English Chess Forum

Jon D'Souza-Eva wrote: ↑

Sun Nov 02, 2025 3:42 pm

Another Irishman who played for Hackney, and much stronger than all the others mentioned (though I'm almost certain he is the person you've remembered as Calumn) - Conor Bracken!



[Edit: Calumn = Conor Bracken]

You’re right of course

I don’t remember Brendan Lyon’s, maybe he was after my time. Calumn played the Budapest open with me and John Sachs, another name I’ve just remembered, but Calumn came by train and had problems with the border guards entering Hungary from Austria. Then there was a scandalous story about him: I don’t...

Hi Jon Yes it was Pat Reynolds and he did (over)stay at my place. Was the other Irish guy Callumn something? He was a strong player but a bit crazy. Mal turned up when we were still at the Dalston library. He was quite short and came from the north east. I remember Guy Simpson knew the name of his d...

I’ve just stumbled on this thread 15 years after the last comment. I hope it’s OK to reply now. Other stalwarts at Hackney when Dave Griggs and I joined in 1984 were Frank Chin, Kev Bowmer and Mike Cunningham. The club grew very fast in the following years but I can only remember some of the names. ...