The Waechter Shield

[John Upham]

The Surrey Border League awards The Waechter Shield to the winner of its division one competition annually.

Part of the inscription reads

"Surrey County Chess Association
Presented by Lady Waechter"

and the rest I cannot make out from the photograph.

I am guessing that Lady Waechter is

"Evelyn Mary Josephine (née d'Arcy), Lady Waechter (died 1955), Wife of Sir Harry Waechter, 1st Bt; daughter of John d'Arcy"

Does anyone know how the trophy transitioned from Surrey County Chess Association to the Surrey Border League.

The earliest winner was Guildford Chess Club in 1962.

A poor photo is at http://www.borderleague.org.uk/images/t ... shield.jpg

Thanks!

[David Sedgwick]

Does anyone know who [sic] the trophy transitioned from Surrey County Chess Association to the Surrey Border League.

Give it back at once.

[Ian Thompson]

Does anyone know who the trophy transitioned from Surrey County Chess Association to the Surrey Border League.

I thought someone said at the recent AGM that it had been given to the Border League by the SCCA when the Border League was formed because it had previously been awarded to clubs in West Surrey and it was those clubs which formed the Border League.

The Border League was not completely independent of the SCCA until fairly recently. Look back in old ECF Yearbooks (probably up to the mid-1990s) and you'll find a representative of the Border League on the list of officials of the SCCA.

[Peter D Williams]

Alec Aslett of Sandhurst chess club he was at one time at your club Camberley but he left to set up Sandhurs.He may be able to help with this. I remember talking to him about the history of chess in Surrey and Alec appeared to know a great deal of detail about the various chess clubs captains players etc

looks like rain here best walk the dog

[Mike Gunn]

The Waechter Shield was a Surrey CCA competition for "clubs in the Guildford area" which ran from the 1920/1 season to the 1960/1 season when the shield was presumably given (loaned?) to the newly formed Surrey Border League. It is the 3rd oldest SCCA club team trophy following on from the Surrey Trophy (1883/4) and the Beaumont Cup (1895/6).

I think there was a mutual exchange of fraternal delegates between the SCCA and the Border League, rather than the Border League still being part of the SCCA (in any sense). When I first played in the Border League (1994) everything was run by Bill Lowe and (as far as I can recall) there were no other officers. Actually, that is probably not true - it was just that Bill did all the league administration and produced a monthly newsletter on his matrix printer which was sent out to team captains. I heard later on that Bill had been active in the SCCA but had fallen out with them over a rule change. Ironically, the same thing happened at a Border League AGM (held in Bill's house) when Bill said "if you pass that rule change then I will resign!". The rule change was passed ...

[Kevin Thurlow]

Redhill won it in 50/51 and 59/60. All the other teams were much nearer to Guildford, and I was a bit mystified we had played in it.

Jack Speigel did the same as Bill Lowe. After years of blocking rule changes in Essex, he did it once too often and the AGM went against him and he resigned.