Before the North Essex Chess League was formed there was the Essex-Suffolk Border League. Three games from this league have been included in previous posts, the material for this post was taken from the booklet "The History of the North Essex Chess League" by J. Priestley.
The Scene Prior to Formation
In 1963 the County of Essex could have been divided, so far
as the active chess player was concerned, into two distinct portions. In the
extreme south lay rich and fertile territory in which a substantial number of
clubs could readily be found, all thriving under the stimulus of active competition
provided by the Essex Chess League. The remainder of the County, in contrast,
comprised a large area of barren wasteland populated only by a very small
number of clubs which were both underactive and poorly publicised. For a while,
little or no contact existed between these clubs, far less any organised
competition, so that each club was somewhat akin to a sudden oasis in a desert.
Chess activity in the area was thus at a very low level, so low that many were
unaware it existed at all. Indeed, a newcomer to Essex at that time who
enquired about facilities for the game might easily have been offered the
advice "there's nothing north of Brentwood".
The situation is, however, very different today, for
activities in the area comprising the central and northern parts of Essex have
developed to a level comparable with those in the south since the formation of
the North Essex Chess League. This is the story of the birth, and subsequent
growth, of the League.
It is known that chess clubs have existed in the area for
about 100 years, and possibly longer. Colchester Chess Club has records dating
back to its formation in 1888, which reveal that the club was soon engaged in
friendly matches against clubs from Chelmsford, Clacton and Sudbury. But
although such encounters took place regularly over many years, it appears that
no organised competition existed specifically for clubs in the area until 1950,
when the Essex and Suffolk Border League was formed. Before then, competitive
chess came only in the form of the Essex County Trophy, in which clubs from the
area competed for a long period. Chelmsford actually won the event more than
once in the 1930's. Colchester also played in the National Club Championship
for quite a while. As both events were
on a knockout basis, even the successful could expect no more than a handful of
matches in a season. The competitions must have involved considerable
travelling too, for most of the entrants in the Essex County Trophy came from
the far south while opponents in the National Club Championship were likely to
be situated even further afield. The formation of the Essex & Suffolk
Border League must have been very welcome to all those who relished the
challenge of regular competitive play against opposition within reasonable distance.
But the League never really developed in the way its
promoters had no doubt hoped. Although it covered the sizeable area from
Chelmsford in the south to Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds in the north,
membership was always confined to about half a dozen clubs, and competition was
destined to last for just twelve seasons. In its final years, membership
consisted of only five clubs who met over six boards once a season. Chelmsford
found themselves playing just one home match in every other season, arising
from the alternation of venues with old foes Colchester. The other three
surviving members, Clacton, Ipswich and Bury St. Edmunds, were all played
"halfway" at either Colchester or Sudbury. The luxury of a home match
was a similar rarity for both Bury and Clacton.
Under these conditions it is, perhaps, hardly surprising that enthusiasm
fell away, and play in the League ultimately ceased in the area, for by that
time no club was still taking part in the Essex County Trophy, a fact which no
doubt helped to give rise to the myth that there was nothing north of
Brentwood.
If the Essex & Suffolk Border League had succeeded in
maintaining its existence for just a little while longer, the development of
competitive chess in the area might well have taken a very different course
from the one it subsequently did. Central and northern Essex saw a substantial
rise in population between the late 1950's and the mid 1970's, and indeed the
population has continued to expand right to the present day. Inevitably, the newcomers
included chessplayers, some of whom swelled the ranks of existing clubs while
others set about forming new clubs after failing to find any existing ones
within reach. Ironically, the new clubs first started to appear in 1963, just
after the demise of the Border League. Had there been a local league available
some may well have joined it, but as there was not it meant that the area had
no central agency through which clubs could readily make contact with each
other. As a result, a newly formed club often remained in total isolation from
any others until some while after its formation.
Even the most undaunted explorer would have had difficulty
in tracking down every single pocket of chess activity which existed at this
time. Enquiries of official sources ought to have unearthed Colchester, for
they alone had been affiliated to the British Chess Federation. Discovery would
have led on to Chelmsford and Clacton, both known to Colchester, but no
further, for the established clubs knew nothing of the new ones. Advertising a
small club or society on a continuous basis has never been an easy matter and
was even more difficult then than it is today, for nowadays we have the useful
media of comprehensive local directories, free "advertiser" newspapers
and a large network of community centres which were virtually non-existent in
1963. So contact between clubs often came about only after diligent enquiries
by newly appointed club secretaries desperately seeking opposition against
which their clubs could play. Gradually, contacts were made and friendly
matches arranged, and the desert wastelands started to show a few signs of
fertility.
Incredibly, a newly formed club in Chelmsford
actually operated for some months within half a mile of the Chelmsford club
itself before contact was established between the two. The new club had been
formed at the Hoffmann Company (now Ransome Hoffmann Pollard) and, although
membership was small, the enthusiastic efforts of secretary Stan Wooller had
led him into contact with other small clubs as far apart as Kedington
(Haverhill), Ghyllgrove (Basildon) and the United States Air Force Base at
Wethersfield as well as a more substantial group at Braintree. A number of
friendly matches had taken place between members of this group before contact
was established between the two Chelmsford clubs. It happened when Chelmsford's
John Priestley wrote to local companies asking if there was any chess activity
taking place in sports and social sections, and received a very prompt response
from Stan Wooller to the effect that at Hoffmanns there most certainly was!
