English Chess Forum

I recently found a box for pieces with the following label:

Wey Valley Chess
7 Saltram Road
Farnborough
Hampshire GU14 7DX

Surrey Primary Chess Organiser
Keith Powell (0252) 517872

I'd never heard of Keith Powell until I found the box. Was Keith the original founder way back in 1976 of Wey Valley Chess?

http://www.weyvalleychess.org.uk/index.shtml

mentions 1976 and no names. Pat Armstrong and Mike Basman were long associated with Wey Valley but I don't think they were its founders.

Anyone know?

Presumably a huge swage of junior associations were created in the mid 1970s following on from Spasski-Fischer.

Hampshire JCA was also created in 1976 but by Terry Hollington.

I ought to know the year for BJCA but it has escaped my memory.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 30, 2026 7:15 pm

Hampshire JCA was also created in 1976 but by Terry Hollington.

Not sure this is 100% correct John, although it may have been a separate organisation created at some stage, but fell under HCA until Joe French took over the HJCA. He was the Junior officer until 2013/14, but I understand it was more of affiliation to the HCA (as it is now) for much of this time.

Terry was the HCA Junior Organiser Officer from the 1973/74 season to the 1983/84 season, joined by Pat McEvoy for the last four years. But the HCA had an officer in place (on and off) since 1937/38 (WH Greenhaigh). Full list at different times were

Alan Butler
Joe French
A Lusher
SM Pothecary
TP O'Farrell
Terry Hollington
Brian Gale
John Jones
WJ Eaton
PM Collins
JB Harding
TO Read
MA Richardson
WH Greenhaigh

At various times there were Hampshire Junior Chess Champions, starting in 1967 and probably ending in the early 1990's.
https://hampshirechesshistory.co.uk/ham ... mpionship/

Apologies, as going off point a bit!

GrahamStuart wrote: ↑

Mon Mar 30, 2026 7:57 pm

Terry was the HCA Junior Organiser Officer from the 1973/74 season to the 1983/84 season, joined by Pat McEvoy for the last four years. But the HCA had an officer in place (on and off) since 1937/38 (WH Greenhaigh). Full list at different times were
...
TP O'Farrell
...

I really liked Terry O'Farrell, definitely one of the best junior organisers in Hampshire. He died a few years ago:
https://www.sospresents.org/team/terry-ofarrell-2022/

Graham,

I am aware that the HCA had a junior organiser for many years (thanks for their names).

However, I am keen to concentrate on the period when HJCA became an independent (but affiliated) entity from HCA.

I was told Terry Hollington created HJCA in 1975 but can believe it was earlier and was interested in adding to its documented history.
Can you help?

I assume Joe took over from Terry at some point but don't know when. Any idea?

I boot strapped HJCA in around 2017 and together with Maha Chandar firmed it up as a separate entity with its own constitution and officers and bank account (thanks to Gillian Moore).

In July 2024 at a meeting of the ECF board it was decided to recognise HJCA as a member Association giving us the right to be represented at ECF council meetings.

John,

I will see if I can locate anything, but some of these documents are not easily accessible presently.

I was under the impression it was more Joe French who created the independent HJCA rather than Terry, but I may be incorrect in this. One of the reasons I think this was all still under the HCA is as the Finances still show the junior events as part of the HCA during the 70's and 80's. This includes the HCA paying for some damages caused by juniors at an event in the 80's.

The HCA Committee Meeting on Sept 1985 mentions the newly formed Hampshire Junior Chess Committee which may have been the start of this, but I think this was still part of the HCA and was not until Joe took on the Junior Officer role that this morphed into the HJCA?

For additional info:

Junior Organiser
Terry Hollington 73/74 to 83/84 with Pat McEvoy also from 80/81 to 83/84
TP O'Farrell 84/85
TP O'Farrell & SM Pothecary 85/86
A Lusher 89/90 to 93/94
Joe French 94/95 to 2013/14
Alan Butler 2016/17 (not 100% sure if this is correct)

Several of these were involved when their sons or daughters were playing chess e.g. Alan Lusher and SM Pothecary.

Delegate to HJCA which was created in 2016/17 when Chris Priest helped Maha set up the Bank Account, which ties in with what you said.
Chris Priest 2017/18 to 2023/24
Lucas Piecha 2024/25 to present

If you have anything on the junior activities before 2017 which would be of use to the HCA archives, please do pass copies for this purposes (scanned would be great).

Hope this helps.

Graham,

Very helpful indeed. Thanks very much.

Alan Butler did indeed join with Maha and myself to be followed by Kim Shek who is the Chairman.

Alan stood down in 2026 due to mobility issues and, like Genesis, we are back to three main committee members.

Lucas Piecha, who runs Winchester Junior Chess Club, is part of our band of happy helpers and Daniel Shek is one of our regular accredited arbiters.

During the period when HCA thought that Joe was their junior organiser (from say 2015 onwards) he was sadly very ill and not doing anything. I attempted to get things moving again with Paul Vanlint, David Graham and Basingstoke Chess Club. That came to nothing and following the passing of Joe French Maha and I managed to make HJCA independent of HCA and we registered HJCA with the ECF and SCCU as a junior organisation.

As far as I can tell, Keith Powell was very young (mid 20s) when he co-founded Wey Valley Chess. He'd be around 75 now.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 31, 2026 3:07 pm

Graham,

Very helpful indeed. Thanks very much.

Alan Butler did indeed join with Maha and myself to be followed by Kim Shek who is the Chairman.

Alan stood down in 2026 due to mobility issues and, like Genesis, we are back to three main committee members.

Lucas Piecha, who runs Winchester Junior Chess Club, is part of our band of happy helpers and Daniel Shek is one of our regular accredited arbiters.

During the period when HCA thought that Joe was their junior organiser (from say 2015 onwards) he was sadly very ill and not doing anything. I attempted to get things moving again with Paul Vanlint, David Graham and Basingstoke Chess Club. That came to nothing and following the passing of Joe French Maha and I managed to make HJCA independent of HCA and we registered HJCA with the ECF and SCCU as a junior organisation.

Good to know, and Lucas does an excellent job for the HCA as well. An interesting snippet is the HCA are affiliated to the WECU and the HJCA are back with the SCCU.

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote: ↑

Tue Mar 31, 2026 3:20 pm

As far as I can tell, Keith Powell was very young (mid 20s) when he co-founded Wey Valley Chess. He'd be around 75 now.

Interesting. Who was his co-founder?

I've noticed that Neil Clifton is mentioned elsewhere in this place. Is that who you were thinking of?