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Bedfordshire County Chess News
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Cordon Trophy 2025
11 teams played for the Cordon Trophy at Bedford last Thursday, 25th September, won by Bedford ahead of Leighton Buzzard and Milton Keynes.
Full results can be found here. |
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27/09/25 |
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Fleming Trophy
We returned to the village of Bedmond for this season’s Fleming Trophy match which was played on the 30th November.
The Bucks captain (Steve Law) and I had been in regular contact in the days and weeks leading up to the match and
we were nominally aiming for a 16 board match, but the actual number was flexible depending on player availability. In the end (the day before
the match) we agreed on a 17 board match. We had good representation from all the Beds league clubs and several players were playing for the
county for the first team. The impressive trophy was delivered by Milen from Luton (it had been on display at the University of Bedfordshire
over the last 12 months and we were hoping to return it….).
The ratings were pretty close and I managed to gain a tiny advantage for the team by winning the toss to give us an extra white.
Dominic recorded a very quick win (before I’d even looked at the game) and we held the lead all afternoon although
it was close most of the way through. The Luton guys were keeping tabs on the score for their own report
(click here) and at various points the score was
(Beds first) : 1.5-0.5, 3-2, 5-3, 6-5 with most of the remaining games still in the balance. As it happened five of those six games ended up as
Beds wins, my own draw (the last game to finish) being the exception. This resulted in a flattering 11.5-5.5 win for Bedfordshire and the trophy
is already proudly back on display in Luton.
It was pleasing to see all our debutants record a win or a draw as well as our three junior players. Daniella fits into
both of those categories and we believe she is the youngest player to ever represent Bedfordshire.
Well done to the team.
Kevin Williamson, 16th Dec 2024
Results can be found here. |
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16/12/2024 |
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Parking at Luton
Please note the following information for visitors to Luton chess club for league matches.
Venue: Room G225, Campus Centre, University of Bedfordshire, Luton. LU1 3HZ
Free Parking (after 6 pm): St. Ann's Road Luton, LU1 3HZ, or Lea Road Luton, LU1 3GG.
Paid Parking £2.50 4 hours. Vicarage Street Car Park, LU1 3HZ |
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Cordon Trophy 2024
11 teams played for the Cordon Trophy at Bedford last Thursday, 26th, won by Leighton Buzzard ahead of Bedford and Milton Keynes.
Full results can be found here. |
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28/09/24 |
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Parking at Luton
The usual place to park at Luton, Vicarage Street car park, will no longer be free for next season.
The charge will be £2 for the evening.
There is free on-road parking on Park Street, but it is limited and cannot be guaranteed.
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Park Street parking.
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28/07/2024 |
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Bedfordshire Individual County Championship
The Bedfordshire County Championship was won by Michael Botteley of Bedford
with a round to spare when he beat James Gardner in round 5. This enabled
him to reach 5 out of 5 with his nearest rivals on 3½ and only 1 round
to go. A draw in the last round saw him undefeated on 5½ out 6 for his
first win in the County Championship. Last round wins by 2 of last year's winners,
Graham Borrowdale and Adrian Elwin allowed them to pull clear of the rest of
the chasing pack to claim second place.
Prize Winners:
1st Michael Botteley 5½
2nd=: Graham Borrowdale, Adrian Elwin 4½
Rating 1st: Aleksandar Juhasz +1.09
Rating 2nd: Andrew Bowler +0.73
Slow Starter: Alexander Potts, Sumit Bhalla, David Phillips 3
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The winner being presented with the trophy.
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24/05/2024 |
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Milton Keynes New Venue
The entry to the new venue will be on the side of the building facing the OU Library.
From the car park, players will need to go to the left of the building and then turn right down the incline to the door. |
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15/04/2024 |
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| Milton Keynes will be moving to a new room on the Open University campus from the 18th April 2024. Details can be found on the Affiliated Clubs page. |
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11/04/2024 |
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Fleming Trophy on Display
The Fleming Trophy has gone on display at the University of Bedfordshire, arranged by Humayun Mirza of the Luton Chess Club.
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25/03/2024 |
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Fleming Trophy 2023
This year’s Fleming Trophy match was played in the village hall at Bedmond (Herts) just south of Hemel Hempstead.
Historians will already know that Bedmond was the birthplace of the only English pope, Nicholas Breakspear (Pope
Adrian IV). In addition, one of the opposition players told me that Graham Taylor (who managed the England national
football team, as well as Watford FC (amongst others)) lived locally, and frequently presented the medals at an
annual running event in the very hall we were playing in.
Beds held a big rating advantage across the boards and when we raced to a 6-2 lead (including wins for all three of
our Luton players) we looked sure to retain the trophy. However, Bucks clawed their way back winning the next four
games to finish to tie the scores at 6-6. Around then Robert, who looked to have an advantageous position dropped a
piece and was struggling. The match suddenly felt quite tense.
Paul calmed our nerves when, in a tricky ending with three minor pieces each his opponent got a little over-ambitious
with his knight and it was trapped on Paul’s back rank, thereby restoring our lead. Graham agreed a draw in a knight
ending shortly after, leaving two games in play. Brian’s opponent, who had been a piece for a pawn down for a while
was making life difficult with a pawn on the 7th combined with bank-rank mate threats. Eventually Brian was forced to
give the piece back for the pawn, and a agreed a draw with R & h-pawn vs R with no hope of a win.
So, 8-7 with Robert still in play. No sooner had we done the board count calculations when a draw was agreed thus
clinching the match 8.5-7.5 (it turned out we would have won on board count anyway, but better to win on points scored
rather than tie-break).
Humayun from Luton chess club is investigating the possibility of displaying the trophy at the University of Luton – a
far more fitting place than my spare bedroom.
Many thanks to all who played, especially those representing the county for the first time.
Kevin Williamson
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06/11/2023 |
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| Bedfordshire retains Fleming Trophy - match details here |
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05/11/2023 |
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| Cordon Trophy 2023 - Won by Bedford A |
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29/09/2023 |
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The final 2 rounds of the Bedfordshire Individual Championship were contested in the Berrill Cafe, Open University
In round 5, the top board was contested between Rob Whiteside and Adrian Elwin which ended in a hard fought draw. This gave
Steve Ledger the opportunity to take the sole lead, but he suffered a rare loss to James Gardner, which allowed James to catch Rob and Adrian.
In the final round, James had white against Adrian and Steve got the upfloat against Rob. Both games ended in draws.
With his second win of the day, Graham Borrowdale also managed to get to 4½ points resulting in a 4-way tie for first place.
The final standings can be found here.
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18/05/2023 |
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Thomas Evans is now accepting entries to the 2023 Bedfordshire Individual County Championships.
Details can be found on the County Championship page or download the following page:
County Championship entry details.
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17/11/2022 |
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Bedfordshire retain Fleming Trophy
The Fleming Trophy match between Bedfordshire and Buckinghamshire has a long history. It was first contested
in the 1931-32 season and apart from the war years, and an apparent break from 1947-1957, it has been played
almost every year up until 1997. In recent times it has been much more erratic, with several gaps mostly due
to problems finding captains, players or venues, and more recently of course a global pandemic.
However, under the initiative of Steve Law from Bucks, the latest edition was played on 9th October in the
county of Hertfordshire! We think Beds were the home team, but it didn t really matter. Our original target
was a 16 board match but it was clear we were both struggling to reach that, so the agreed number changed from
14 to 15 and back to 14 in the days leading up to the event. On the day Bucks had 14 players present, Beds 15
and a travelling parent. A quick conversation between the captains came up with a nice solution one of the
Beds players would transfer to Bucks and the parent could step in giving a 15-a-side match (that s the nice thing
about this event, we are not bound by lots of rules). So many thanks to Andy Tinker for accepting the free
transfer, and to Mahmoud Dairi (Ramsey s dad) for stepping in and allowing this to happen.
The match itself was very hard fought with only two games drawn. Interestingly the wins seemed to come in clusters
of boards - Beds on boards 3-5 and 8-11 and Bucks on 1,6 and 12-15.
It was good to welcome five players for the first time - Eoin, Dominic, Ramsey, Mahmoud and Andy (well, at least until
we gave him to the opposition, I hope he forgives me!)
The only downside is that I need to find a place for the huge trophy for at least another year!
Kevin Williamson,
Bedfordshire captain
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12/10/2022 |
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| Cordon Trophy 2022 - Shared by Bedford A and Leighton Buzzard A |
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30/09/2022 |
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| As the government has removed all Covid restrictions, Bedford has also removed their Covid-19 protocols. |
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23/02/2022 |
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| Bedford have updated their Covid-19 protocols. See Beds League page. |
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24/01/2022 |
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| Milton Keynes have updated their Covid-19 protocols. See Beds League page. |
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14/12/2021 |
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| Unfortunately, Luton have had to withdraw from the Bedfordshire League for this season. We look forward to their return next season. |
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20/11/2021 |
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| Cordon Trophy 2021 - Won by Leighton Buzzard A |
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29/10/2021 |
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During the Coronavirus lockdown, some of the Beds League clubs have set themselves up for online chess.
Luton/ University of Bedfordshire Chess Club are on Chess.com and the link is
https://www.chess.com/club/university-of-bedfordshire-online-chess-club
Milton Keynes has a team on LiChess for MKCC members and details can be obtained from the club secretary, Richard Freeman.
Leighton Buzzard also has an online club and details should be obtained from their club secretary, Adrian Matthews.
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24/04/2020 |
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Following the government's changes to it's advice, it has been decided to suspend the Beds League as from this weekend.
This has also been prompted by the Open University closing it's doors to all clubs, the Unveristy of Luton restricting
meetings and the church now putting services on hold. So far, Bedford is OK
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17/03/2020 |
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As I'm sure everybody is aware, there has been an outbreak of Coronavirus,
which is causing a significant amount of disruption, and which can only
get worse in the short to medium term. As a good proportion of the league
can be considered to be at risk if they contract the virus, the committee
wishes to issue the following guidelines :
1 Follow the government's advice on keeping yourself and everybody else as
safe as possible. I will not repeat them here as they are readily
available elsewhere. If you do need access to them, the ECF has put links
to the various pieces of advice at https://www.englishchess.org.uk/coronavirus-guidance/
2 Shaking hands at the beginning and end of the game is a decision for the players.
3 Should captains find themselves unable to raise a team because of fear of
infection, postponements will be accepted. Please give as much notice as
possible if this happens.
4 Venues may become unavailable and that will also result in postponements.
These guidelines will be kept under review and may change at short notice,
especially if the government decides to restrict people's
movements.
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12/03/2020 |
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News Archive
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