Counties and clubs

[Peter Ackley]

Do we actually have any counties that don't have a league of their own?

Happy to be corrected but I think:
-Rutland (which falls under Leicester and Rutland but does not appear to have a league or any clubs of it's own)
-Herefordshire (there is at least one club in the county but there does not appear to be a specific league; the club appears to have played in both the Malvern and Shropshire leagues).

[MJMcCready]

Ah thanks, interesting.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The cross-county or multi-county leagues are sometimes interesting. I forget why the Thames Valley League was set up and what factors influenced that, but there must have been a reason. There was even a "Thames Valley Chess Club", some of the history of which can be read at the excellent history of Kingston Chess Club.

[Kevin Thurlow]

There is also the North Circular Chess League for teams near the A406.

[Ian Thompson]

Do we actually have any counties that don't have a league of their own?

I'm pretty sure I mentioned on this forum before that there is no Hampshire league, although there are plans to resurrect it.

Clubs in Hampshire can choose from at least the Southampton league, the Portsmouth league and the Surrey Border League.

[MartinCarpenter]

Do we actually have any counties that don't have a league of their own?

I don't think there's even a Lancashire league as such? It would have had to be large town based and maybe weekend based like the Yorkshire league, but it's ended up all evening leagues split between Merseyside, GM and various smaller leagues.

Seemingly very few Merseyside players pushing E into even the Warrington league, let alone GM.

Northumberland I think doesn't, although in population terms the Newcastle league(s) must basically cover them. I think the Durham league might have covered county Durham.

[John Upham]

Clubs in Hampshire can choose from at least the Southampton league, the Portsmouth league and the Surrey Border League.

The formal name for the Surrey Border League is

The Surrey and Hampshire Border League but many shorten it and some truncate it to "The Borders League" somewhat ambiguously.

[Roger Lancaster]

Watford has long played in the Hertfordshire League despite being in the south-west corner of the county, making cross-county journeys anything up to 40 miles, frequently (think rush-hour M25!) in busy traffic. With a 7.45 start, that typically works out at a 10.30 finish or thereabouts. On occasion, I've arrived home after midnight. Most of our adults are okay with that but it's unpopular with our juniors so our junior teams play in the Hillingdon League with a maximum of 15 miles travel and a 7.0 start with a slightly faster time control so that matches are completed by 9.15.

[Mick Norris]

Do we actually have any counties that don't have a league of their own?

I don't think there's even a Lancashire league as such? It would have had to be large town based and maybe weekend based like the Yorkshire league, but it's ended up all evening leagues split between Merseyside, GM and various smaller leagues.

Blackpool & Fylde, East Lancs, Central Lancs, Lancaster, Morecambe & District, but no big league like Yorkshire

I've had a message in answer to an earlier point

When 3Cs was formed in 1978 it was actually then based at Friezland school in Saddleworth, which was on "the wrong side" of the former Lancashire-Yorkshire boundary.

In fact, the club's current headquarters is itself less than 100 yards "on't proper side ut divide".

[MSoszynski]

Do we actually have any counties that don't have a league of their own?

There is no reason to be fixated on antiquated administrative areas that have been gerrymandered or "adjusted" down the years. Warwickshire (without its own league) is perhaps the prime example of a made-up misshapen region. Whatever the overall traditional county system used to be, it no longer slices the country at its joints.

[MJMcCready]

Watford has long played in the Hertfordshire League despite being in the south-west corner of the county, making cross-county journeys anything up to 40 miles, frequently (think rush-hour M25!) in busy traffic. With a 7.45 start, that typically works out at a 10.30 finish or thereabouts. On occasion, I've arrived home after midnight. Most of our adults are okay with that but it's unpopular with our juniors so our junior teams play in the Hillingdon League with a maximum of 15 miles travel and a 7.0 start with a slightly faster time control so that matches are completed by 9.15.

If you have Watford and Royston in the same league, I would imagine that's a tough journey with rush hour traffic on the M25.

[Roger de Coverly]

Watford has long played in the Hertfordshire League despite being in the south-west corner of the county,

Berkhamsted who are even further west play in the Bucks League. The Bucks League has also acquired Uxbridge in recent years althoigh that can cause problems to visiting players with ageing cars.

[Nigel White]

In the Essex League Southend v Wanstead & Woodford (or similarly located East London clubs) is not a favourite fixture. The one redeeming feature is that it is possible to travel by train.

[J T Melsom]

Watford has long played in the Hertfordshire League despite being in the south-west corner of the county,

The Bucks League has also acquired Uxbridge in recent years althoigh that can cause problems to visiting players with ageing cars.

Are ageing cars not also a health problem for residents of Uxbridge?

[Alan Walton]

I've had a message in answer to an earlier point

When 3Cs was formed in 1978 it was actually then based at Friezland school in Saddleworth, which was on "the wrong side" of the former Lancashire-Yorkshire boundary.

In fact, the club's current headquarters is itself less than 100 yards "on't proper side ut divide".

Just to clarify this, 3Cs was generally based at the school where Stephen Rigby was based, here is a rough time-line

1) Started at Christchurch School in Chadderton (Manchester side of Oldham)
2) Moved to Leesfield School (which is very close to our current venue); this is where I joined since this was my primary school (so around 1983)
3) Moved to Friezland School (in Saddleworth whose emblem is still the White Rose), this was 1986
4) Moved back to Christchurch School again, but matches were played at Birch Hall in Lees (possibly still old Yorkshire), this was mid-90s
5) Birch Hall was demolished and we played matches at Christchurch for a year or two, then we moved to the Blue Club in Chadderton (now Blue Club Oldham home venue)
6) Finally after Stephen retired we moved to our current venue in Lees

Lees has an area called County End which was the "old" border, and does have a big sign on either side saying Welcome to West Riding of Yorkshire and Welcome to Lancashire each with a big white and red rose on it