1. The match was definitely played at Nuneaton, and I can now confirm the 13 December 1997 date.

2. I believe that Richard Bates played top board for the SCCU.

I would guess board 2 (lower?) since Mark Ferguson was also playing. (assuming board order was based on Grading). Could be wrong..

And from a vague memory that the day wasn't exactly a triumph, I probably lost as well...

[Neil Graham]

If we are going board by board, my scorebook shows that I beat Kevin Wilkinson in the above match between MCCU and SCCU.

I was in my last year as Chief Executive of the MCCU at the time so I think I was probably in charge of making the arrangements. The event was part of the MCCU Centenary celebrations.