Chess club folds

[Richard James]

I believe Michael Franklin was a member.

[Gordon Cadden]

I believe Michael Franklin was a member.

He goes back to the days of Miss Price, in Budge Row.

[Ken Norman]

Clapham Common won various Surrey titles between the 1920s and 1950.

http://www.scca.co.uk/hist/hist_index.html

Clapham Common won the london league twice.

1946-47 season and 1947-48 season

[Stewart Reuben]

R J Broadbent amd Michael Franklin both played for Clapham Common against Islington in about 1962. I am not sure about the relationship between the people who played in the open air in the park and the formal club.
Gordon > Sad memories of Vera Menchik, who lived nearby.<
But, Gordon, you are much too young to have known her.

Ray Keene's house is on Clapham Common North Side.

[Ken Norman]

Clapham Common won various Surrey titles between the 1920s and 1950.

http://www.scca.co.uk/hist/hist_index.html

I think these links may work better:

http://www.scca.co.uk/hist/hist_team_1_index.html
http://www.scca.co.uk/hist/hist_team_2_index.html
http://www.scca.co.uk/hist/hist_team_3_index.html

(Appears to be split apart for some reason I can't fathom, but great to have the lists there)

.

Some of the more intriguing names include:

Nightingale Lane (Surrey League champions in 1902-3)
Old Wilsonians (Beaumont Cup in 1913/14)

Nightingale Lane Chess Club was apparently very famous:

http://www.batterseachessclub.org.uk/cl ... ub-history

"Balham, Kennington, Nightingale Lane and Putney are but four of many famous Surrey Clubs now broken up."

http://streathambrixtonchess.blogspot.c ... rolls.html
http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/winter54.html

Interesting that chess in the Surrey League continued into the 1915-16 season.

Looking at the Richmond area history:

Richmond - 1896/97 (Beaumont Cup, must be an earlier club before the current one?)
Richmond & Kew (Beaumont Cup 1933/34 and 1929/30)

Is that a third club with the Richmond name?

Richmond Chess Club and Twickenham Chess Club did not amalgamate until 1958.
I believe the Twickenham Chess Club venue was the Albion Hotel, Twickenham.

Another local club was the Barnes Village Chess Club. This club folded in the 1970's. Several players were also members of Richmond and Twickenham.

One player Chris Kreuzer may remember was the late Hella Kaufman she was a member of both Barnes and R&T. Also she helped Leonard Barden translate his book on the Ruy Lopez into German.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I believe Michael Franklin was a member.

He goes back to the days of Miss Price, in Budge Row.

I just had to go and look that up...

Never heard of Miss Price before. But found this:

http://www.chesshistory.com/winter/extra/women.html

('Chess and Women' by Edward Winter)

http://www.edochess.ca/batgirl/oldlady.html

"Miss Price, who was born in 1872, opened The Gambit in 1898. It shut its doors in 1958."

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Richmond Chess Club and Twickenham Chess Club did not amalgamate until 1958.
I believe the Twickenham Chess Club venue was the Albion Hotel, Twickenham.

Another local club was the Barnes Village Chess Club. This club folded in the 1970's. Several players were also members of Richmond and Twickenham.

One player Chris Kreuzer may remember was the late Hella Kaufman she was a member of both Barnes and R&T. Also she helped Leonard Barden translate his book on the Ruy Lopez into German.

I saw the Barnes Village name as well. Am trying to remember where I saw the Mortlake name.

There are snippets of R&TCC history I know, but not enough. I really only joined the club properly in the new millennium. Prior to that I'd been a junior at RJCC and then at university, so all I know of the prior history is what those there at the time (Richard James, among others) relate to me, or what is found sometimes when old minutes books or records are produced and pored through. Some of the older members might know more about Hella Kaufman.

[Stewart Reuben]

I am sure I met Miss Price at The Gambit when a teenager. When it closed down, the En Passant was opened by Boris Watson in the Strand. We often played there in the lunch-time being at King's College.
Neither ever played as team-playing club. The EP became a poker joint as well. It closed when the casino industry became more regulated.
The Mandrake has yet to be mentioned. That was a night club in London that I was too young to visit. They played chess there.

It is rather ridiculous I have never been a member of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club. I've lived here since 1973.

[Richard James]

The Albany in Twickenham is still there: http://www.thealbanyintwickenham.co.uk/. It's right by what used to be Twickenham Station before it was rebuilt the other side of the railway bridge in the 1950s. It's currently being redeveloped in advance of the Rugby World Cup.

I seem to recall R&TCC meeting there very briefly some years ago, possibly while we were between venues.

I really ought to research all this in the Richmond Local Studies collection (which I believe includes some old Minute Books from Richmond Chess Club) at some point.

[Kevin Thurlow]

CCF is going strong, they have just focused on internal events in the last few years, and tournaments. e.g. http://www.ccfworld.com/Chess/ChessClub ... xplain.htm

They were unlucky not to win Surrey Division 1 last season.

[Gordon Cadden]

The 1936 BCM volume lists the Clapham Common team that played Lewisham in the LCL. This was the decisive match for the Championship, which Lewisham won 11 1/2 - 8 1/2
1. Frank Parr
2. Sonja Graf
3. J. Hunter
4. R.W. Pithers
5. R. Hartnett
6. H.P. James
7. P. Riley
8. G.J. Webb
9. F.R. Belson
10. D.E.A. Riley
11. John Henry van Meurs
12. R. Maule
13. G.H. Caws
14. S. Morris
15. S. Fischer
16. H.J. Gawlik
17. Justin J. Brennand
18. J.L. Brodie
19. A.J. Tierney
20. G.H. Grimshaw

Frank Parr was Elected as a member of the Battersea Club in September, 1933. Very big surprise to see Sonja Graf on board.2. She was Vera Menchiks greatest female rival, and may have spent her London sojourn, at her home near Clapham Common. An obituary for Justin J. Brennand, was published in the 1944 BCM. He died on active service in Italy. According to the BCM (1965) obituary for JH van Meurs, he was for many years, entirely responsible for the running of the Clapham Common Club.

[Gordon Cadden]

I am sure I met Miss Price at The Gambit when a teenager. When it closed down, the En Passant was opened by Boris Watson in the Strand. We often played there in the lunch-time being at King's College.
Neither ever played as team-playing club. The EP became a poker joint as well. It closed when the casino industry became more regulated.
The Mandrake has yet to be mentioned. That was a night club in London that I was too young to visit. They played chess there.

It is rather ridiculous I have never been a member of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club. I've lived here since 1973.

Okay, I will mention the Mandrake, if only to help that young historian, Christopher Kreuzer. The club was owned by Harold Lommer (not certain if he was in partnership with someone else), who was an endgame expert known worldwide. In 1938, Printing Craft Limited, published 1234 Modern Chess Endings, compiled by M.A.Sutherland and H.M.Lommer. This may be the first UK book published using only Algebraic Notation(Problem books excluded). Modern Editions of this book have been issued.
The chess room was at the rear of the night club. Because of Lommer's reputation, it did attract strong players. Know that MJ Franklin and RG Wade attended regularly, as did visiting European Masters.
Youngsters were not encouraged to visit, because one had to mingle with ladies of the night, before reaching the chess room. Harold Lommer decided to retire to Spain in the mid-sixties, but the premises did continue as a drinking club. The club was in Soho - Frith Street, as I recall.

[Leonard Barden]

The late Hella Kaufman was a member of both Barnes and R&T. Also she helped Leonard Barden translate his book on the Ruy Lopez into German.

Hella did more than just help me, she translated the entire book and presented me with a meticulous and accurate manuscript, all prepared quite quickly. I was naturally pleased, but Rudolf Teschner, the Editor of the Deutsche Schachzeitung, who had commissioned the German edition, complained that her writing style was old-fashioned and claimed that he had to edit and reword much of Hella's work, for which he naturally charged a large fee which was deducted from my royalties.

[Stewart Reuben]

Harold gave a lecture on task problems when I was a schoolboy. It was part of a general chess course conducted by Bob Wade. It intoduced me to a whole new facet of chess. I arranged similarly for Afek to give a talk to youngsters at Hastings.
Ted Iles was in the Mandrake one evening. A young foreigner challenged him to a game. Ted won. The youngsters' friends started laughing. It turned out he had just beaten Matanovic.
The National Chess Centre has not so far been mentioned. I played in the lightning chess tournaments most Saturday evenings. In the morning Bob's course. Afternoon a county match. I played against Matanovic in these tournaments several times. I didn't always lose. But I don't remember being enthralled at that. Perhaps it was the vanity of youth.

[John Clarke]

The Mandrake was in Meard Street, a short side-turning off Dean Street - unless of course it relocated at some point.

Bruce Hayden wrote a lengthy article about it for Chess Review in 1951, and a heavily-edited version also appeared in Fred Reinfeld's Treasury of Chess Lore, first published that same year. Pen-portraits of both Harold Lommer and Boris Watson were featured. It was reprinted in full a decade later in Hayden's own entertaining pot-pourri Cabbage Heads and Chess Kings.
(Incidentally: what became of Hayden? He seems to have been a prominent member of the chess scene in his day, but we hear next to nothing after his book came out in 1960.)

The Mandrake was a favourite afternoon drinking-haunt for George Melly and other members of the Mick Mulligan jazz band in the early 50s, and gets a mention in Melly's autobiography Owning Up, albeit with the wildly inaccurate statement: "it started as a chess club". Boris Watson ("huge and taciturn") is named, but not Lommer. Instead there's someone called Teddy Turner ("volatile and Jewish").

PS: I must claim credit for first mention of the Mandrake on this Forum (though not this thread), back in June last year - see here.