The Mercury Challenge Board

[John Upham]

The Mercury Challenge Board is the trophy for the winner of the London Chess League, Division One.

Is the history of this trophy documented?

It was presented by "JW Hunt MSc MD" (I'm squinting to read the engraving) but I don't know in which year.

The first documented winner of LCL, division one was Athenaeum for the 1888 - 89 season.

An image of it can be seen at

http://www.londonchess.org.uk/images/tr ... div1_2.jpg

JW Hunt was the editor of the Hackney Mercury

Is http://www.simplesite.com/jwhuntcup/ the same person?

If I had BCMs from that era I would attempt to look it up!

Any help would be most appreciated.

[Tim Harding]

The Mecury Challenge Board is the trophy for the winner of the London Chess League, Division One.

Is the history of this trophy documented?

It was presented by "JW Hunt MSc MD" (I'm squinting to read the engraving) but I don't know in which year.

The first documented winner of LCL, division one was Athenaeum for the 1888 - 89 season.

An image of it can be seen at

http://www.londonchess.org.uk/images/tr ... div1_2.jpg

JW Hunt was the editor of the Hackney Mercury

Is http://www.simplesite.com/jwhuntcup/ the same person?

If I had BCMs from that era I would attempt to look it up!

Any help would be most appreciated.

I think the word in the subject line should be "Mercury" - can this be amended?

The list of former champions of the London Chess League at its old site (http://www.londonchess.org.uk/Old/champs.htm) does indeed list Athenaeum CC as the first winner of the LCL for season 1888/89 but it's not quite as simple as that.
Because:

a) This wasn't the first year Athenaeum had won that trophy.
b) The formal adoption of the name/formation of an actual organisation under the name London Chess League only happened a few years later. So by listing 1888/89 as the first season they are not quite correct.


I don't have all my facts/references easily to hand but I can tell you that in the March 1889 BCM issue on page 91 it says the "senior contest between the local Metropolitan clubs" had been won for the second time by Athenaeum which had won 5 of its 6 matches and drawn with the North London Club.
It also said that if Athenaeum won it again the "present trophy" (not named) would become the club's property.

The 1888 BCM doesn't seem to have anything on the first competition won by Athenaeum which was in the 1887/88 season but doesn't seem to have had a formal name or much publicity. As you say, you should probably look at the Hackney Mercury which unfortunately is not in the British Newspaper Archive.

The 1889 article says the North London had won the previous trophy (the Baldwin/Hoffer trophy) outright. That was only run for four seasons because they only failed to win the competition once. See for example the Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News of 19 February 1887.

Before that there was only the Staunton Medal (presented by Edward Marks) and awarded to the most successful player on the most successful club team in a season but they didn't all play each other.
There are papers of the North London Chess Club in Hackney archives but I cannot tell you whether it says anything about this.

[John Upham]

Sorry about my typo: corrected.

Thanks for your help Tim: I had a bet you would throw light on this.