English Chess Forum

Very sad to hear of their enforced withdrawal from the London League this season. All seems to have happened very quickly for a club that had been in the same place for such a long time.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:27 pm

Very sad to hear of their enforced withdrawal from the London League this season.

Was there anything stopping their home matches being moved to the central venue (which is less than 10 minutes walk away from their old venue)?

Ian Thompson wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 1:47 pm

Was there anything stopping their home matches being moved to the central venue (which is less than 10 minutes walk away from their old venue)?

There is no spare capacity at Citadines, the central venue. In each of the last two seasons it has been unable to accommodate a Mushrooms CC match in the Eastman Cup knockout competition.

This is grim news.

Remember reading about them in the 60's/70's and thinking if I ever go back to England I'll join them.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:51 pm

This is grim news.

Remember reading about them in the 60's/70's and thinking if I ever go back to England I'll join them.

Geoff,

If by England you mean London, then I'm sure you could find other clubs that are equally welcoming. Don't hesitate, etc.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:51 pm

This is grim news.

Remember reading about them in the 60's/70's...

Are you sure? Not based at The Plough if so.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 7:51 pm

This is grim news.

Remember reading about them in the 60's/70's...

Richard Bates wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 8:32 pm

Are you sure? Not based at The Plough if so.

In the 1970s and 1980s, Drunken Kinghts played at the then central venue, St Bride Institute, like everyone else.

In those days the London League rules stipulated that the team winning the toss had White on odds. Drunken Knights made a point of always turning up late, thus ensuring that they were deemed to have lost the toss. As a result they knew that they would always be Black on odds and they could give all their players the colour with which they were more effective.

This led to their Board 1, Maurice Staples, having 54 consecutive Blacks.

Eventually the rules were changed to provide that, if a team were absent at the designated time, their opponents had the choice of White on odds or White on evens. Mushrooms took advantage of this to bring Maurice Staples's sequence to an end.

Drunken Knights have had problems for several seasons now, but I shall miss them if they have gone for good. We shall not see their like again.

David Sedgwick wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 25, 2019 10:41 pm

In the 1970s and 1980s, Drunken Kinghts played at the then central venue, St Bride Institute, like everyone else.

My vague memory is that Drunken Knights in those days was a group of players from West London, Hayes and perhaps Harrow clubs being predominant. Were they exclusively London League under that name?

Sad news for their members & their opponents. Whether the Plough will survive is another matter. It must be difficult to find central London venues at the prices of previous hires.

HI Nick,

Don't think I'll ever go back now. Edinburgh is beautiful, the Bethnal Green I grew up in is gone.
(the O's are still going so the occasional day trip down is still on that and closer away games.)

A lot of clubs are in trouble, Edinburgh are thriving but other clubs I see are usually run by one or two old stalwarts
and when they pass no one takes their place.

The members tend to be old men (the remnants from the Fischer boom) and juniors, 8 out of 10 will drop the game.
So many distractions these days. To be honest if they had computers and vid games when I was growing up I doubt
I would have sat in my bedroom playing over games of chess a 100 years old. I did then because I had the bug.
(the same bug we all had/have) and looking back I loved it, but it could easily have been a computer game or an iphone.

Sure I saw the name 'Drunken Knights' in the 60's and 70's and players playing Nh3 and Na3.
Was that mandatory (I hope so). When I played for Wandering Dragon, for a while you had play a Dragon if you could.
Suppose it's a good job we were not called The Wandering Damiano's. (though one night it was agreed everyone had to play 1.f3 or 1...f6)

When a team I started 'Sandy Bells' made up of people I played chess with in a pub (funnily enough called 'Sandy Bells')
We never had a venue for 3 seasons so played all our games away. Can Drunken Knights not do that till they get themselves sorted.
Sandy Bells is still going now in it's 22nd year. We have had four venues.
Once we shared venues with another club. The landlords were happy, more trade for their bar. That is another option for them.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:24 am

We never had a venue for 3 seasons so played all our games away. Can Drunken Knights not do that till they get themselves sorted.

The London League has a set of rules which dictate that all matches take place in the West End or the City of London. As a consequence I think Drunken Knights played all their matches at the pub they've now left unless they were facing another team with a Central London base.

Other teams all played at a neutral central venue. According to reports, there wasn't the capacity for Drunken Knights to play there. On the face of it that will cause the London League a longer term problem if they find themselves restricted as to how many teams can be accommodated.

That's a great shame: sympathies for the management of the Club in particular.

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:05 am

Other teams all played at a neutral central venue.

Not all of them, at least when I was playing (2002-6).

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:05 am

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 1:24 am

We never had a venue for 3 seasons so played all our games away. Can Drunken Knights not do that till they get themselves sorted.

The London League has a set of rules which dictate that all matches take place in the West End or the City of London. As a consequence I think Drunken Knights played all their matches at the pub they've now left unless they were facing another team with a Central London base.

Furthermore, DK's record in away matches over the past few seasons has consisted mostly of defaults, so that isn't an obvious solution.

JustinHorton wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 10:25 am

Roger de Coverly wrote: ↑

Tue Feb 26, 2019 8:05 am

Other teams all played at a neutral central venue.

Not all of them, at least when I was playing (2002-6).

You've misread. Drunken Knights, other clubs with a central London venue, other clubs not the above.