Can any Worcestershire reader help?
Posted: Sun May 31, 2009 1:50 pm
I'd like some information about the weekly column which the late Tom Wilfrid Widdows wrote in the Worcester Evening News.
When Widdows died last year, the ECF obituary stated that
At the close of the second World War, Tom took on the job of Chess Correspondent for Worcester Evening News. Writing under the byline Checkmate, his first column appeared on October 9, 1945 and he put down his pen in 2006 and is almost certainly the world record holder of the title "longest serving chess correspondent" of any newspaper in the world.
However an article in the Worcester News on 2 November 2000 (you can find it via Google)stated that
Wilfrid Widdows contributed his first chess column to the Evening News on October 9, 1945, and has been writing it continuously each week ever since during the chess seasons. He gave up playing chess a few years ago but is still Competitions Secretary for the Worcestershire Chess Association, a post he has filled for a long time. He handles all the results from the association's two divisions and also keeps in touch with the various clubs, thus placing him in an ideal position to continue producing his column for the Evening News.
This wording implies that Widdows didn't write every week throughout the year but broke off during the summer months when the chess season was over.
So two questions:
When exactly in 2006 did the column cease?
Did he write every week of the year or only in the chess season? If the latter, for approximately how long did he break off each summer?
I should declare a personal interest in the answer, having written my Guardian column for more than 53 years without having missed a week.....
When Widdows died last year, the ECF obituary stated that
At the close of the second World War, Tom took on the job of Chess Correspondent for Worcester Evening News. Writing under the byline Checkmate, his first column appeared on October 9, 1945 and he put down his pen in 2006 and is almost certainly the world record holder of the title "longest serving chess correspondent" of any newspaper in the world.
However an article in the Worcester News on 2 November 2000 (you can find it via Google)stated that
Wilfrid Widdows contributed his first chess column to the Evening News on October 9, 1945, and has been writing it continuously each week ever since during the chess seasons. He gave up playing chess a few years ago but is still Competitions Secretary for the Worcestershire Chess Association, a post he has filled for a long time. He handles all the results from the association's two divisions and also keeps in touch with the various clubs, thus placing him in an ideal position to continue producing his column for the Evening News.
This wording implies that Widdows didn't write every week throughout the year but broke off during the summer months when the chess season was over.
So two questions:
When exactly in 2006 did the column cease?
Did he write every week of the year or only in the chess season? If the latter, for approximately how long did he break off each summer?
I should declare a personal interest in the answer, having written my Guardian column for more than 53 years without having missed a week.....
