A History Of The Petts Wood And Orpington Chess Club
These notes seek to give an insight into the history of the Orpington, Petts Wood and Petts Wood & Orpington chess clubs. Included are details of club venues, trophies won and most importantly, the contributions made by individual club members to provide chess playing opportunities in Petts Wood and Orpington.
From this history it is clear that a club can grow and then shrink alarmingly quickly. The best safeguard against decline seems to be to have a broad membership base, with as many club members as possible actively involved in the running of the club.
The first record of organised chess in Orpington is the founding of Orpington Chess and Draughts Club on 1 October 1894. The club met in the very swish looking purpose-built village hall, built in 1890, located on the High Street. We don’t know exactly where the Village Hall stood, only that the site was sold in the 1960s and redeveloped, the latest version of the Village Hall, which is close to the War Memorial roundabout, is not in the same place.
The chess and draughts club annual subscription was just one shilling (5p), worth about £4 today. However, the club members were also required to join the Village Hall Trust, costing another 20p, so pushing up the overall charge to £20 by today’s values.
The chess club secretary, Mr C Johnson, of Moorfield Road, Orpington, stated in the local newspaper, The Bromley and District Times, “instruction would be given to those wishing to learn”. There is no record of Orpington playing against other clubs in that first season, presumably the members played each other.
The following year, on 13 September 1895, a short local newspaper item states simply “the affiliation of the St Mary Cray and Orpington chess clubs is suggested”. Nothing else is mentioned. The merger went ahead, with Charles Chapman becoming secretary and Orpington and Draughts Club founder Mr C Johnson joining the committee.
The Crays and Orpington Chess Club met in the Library, St Mary Cray, located in St Mary High Street, adjacent and to the right of where the Temple Church still stands today. In the 1890s Orpington and St Mary Cray were both villages and their centres then were closer to each other than today. The original Village Hall was demolished in the 1930s and the library appears to have been destroyed by bombing in the Second World War (1939-1945).
The newly formed Crays and Orpington Chess Club travelled to the Lime Tree Hotel, Sevenoaks on 28 November 1895 for what is likely to have been one of their first matches, beating Sevenoaks 7-3. A local newspaper report of this match provides the first known Crays and Orpington Chess Club team line-up
Board 1: E Eckenstein (WIN), 2: R Chapman (loss), 3: A Ried (WIN), 4: J Sales (WIN), 5: W Hawes (loss), 6: C Best (draw), 7: H Thames (loss), 8: C Chapman (WIN), 9: C Clark (draw), 10: W Sales (WIN)11: S Johnson (WIN).
The last known written reference of the Crays and Orpington Chess Club is in May 1906 when a local newspaper reported Crays and Orpington losing at Sevenoaks. The club appears to have become dormant at some point before the First World War (1914–1918).
After the war there seems to have been a concerted effort to revive chess clubs in Kent. In December 1919 former secretary Charles Chapman (now secretary of Sevenoaks Chess Club) gives a simultaneous display in Orpington and saying that the sixteen local player turnout gives hope of reviving the club.
His optimism is confirmed with the 25 March 1921 edition of the Courier newspaper reporting “Orpington Chess Club” (no mention of Crays) finishing second in their Lewis Cup section. It goes on to say that Orpington Chess Club secretary, Mr Dannatt, is promoting a summer programme that includes senior players giving younger members “instruction on a systematic plan”. There will also be simultaneous display by Mrs Holloway (Bromley), who won the British Women’s championship in 1919 and 1936. Another simultaneous to be given by Mr Charles Chapman (Sevenoaks). It is likely the club met in the Village Hall in Orpington.
It is apparent that Charles Chapman was a major figure in the development of club chess in Orpington. He was a member of St Mary Cray Chess Club in 1895, then secretary at Crays and Orpington 1896-1897. He then moves to Sevenoaks, where he joins the local club, eventually becoming secretary. In Sevenoaks he goes into estate agency business, apparently, working for another former Crays and Orpington player.
Charles Chapman starts playing club chess in his early twenties, winning on low boards. Remarkably within a few years he is routinely winning the Kent individual championship and giving simultaneous displays. Charles Chapman seems to have fostered a close bond between the Sevenoaks and Orpington Chess Clubs. He was both a strong chess player as well as a dedicated chess administrator. It is apparent that he regularly supplied chess news to local papers, no doubt generating interest in the clubs he belonged to and very helpfully creating a paper trail in newspaper archives. He was a never-say-die advocate for chess in Orpington!
J.W Thomas is recorded as playing for Crays and Orpington Chess Club on Wednesday 10 March 1897 in a defeat against Sidcup at their splendidly named Mundays Coffee Tavern venue. Twenty-seven years later (in 1924) he is playing for Orpington at Tunbridge Wells. The team loses but he wins.
So it can be stated with confidence that the Orpington Chess and Draughts Club, the Crays and Orpington Chess Club and the Orpington Chess Club are directly linked by the memberships of C Johnson and JW Thomas, as well as the enduring support of Charles Chapman.
Occasional local newspaper reports between 1920 and 1937 show Orpington Chess Club competing in Kent county competitions. Up to the 1920s local newspapers were the noticeboards, web pages, emails and text messages of their day, providing information about local organisations, including chess clubs. After that time local chess club information is less often featured in local newspapers. In the absence of club records to examine, and limited Kent County Chess Association records being available it is more challenging to find out about Orpington Chess Club from the 1930s onwards.
George Turner is a former longstanding member of Orpington Chess Club. He started playing chess in Chesterfield. Eventually his work as civil servant took him to London. He joined Orpington Chess Club around 1969 or 1970. George recalls the club meeting near Orpington station (as does Trevor Baldwin when a visiting Lewisham player). George has the Orpington Chess Club trophy that members competed for annually. The engravings on the trophy show it was competed for from the early/mid 1940s onwards.
Kent County Chess Association records, while limited, indicate that Orpington Chess Club was almost certainly in existence and competing in county competitions, during peace time, from 1920 until the merger with Petts Wood in 2000.
By the late 1990s the number of Orpington Club members had dwindled and it was decided to seek a merger with Petts Wood. At the time of merger the late Ivor Smith was the long serving secretary. John Cook was part of the Orpington Chess Club delegation that arranged the merger. John recalls “When I joined the club in 1990 it was meeting at St Nicholas Church hall at the top of Ashbourne Rise. The building still strikes me as resembling an overgrown Nissen hut. The club membership eventually became so low that we couldn’t raise a team for matches, so it was decided to seek a merger with Petts Wood. The Petts Wood club had a much larger membership at that time and in recognition of this the combined club was named Petts Wood and Orpington even though Orpington is the bigger town. I was the highest rated player at the time of the merger. It is a measure of how the club has grown that nowadays I just about make the top 20”.
Peter Taylor, who joined Petts Wood Chess Club as a boy, recalled details about the early days of the club in the 1960s and very helpfully the names of several members, including Michael Jay. By a stroke of good fortune it was possible to contact Michael, who takes up the story in June 2020 from his home in Dorset.
“Back in 1962, when I was around fifteen years old, and still at school, we had an informal chess league going with about five players around Willett Close, where my family lived at number six.”
“My father EL Jay was also involved. The league grew and more wanted to play and so we started playing weekly at the nearby St Dunstan’s School in St Johns Road, Petts Wood, now demolished and with houses built on the site.”
“Soon we were meeting as the Willett Chess Club and playing each other in the Willett Café in Station Square, Petts Wood after it had closed for the day.” Peter Taylor also recalled playing there and the curious glances of passers-by looking through the windows at the chess players.
Michael goes on, “My dad managed the finances, but I vaguely remember him reporting we had bought a lot of sets etc, but still had something left because of the unexpected growth in members. Also, there may have been some generous donations to help us get established.”
“Then still more wanted to take part, so I decided to form a Petts Wood club and meet at the Daylight Inn. I think we started with a meeting on Monday 2 Sept 1963. As a 16-year old I had no experience of running of a club and did not really know what I was doing, but was keen. My father, who worked in the Midland Bank was the first club Treasurer and he brought some needed maturity and experience.”
“There must have been a need for a club in Petts Wood, as membership took off and I think we were soon getting about 35 to club nights. Half of these were junior players, some of whom were strong. There was a tremendous atmosphere at club nights and a real mix of members, including women and many men in the 20-50 age range, but I cannot remember many retired people. And of course, many juniors, but I can only recall a few girls.”
“To help recruit new members we used the local paper quite a lot (Orpington & Kentish Times), plus cards in display boards around Petts Wood. Word of mouth also seemed to work and after playing at to St Dunstan’s School, we seemed to get a waiting list.”
“I think Bob MacBrayne, who seems to have been close to International Master level, may have seen something in the paper and contacted me. He was a great member socially, and very modest. Because of our lack of experience, it took some time to realise how strong he was. I cannot remember him losing a league match.”
“I am not sure when, but we then entered competitions and actually had some good players. I remember us doing well in the Stevenson Cup early on. I also became involved in Kent County Chess admin and seem to remember being elected onto the Committee. It was also a time when County Chess was big and there were Saturday afternoon 80 board matches at John Lewis in London. Petts Wood provided quite a few players for the Kent team.”
Remarkably, within a few years of being setup, the club beat Tunbridge Wells 4-1 to win the Lewis cup, the second highest ranked Kent County Chess Association competition. A local newspaper article featured the Petts Wood Chess Club team for that Lewis Cup final match played on 17 July 1965:
Petts Wood – Board 1: RA MacBrayne (WIN), 2: R Chilcott (WIN), 3: Len Flight (loss), 4: Tony Waller (WIN), 5: Michael Jay (WIN by default).
“From the early days Petts Wood Chess Club had contacts and shared some members with Orpington Chess Club, but they were a very different kind of club and had much more experienced players. Around then, I think they had a team in the London League.“
“I was not personally involved with the club for that many years after formation. My parents retired and moved to Whitstable and I moved to live in London and then Glasgow. And I lost touch. But I look back on some great times at Petts Wood Chess Club. There was a tremendous energy and enthusiasm.”
Peter Taylor was one of several pupils at St Olave’s School who were members of the club around the time of the 1965 Lewis Cup win. Peter recalls that Len Flight was the club Treasurer and that Tony Waller was also a member of Orpington chess club. Other members included Paul Young, Frank Noyes and David Samson.
Peter Taylor recalls the club played for several years in the Daylight Inn, upstairs in a dining room, where he enjoyed the sandwiches that were served! Membership grew and the club moved on to settle in the Petts Wood Memorial Hall, in Petts Wood Road just round the corner from the pub.
Keith Walker was club secretary for about ten years, his son was also an active member. Peter Thomas succeeded Keith as secretary and recalls that in the early 1990s the club dwindling to six or so members and financial pressures resulting in a move from the Memorial Hall, across the railway line, to the Garden Estates Association (GEA) Hall in Woodhurst Avenue.
A recruitment drive was launched by club member and community activist Bob Peden, who placed articles in the local newspaper (The News Shopper) emphasising the fun of social chess in a club environment. The recruitment campaign was a success, boosting the number of members, including a number of social players such as Iris Arnott and Bob Foreman. The club developed a strong social side, including post-club night refreshment being taken at the nearby British Legion, Christmas dinner and the chairman’s annual party hosted over the years by Robert Pope-Hattersley, Alan Thurgood, and Professor Simon McVeigh.
To give the new members, who were largely lower-graded players, match play opportunities the club successfully lobbied Kent County Chess Association to establish the Tom Fuller cup for players graded under 100.
By 1996 the club was running internal club competitions and fielding several teams in Kent County Chess Association competitions. Brian Beard steered the club to its first trophy success in many years when he captained the team that won Kent County Chess Association Tom Fuller cup in 1999. Success came like buses, with the club team captained by Phil Easthope also winning the inaugural Intro Cup in 2000.
Trevor Baldwin took over from Peter Thomas as secretary in the mid-1990s. At this time Alan Thurgood was the club chairman and Ken Hardy the Treasurer. Roy Ellis took on the thankless but hugely important task of opening and locking up the GEA Hall as well as buying the supplies for refreshments.
Peter Thomas recalls that Petts Wood chess club was thriving when it was approached about a merger by the Orpington chess club in 2000. “While Orpington Chess Club only had a handful of members they were very experienced players and so boosted playing strength, especially the arrival of John Cook, said Peter. He went on, “The Petts Wood Chess Club was already in good shape and so the merger produced an even stronger club. However, we were very aware that at that time that some other local chess clubs had closed down when key members departed and that our own future was directly linked to developing our own new club officers and captains.”
It was agreed that new club should be called Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club.
Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club first entered teams in Kent County Chess Association competitions in the 2000/2001 season. The founding Chairman was Alan Thurgood, Secretary Trevor Baldwin and Treasurer Ken Hardy, all of whom had held the same positions in the Petts Wood Chess Club. The club played at the GEA Hall, the home of the Petts Wood Chess Club.
Paul Jones succeeded Trevor Baldwin as secretary soon after the merger. Paul recalls that in 2000/2001 there were usually 35-40 members attending club nights, and teams were entered in the Intro, Tom Fuller, Harvey and En Passant Cups. Members at this time were middle-aged men, though we also had two lady members, Iris Arnott and Margaret Miller.
However, over the next few years membership declined to 17 and facing a significant rent increase for the next season, Paul called an emergency committee meeting (in around 2005) saying that the club would have to find new premises at a lower rent, or close, as the club was not financially viable.
Fortunately, the United Reformed Church Lynwood Grove agreed a sympathetic rent of £600 for the following season, in exchange for the season’s rent being paid in full in advance. This was jointly funded by the Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer (John Cook, Paul Jones and Peter Anderson) and the church kindly agreed to fix the rate until such time as the membership should grow. It is likely that this is the second time that the Church and chess club have been based at the same location. In the 1920s, before moving to their permanent site on Knoll Rise, the Church held services in the Village Hall, the probable home venue for Orpington Chess Club.
A friendly match with around 25 students of St Olave’s School provided some younger members, some of whom improved rapidly, with the club in following years being home to national champions in the Under 14, U12 and U10 sections.
As the membership increased, the club were able to enter more teams in the county competitions. In one year, the club had two Intro Cup teams, three Tom Fuller Cup teams, two Harvey teams and an En Passant team. This reflected the growing membership, but also the comparatively weak playing strength of the club at that time.
In order to compete at a higher level, the club joined forces with Sevenoaks Chess Club, which had insufficient members to raise its own team, to field a joint team in the Stevenson Cup (average grade 155). Sevenoaks Secretary Roy Parsons was the captain for the first two or three years.
The club’s first website was set up in 2008 by current Club Chairman Paul Jones’ daughter, Lorna. Ralph Ambrose became webmaster in August 2010, before becoming secretary in September 2011. Ralph developed the website, focusing on ensuring that people searching the web for chess in the club catchment area would quickly find the Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club website. In July 2020 Ralph said, “Although on the surface it appears a simple website, it was carefully constructed and optimised to enable the club to gain and leverage strategic advantage. With some luck, it seems to have worked!”
Around 2010 an early evening junior chess section of the club was started, building on local school chess initiatives. It provided enthusiastic players with coaching and more structured chess play. The junior section flourished, with many junior players going on to play for the senior club teams.
The club ran various competitions for club members, including a fun Christmas handicap tournament played over one, often chaotic, evening. The handicap system sometimes resulted in the higher graded members having just one minute to play a match against the 24 minutes allocated to their lower graded opponents.
The chairman or vice chairman hosted an annual summer party for club members and family members to socialise and celebrate the achievements of the season gone by. Guests could expect to find chess problems on the walls and to feature in a group club photo alongside a trophy won.
Around Christmas time the club members and family members socialised over an afternoon meal in a local pub restaurant, including the Crooked Billet in Petts Wood.
Following a generous legacy by club member Phil Easthope in 2018 a cup dedicated to his memory was presented for club juniors to compete for annually.
Club Treasurer Jean-Baptiste Jugand organised and led a team of club members, enabling the club to successfully host the one day Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club Rapidplay Tournament in the summers of 2017 and 2019, hosted at Holy Innocents’ Catholic Primary School, Mitchell Road, Orpington. The open section attracting International Master level players. The build-up to the 2017 Rapidplay featured the club working with the Walnuts Shopping Centre, with club members playing shoppers at the centre and reduced entry fees on offer for local players. The 2019 Rapidplay was generously sponsored by local firm Brush Strokes Decorating (brushstrokesdecorating.com), run by club member Kris Jamroz.
The new Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club was successful in its first season, winning the Kent County Chess Association (KCCA) Intro Cup in 2001. Over the following years Petts Wood and Orpington chess club has won a number of KCCA trophies including the highest ranked, the County Cup in 2018 and 2019. The highlight to date has been the KCCA finals day in May 2019, when the club fielded four teams consisting of a total of 22 players, including 11 juniors, and won all four trophies: the County, Stevenson, En Passant and Fuller Cups. As far as is known, no other club has been able to field as many teams successfully on finals day!
Currently the junior section of the club is one of the largest and possibly the strongest in England. Typically we have around 50 juniors attending on club nights. Four of them, Aditya and Shlok Verma, Aaravamudhan Balaji and James Merriman, are current or past British champions in their age groups and are regular England internationals. Mikey and Jacob Watson have also been in the England junior squad and Orla Dorman has played for Ireland girls. Mikey also won the Kent open championship at the age of 14 and Orla is currently the joint Kent ladies champion. Viktor Jamroz is not far behind this group.
The 2020 Covid 19 pandemic resulted in the 2019-2020 season being curtailed. During the months of “lockdown”, for the first time the club entered a team in an internet-based league, with home-based club members playing opponents from other clubs in the UK and around the world, including South Africa, the US, Bangladesh, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Ecuador and Peru. National anthems were played before the most prestigious matches and some matches had live commentaries. Thus far the club has won most of those matches.
In July 2020 John Cook advised members, “Four of our juniors are playing for England in the Glorney Cup, Robinson Cup and Stokes Cup.”
At the time of writing, Petts Wood and Orpington Chess Club is going from strength to strength, with club members ranging from novice juniors to highly graded senior players. The current membership, including the juniors, is approximately 100.
I would like to thank the former and current club members who generously provided written and spoken contributions to create this club history.