The material for this post is the fourth extract taken from the booklet "The History of the North Essex Chess League" by J. Priestley.
1966-72 Rapid Development
When the tide turned, it did so quickly. Not only did both
Hoffmans and Coggeshall pledge to carry on, for one season at least, but also
applications for membership came in from newly formed groups at Maldon and
Essex University. Oddly enough, the University had long been regarded as a
likely candidate for membership, but previous approaches had produced no
indication of any chess activity. Now, suddenly, the players were there.
Naturally, both applications were eagerly accepted.
The season 1966-67 was unquestionably the most significant
in the League's entire history. In the preceding summer there had been doubt
whether membership would be sufficient to enable a proper competition to be
run, but the season had actually run with a record seven clubs competing, and
in the following summer preparations were in hand for the formation of a second
division as well as the admission of two more new clubs, namely Witham and
Marconi. ln addition, representative matches had been played against Ilford
Chess Club, at that time the strongest club in the County, and the Suffolk
League, and match play rules had been comprehensively formulated to replace the
somewhat brief and basic rules which had operated since the League was
formed. Quite a transformation!
From then on the future of the League was assured, and
apprehensions concerning survival were finally banished from mind. Though
purely academic, it is interesting to speculate on what would have happened had
events taken a different course in the summer of 1966. If neither Maldon nor
Essex University had materialised, and both Coggeshall and Hoffmanns had
withdrawn, could the three remaining clubs have ensured the League's survival?
It is almost certain that competition between the three would have continued,
for the players enthusiasm would have been sharpened by the outcome of the
preceding season's championship where the clubs had been in such close
contention. Perhaps each club would have met the others three, or even four,
times a season rather than twice so as to expand the fixture programme. But
would competition of this nature, which could hardly be described as a proper
league, have continued for very long if no new blood had been forthcoming? It
seems reasonable to suppose that enthusiasm would have declined in the face of
a prolonged series of meetings between the same three opponents, for inevitably
they would not have remained so well balanced in playing strength and results
would have become predictable. Had this led to the discontinuation of organised
competition, the belief that the area could not support league chess would have
been firmly implanted in the minds of the principal characters, especially
having regard to the demise of the Border League not long before, and it might
have been a long while before anyone was ready to try again.
It is also valid to consider the situation from a different
viewpoint by asking how enthusiastic a new club would have been to join a
league having only three members, especially if that club happened to be in the
south of the area and within reach of the greater variety and security offered
by the Essex Chess League.
Such apprehensions may seem far-fetched when viewed from the
haven of today's thriving activities, but they were real enough then. Nobody
knew that the arrival of Essex University. Maldon, Marconi and Witham and those
who followed was so soon to occur, but everyone was aware that organised club
chess had never previously taken sufficient root so as to remain permanent in
the area. In the minds of the committee of the day the League had, for a short
while, stood on the very brink of what might easily have been an irreversible
slide into oblivion.
This most eventful of seasons ended with
Colchester winning back the championship. Not many people would have expected
this to be the club's last triumph in the championship for several years to
come for the team was certainly imposing, including as it did the powerful
juniors Congdon, Buis and Rose. Tim Congdon was to go on to represent England
in the Glorney Cup and later attain a grading of over 200. Unfortunately for Colchester,
all three were destined to leave the area in pursuit of further education and
only Mike Rose was to return, and then only for a short while. The club has
rarely featured prominently in the first division since but has often done well
in the second, especially in the early years of that competition.
Also, in that significant season of 1966/67, the League held
its first general meeting since its formation. A proper constitution was
adopted providing for annual general meetings to be held in future at which
officers would be obliged to offer themselves for re-election by the League's
players as a whole, rather than to serve indefinitely under appointment by the
committee. Such meetings also afforded every player a direct relationship with
the running of the League and the opportunity to put forward his suggestions.
Coggeshall withdrew before the start of the 1967/68 season.
As with Wethersfield, their tenure of league status had been short, but their
contribution to the promotion of competitive chess in the area had been
invaluable. With the arrival of Marconi and Witham eight clubs competed for the
championship and all but Witham fielded a team in the new second division.
Strangely enough, although the concept of four board teams
had never been seriously considered for the first division, it was readily adopted
for the second. This may have been due to the fact that, initially, the second
division was not regarded as having the same formality as the first. In the
past, players who had not been selected had, from to time, been tagged on to
the end of the team to play their counterparts from the opposing club on a
friendly basis, and the same friendly and informal atmosphere was carried
forward when competition was regularised into a proper division. Those who had
played on a friendly basis were not necessarily the best players available, for
the custom had been to offer games to everyone who wanted to play an opponent
from another club without regard to playing strength, so sometimes near
beginners turned out while players with greater experience stayed at home. This
practice, too, was continued into the second division so that, for a while, it
offered open house to anybody who wanted to play rather than only to those who
qualified on playing ability. Competitive instincts gradually overshadowed this
noble concept, but the same high ideals can still be seen today, principally in
some of the teams towards the lower end of the third division. Only recently
Chelmsford club, for one, succeeded in fielding over the course of a season
every single member who had expressed a desire to play. The second division
found instant favour with two different categories of player. There were those
who had clamoured for a place in the club's team, but who had rarely achieved
selection, and there were also those who had often been asked to play but had
declined to do so, feeling that their playing ability was not sufficient to
enable them to take on somebody in the opposing club's best six. A good example
of this type of player could be found at Hoffmanns, whose overall membership
supported the fielding of ten players, but not many of the ten felt up to the
demands of appearing in the first six. So, although the first division had
always represented a struggle, the club had found no difficulty in taking up
its place in the second.
In its early days the fixtures in the second division
coincided with the first, so that clubs met ten-a-side. Whilst convenient from
the point of view of administration, the arrangement tended to stretch
available equipment to its absolute limits. Visiting teams were always called
upon to bring clocks, and sometimes sets and boards as well. Nevertheless it
was not unusual to find one or two games in progress without the aid of a
clock, for sometimes the combined resources of the two clubs could not muster
ten in working order. Sometimes, too, the visiting club forgot to bring any.
The use of clocks was not compulsory, even in the first division, reflecting
the fact that newly formed clubs were not fully equipped, and the rules simply
provided that clocks had to be used where available. In fact, the rules
remained so worded until as recently as 1985. Happily, murmurs of slow play
have rarely, if ever, been heard, for those who have played without clocks
usually tended to be from the lower ranges of playing strength where moves are
often played at quite a fast rate.
The Witham club had been formed with the aid of some
counselling from the League, pursuant to the policy of helping to create new
clubs in the area. Like the League itself, the club grew rapidly from humble
beginnings. In its first season, one match was drawn and thirteen lost, and in
all seventeen matches were played before the first win was finally registered.
But within a few years the club became a major force both in numerical and
playing strength, culminating with the capture of the first division
championship in 1973.
The other newcomers, Marconi, were also to enjoy
considerable success and were soon to dominate the championship. Happily the
club has rarely been troubled by the problems of dwindling membership so often
encountered by company clubs, and for much of its life has enjoyed a level of
support comparable with rivals whose catchment areas comprise entire towns.
The previous season's arrivals, Essex University and Maldon,
also established themselves as League stalwarts, although neither has succeeded
in capturing the championship to date. But both made good starts, with the
University finishing third in each of its first two seasons and Maldon becoming
the first winners of the second division. In those days the first and second
divisions were known as Divisions A and B. The numerical suffix did not appear
until the formation of the third division in 1976.
1967/68 saw Chelmsford regain the championship from
Colchester. Facilities continued to expand. A team was entered in the Postal
Chess League, and grading was introduced. Ray Keene, arguably the leading
British player of the day, gave a simultaneous display. A League Magazine
appeared for the first time, and became an established feature of the League in
the years that followed.
Stan Wooller, the Secretary of Hoffmanns, emigrated to New
Zealand and received a warm tribute at the A.G.M. for all his efforts during
the League's formative years. Stan Wooller's role in the creation and development
of the League cannot be understated, for it was he who played a principal part
in the establishment of contact between clubs in the area which led to the
first meeting in 1964, and it was he who did so much to maintain the Hoffmann
Club's membership of the League at a time when its withdrawal might have placed
the future of the League itself in jeopardy.
Until now, all clerical duties had been undertaken by the
General Secretary, but owing to the expansion of activities the post of
Tournaments Officer was created to deal with yet another new venture, an
individual championship. Andrew Lait of Marconi was the first holder of the
office, and he also dealt with grading. Nineteen players competed in the first
individual championship, run on the Swiss system, which was won by Gordon
Campbell, a Marconi player who had also played for Chelmsford.
1968/69 saw no further additions to the League's ranks.
Representative matches were played against Ilford Chess Club and the Rest of
Essex, and the League also staged the Essex & Norfolk county match. The
existence of the League had soon become known to those in the south of the
County, and these matches reflected the fast growth of contact between the two
areas. In fact, about a dozen of the League's players were already playing
regularly in County matches at this time. County matches have been played in
the League's area ever since, albeit infrequently. Not long after the Norfolk
match the League was host to the clash of the titans, Essex and Cambridge,
which saw some of the country's leading players assembled together under a
North Essex roof. Such an event would have been considered a completely
unrealistic pipe-dream only a few years before. Spectators were able to enjoy
the sight of Jonathan Penrose, playing against Ray Keene, then the highest
graded player in the country. It was well established now that there was
something north of Brentwood.
