Kevin Hawkins

[Roger de Coverly]

I have just received the sad news from his son Alan, that Kevin died unexpectedly earlier this week.

Kevin was Bourne End Chairman as well as B team match captain. Playing in both first and second teams, he would have been well known to club players in both the Bucks League and the Berks League, as well as players in the Chiltern county competition.

He first came to the club when his son was a junior, which would have been some thirty years ago. Although he could play to a 150 standard, we never did really reign in his wilder extravagances in the Kings Gambit as white and Sicilian Najdorf as black, nor his frequent time pressure.

RIP.

[Paul Cooksey]

RIP Kevin, a man who knew triumph and disaster and treated those impostors just the same.

[J T Melsom]

Genuinely saddened to read this. Kevin gave me a lift back to the centre of High Wycombe after the last county match. I did point out he lived considerably closer to our venue than his historic club of choice. I've always enjoyed watching his games and occasionally had wildly entertaining encounters of our own. I might be able to find a game, but do recall my decision in a relatively recent fixture to switch from e6 to e5 for a bit of variety, only to realise very quickly that f4 was on the board. How could I have forgotten!

Kevin was also a keen rugby league enthusiast - I'd bumped into him in a local pub after a narrow loss for Warrington at Wembley. I'd been half watching, but the crucial points had been scored after I'd looked away or gone to the bar, so I congratulated rather than commiserated with the Wire fan.

Roger - I know the county officers are a bit hard to track down, but I hope you will ensure this news is circulated fairly widely. Happy to help.

[Dan Lambourne]

I am also sad to read this, as I remember him quite well, as it takes me back to one of my many blunders, as Kevin managed to draw a game against me in 1994, in a Bucks U18 v Bucks 2 Clash.

Unfortunately my record taking was poor for this game so I can't remember the exact position, but I was white and it was something like below.
7k/3r4/6R1/6NP/7K/6P1/8/8

I hadn't spotted I had blocked his king, and he checked with the Rook hoping I wouldn't notice, which I didn't, so I vaguely remember pushing my pawn to block, and I still remember his smile when he took the pawn for an instant draw, and then an instant apology.

I have a game against Alan in my book dated 1990, so 30 thirty years would be about right.

Condolences to Alan and the rest of the family.

[Colin Purdon]

This is sad news and quite a shock. As Roger said he was well known in the local leagues and was one of the nicest people you could come across.

RIP Kevin, and condolences to his family.

[Mark Taylor]

I'm very sad to hear this shocking news.

I played Kevin 5 times over a 23-year period, and of course saw him in many other matches against Bourne End. He was a real chess enthusiast who loved attacking play, and was a very nice man.

My commiserations to his family, and to his friends, and especially those at Bourne End Chess Club.

[Jim Stayt]

Really sorry to hear this. I played Kevin 4 times over the last 10 years (and maybe a few further back), most recently in February. He was always a very friendly and sporting opponent.
My condolences to his friends and family.

[Andrew Smith]

Very sad news and a big loss to Bourne End Chess Club. Our Club Chairman and a true stalwart always willing to help out. As a player, he specialised in complicated chess! Pawns and Pieces were often jettisoned to generate an attacking position. In comparison, he made me look like a positional player which is quite some achievement. His achilles heel was his handling of the clock - whatever the time, he never had enough ! So he was really a stronger player than his grade reflected, because he lost so many games due to time pressure. As Black playing the Sicilian, he often launched all his counter-play before he needed to - and that meant leaving his King in the centre of the board for a nerve tingling period of time. If he finished his match game early, I was always aware of him looking over my shoulder calculating all sorts of attacking ideas that even I would have no intention of playing. In defeat, he usually bore the face of exasperation or frustration and in the bar afterwards, he would be beating himself up because of his perceived incompetence. He always felt he was winning....a chess optimist. But a perfect gentleman in defeat. His face would nearly always be flushed because of the time scramble he had just been through, but he would be immaculately courteous to his opponent. He triumphed over me many years ago before I moved to Bourne End ( I have been here 25 years!) in a team of 4 (handicap ?!) Quickplay. I think it was a national knockout competition. I was playing for Slough against Bourne End and we expected to win. However, it all came down to the last game of the last match, and I was playing Kevin. Things had got complicated (!) but I was winning. The time handicap was a bit of an issue for me and somehow things went awry ! As a result, it wasn't my team, Slough, comprising (I think) of Richard Webb, Miroslav and Jovanka Houska and me that went through....against the odds, Kevin had done it for Bourne End. In victory, as in defeat, I recall he was a perfect gentleman.

[Richard Thursby]

Sad to hear of his passing. We played once in the Buckinghamshire League many years ago, agreeing a draw in a position where neither of us had much time left.

[Roger de Coverly]

Details of the funeral on Thursday 6th August are shown below.

Attendance at the funeral itself is by invitation only, given the current 30 person limit. There is however a garden at the pub afterwards.

Also there's a webcast. Rather than put the details of the webcast on a public forum, PM me with an email address and I'll forward the original email.



(email from Alan Hawkins)

The service is at 13:15 Thursday 6th August at Chiltern (Amersham) Crematorium, Hampden Chapel, HP7 0ND.
Afterwards there will be an informal get together at the Hit and Miss pub in Penn Street (HP7 0FA), we have booked a room from 2ish with nibbles (limited to 30 same as the crematorium), but if anyone would like to pop in there is plenty of garden space which we'll spill into.


For those who'd like the webcast .....
.

[Nigel Smith]

I'm sorry to hear of Kevin's passing. I played him a number of times over the last few years - he was a tricky player with a keen tactical eye - you needed to be constantly vigilant! He caught me out in one of our games with a nice tactical idea on move 6 in an opening I thought I knew pretty well. All the games I played against Kevin were played in a friendly but very competitive spirit with Kevin ever on the lookout for a way to mix things up tactically.

My condolences to friends and family.

[Roger de Coverly]

Some brief biographical information.

Kevin Hawkins BSc CEng MICE CGeol FGS SLC

Kevin was born 28th October 1951 and died 22nd July 2020.

He was one of a family of three children in Liverpool with an older brother and younger sister. He attended Imperial College in London and professionally became a Geotechnical Engineer. He was married to Mary Cummins in 1973 and they had two sons, Alan, born 1977, David, born 1982 and a daughter Claire, born 1978. The family lived in Hong Kong from 1981 to 1987.

He travelled extensively as part of his work, one of his projects being the widening of the Panama Canal.