W.A. (Sandy) Cordon
Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2017 2:35 pm
Sandy Cordon, BCF President 1978, died on Christmas Day 2016 aged 90. He was for years an energetic figure on the Bedfordshire chess scene and a great motivator of the weaker players at Bedford Chess Club. A formidable disciplinarian, he was Deputy Head at Stewartby School and had at one time a hundred pupils in the school chess club. He founded the Bedfordshire Middle Schools Chess League which won a BCF President's Award in the 1980s. He was also a BCF grader in the pre-computer age - I would be interested in further details of him in that role. Also someone may be able to add more on his BCF Presidency which I remember coincided with the Tennant-Smith controversy.
Sandy was also a league table tennis player and when he gave up competitive chess he devised for the Bedford Table Tennis League a grading system which was considered a wonderful innovation.
My favourite anecdote about Sandy illustrates his insistence that rules are pointless unless enforced. Bedfordshire League rules state that 'Matches shall start at 7.30 p.m.' One club was notoriously slack about setting up for home matches as they had no storage space and relied on someone to bring in equipment. Sandy took Bedford clocks with his team to the away match. At 7.30. prompt he plonked the six clocks on the empty tables and started them. Knowing him, he probably got his three White players to seal a move!
His funeral will be at Bedford Crematorium, Friday 13 January at 10 a.m..
Sandy was also a league table tennis player and when he gave up competitive chess he devised for the Bedford Table Tennis League a grading system which was considered a wonderful innovation.
My favourite anecdote about Sandy illustrates his insistence that rules are pointless unless enforced. Bedfordshire League rules state that 'Matches shall start at 7.30 p.m.' One club was notoriously slack about setting up for home matches as they had no storage space and relied on someone to bring in equipment. Sandy took Bedford clocks with his team to the away match. At 7.30. prompt he plonked the six clocks on the empty tables and started them. Knowing him, he probably got his three White players to seal a move!
His funeral will be at Bedford Crematorium, Friday 13 January at 10 a.m..