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Past recollection a split topic

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:29 pm
by J T Melsom
And also at Imperial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Buzzard. I played in the same teams as Kevin at school, Roger (d C) will remember his father who played for Bourne End.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:39 pm
by J T Melsom
And then there is this chap last seen turning out for Oxfordshire against Bucks in a Chiltern League match. Professor Leigh tried in between school and university to establish a new club Beaconsfield in the Bucks league. https://www.classics.ox.ac.uk/people/pr ... thew-leigh. But we do probably need a separate thread out of respect to the deceased.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 12:33 am
by Roger de Coverly
J T Melsom wrote:
Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:39 pm
But we do probably need a separate thread out of respect to the deceased.
Getting even more obscure, this guy recruited me for the school chess team.

https://www.newcastle.edu.au/profile/harold-tarrant

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:16 am
by Mick Norris
There's also Chorlton's Ron Doney who had the misfortune to try and teach me Probability in 1983/4

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:28 am
by Nigel White
Mick Norris wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:16 am
There's also Chorlton's Ron Doney who had the misfortune to try and teach me Probability in 1983/4
A name from my past - he taught me in the 1970s.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:40 am
by Richard James
Nigel White wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:28 am
Mick Norris wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:16 am
There's also Chorlton's Ron Doney who had the misfortune to try and teach me Probability in 1983/4
A name from my past - he taught me in the 1970s.
And, 50 years or so ago, a member of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:44 pm
by Richard Thursby
J T Melsom wrote:
Thu Jan 10, 2019 11:29 pm
And also at Imperial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Buzzard. I played in the same teams as Kevin at school, Roger (d C) will remember his father who played for Bourne End.
Despite Kevin Buzzard teaching me most of what I ever knew about number theory, I never knew he had any chess interest, despite being at a school against which my own had a bit of a chess rivalry. There are two Buzzards in the ECF grading list whom I wonder might be related.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:00 pm
by Roger de Coverly
Richard Thursby wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 12:44 pm
There are two Buzzards in the ECF grading list whom I wonder might be related.
Roger Buzzard died suddenly at a relatively young age. That might be approaching thirty years ago. I don't think his son played much after that,

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:51 pm
by AustinElliott
Richard James wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 11:40 am
Nigel White wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:28 am
Mick Norris wrote:
Fri Jan 11, 2019 8:16 am
There's also Chorlton's Ron Doney who had the misfortune to try and teach me Probability in 1983/4
A name from my past - he taught me in the 1970s.
And, 50 years or so ago, a member of Richmond & Twickenham Chess Club
Ron was a maths Lecturer at Imperial College in the late 60s/early 70s before he moved to M'cr Univ, so I guess that was when he played for Richmond & Twickenham. I think Ron is probably approaching 80 now, if not already there, but he is still a regular for the Chorlton 1st team.

On chess-playing Professors, the most obvious among living British players, as Richard Thursby already mentioned en passant, is Jonathan Mestel, who is a full Prof of Maths at Imperial. Among those no longer with us, another we've discussed on the forum previously was Sir John 'Kappa' Cornforth, who belongs to an even more select group of chess playing Profs who won the Nobel Prize. In fact, I can't immediately think of any other British ones in this latter group. Chess-playing mathematicians who won the Fields Medal might be comparable, if anyone knows any.

Re. Prof Swinnerton-Dyer, his name is obviously very familiar to people like me who worked in the Univs in the late 80s /early 90s from his time chairing the University Grants Committee, but I hadn't realised he was such a distinguished mathematician.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:05 pm
by John Clarke
Jeff Webb of Glasgow University - most likely now retired, and certainly no longer active at chess - played to a 190-plus standard. He was completing a PhD or holding a post-doc fellowship (not sure which) when we played together for Sussex U at the 1970 BUCA teams event.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:03 pm
by Ian Thompson
Roger de Coverly wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 2:00 pm
The 4NCL anti-cheating arbiters had better monitor this forum in the future! :lol:
4NCL.JPG
4NCL.JPG (41.08 KiB) Viewed 2649 times

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:18 pm
by Alex McFarlane
John Clarke wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:05 pm
Jeff Webb of Glasgow University - most likely now retired, and certainly no longer active at chess
He is still playing. He plays for Bearsden in the Glasgow league.

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:46 pm
by Leonard Barden
AustinElliott wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 8:51 pm
an even more select group of chess playing Profs who won the Nobel Prize. In fact, I can't immediately think of any other British ones in this latter group.
Sir Robert Robinson FRS won the 1947 Nobel prize for chemistry. He held posts as a Professor at Sydney, Manchester, London and Oxford Universities. He was President of the BCF from 1950 to 1953, played in the famous wartime match Oxford University v Bletchley Park. played also in the Oxfordshire team which won the county championship final against Middlesex in 1952, and appeared in two photos in this CHESS article alongside competitors in the 1951 Commonwealth championship.
www.chessscotland.com/documents/history/1951oxford.htm

Re: Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:05 am
by Leonard Barden
Not a Nobel prizewinner, but Oliver Penrose, survivor from the first swiss system British Championship at Felixstowe 1949 and first British Universities champion in 1950, is an Emeritus Professor of Mathematics at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. His father (and father of Jonathan Penrose) Lionel Penrose was Professor of Eugenics at University College, London.

Other B

Posted: Sun Jan 13, 2019 12:41 am
by John Clarke
Alex McFarlane wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 11:18 pm
John Clarke wrote:
Sat Jan 12, 2019 10:05 pm
Jeff Webb of Glasgow University - most likely now retired, and certainly no longer active at chess
He is still playing. He plays for Bearsden in the Glasgow league.
Is that right? He doesn't feature at all in the ECF Grading site (which has numerous long-retired and even deceased players). A very recent return to the fray?

Additional note (several hours later): just realised any Scot reading the above is going to be ROTFLHAO. Of course their players aren't going to feature on the ECF grading list!!