Lionel Burrell the chess player

[David Sedgwick]

You do realize people can actually look this sort of thing up on IMDb and work out that you're bluffing, yes?

While that is true, it does nothing for the good name and reputation of this Forum that these spurious posts are tolerated. When are you and Carl going to take some action?

April 1st would of course be an exception.

[John McKenna]

I can't quite agree with a blanket ban on "spurious posts", David. (Of course, I respect your far from arbitrary request for a sanitary forum. However, the forum can be too clinical at times.)

For a few every day is 1st April. Francis - a friend and former teammate - is not such a joker and, besides, only posts intermittently.

Usually there's more than a grain of truth in what he says here.

In 1910 Blackpool saw a 4-game match between Fred Yates & Georg Schories so some chess may have been played there between then and the 1956 British Ch.

In the Lancashire chess archives a potted history of chess in Blackpool might be unearthed.

Charlie Chaplin made City Lights in 1931 - a film that can still strike chords today. (As Midnight Express still can.)

What if it had been discovered that chessplayer Herbert Heckford Burrell (1870-1956) moonlighted as an actor under the stage name Lionel?

https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessplayer?pid=126064

Is it possible that the confusion is all down to a Pilgrim recently returned from a trip to Tralfamadore??

https://slaughterhouse5museum.weebly.co ... adore.html

Should the telling of tall tales and spinning of ripping yarns be outlawed here? Some may think so. I don't.

[NickFaulks]

For a few every day is 1st April. Francis - a friend and former teammate - is not such a joker

That may be the point which some readers have missed.

[John McKenna]

Thanks, Nick.

The jury's still out.

[Neil Graham]

Perhaps an examination of the key facts of this thread might assist:-

1) No-one can trace any player/person/actor by the name of Lionel Burrell or indeed a biography of this player.
2) Charlie Chaplin did not speak in a film until 1940 (The Great Dictator)
3) Midnight Express is a film of 1978 - there is no film with this title in 1931
4) There is no record of a "Blackpool Open" in 1931
5) Rainbow did not record a song with the lyrics mentioned
6) Neither is there an 18th century poem with these lyrics.

Perhaps if we can be enlightened as to any factual sources on anything quoted by Francis in his posts??

[Nick Grey]

I think it is a leap month post 29th may be enlightened?

Any chess player losing as many grading points in a decade may be the point but I agree with Nick and John.

Happy to chat at Cheam as the tea and coffee does not make itself and will be good if WE can get the match started on time.

[David Robertson]

I had begun to think this forum had run out of things to chunter about. Francis Fields does us all a service by proving me wrong

[John McKenna]

Thanks, Nick Grey, for the tea break & chat. Rest assured I will be there if required.

Thanks also to Neil Graham for giving the bare facts.

However, it's a bit like inserting a scene from Dragnet into an episode of Twilight Zone.

Has Judge Robertson just given his seal of approval to the widening of eyes and horizons here? Or was it a backhanded compliment to the chef of this confectected concoction?

Must go - someone's ringing my bell.

[JustinHorton]

it does nothing for the good name and reputation of this Forum

Are you sure this forum actually has any particular name or reputation, good bad or otherwise?

. Francis - a friend and former teammate - is not such a joker

For sure, because with a joker there is often some trace of wit or humour, as opposed to the kind of arseclenchingly unfunny posts to which we are intermittently treated.

A small inconvenience perhaps, but still, experience may suggest that when some timewaater chooses to troll an entire forum on a regular basis, the patience of forum members can't indefinitely be relied upon.

[John McKenna]

Justin, it must have entirely escaped you that the "wit" & "humour" have been supplied by me.

Francis' deadpan delivery is just one part of a impromptu unscripted comedic duo -

"A straight man with no direct comedic role has historically been known as a stooge. Typically he is expected to feed the funny man lines that he can respond to for laughs, while seeking no acclamation for himself."

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Straight_man

Did you lose your sense of humour before you moved to the Continent, or after, Justin? (You've undoubtedly retained your ascorbic wit.)

[JustinHorton]

the "wit" & "humour" have been supplied by me.

<looks to camera>

[John McKenna]

I don't have a webcam.

Do you?

[John McKenna]

And, while we're at it...

What led to the breakup of Horton & Bryant?

You two were a bellyfull of laughs.

[JustinHorton]

<freeze frame>

<theme from Curb Your Enthusiasm>

<credits>

[Kevin Thurlow]

"(You've undoubtedly retained your ascorbic wit.)"

Fans of vitamin C will be delighted.