Bedfordshire Chess

Chess in Bedfordshire

The Fleming Trophy

The Fleming Trophy was donated in 1932 by RHS Stevenson to mark the achievements of RM Fleming, joint Hon Secretary of the Union, who was instrumental not only in founding the Buckinghamshire Association but also in bringing Wiltshire and the East Anglian counties into the SCCU competitions. The Trophy is for annual competition between Bedfordshire (then a member of the SCCU) and Buckinghamshire. Mr Fleming himself played for Buckinghamshire in the inaugural match, and presented the trophy to his own victorious match captain. Apart from the war years, and an apparent interruption from 1947 to 1957, the series has continued to the present day despite Bedfordshire's migration to East Anglia in 1983. Tie-breaks were applied in 1939 and 1990, but the 1965 match was declared drawn on the casting vote of the Executive chairman. You'd think there'd be some rules. The other two drawn matches, as far as we have discovered, are simply recorded as draws. The 1972 match was cancelled "because of a power strike". The fixture was revived after two years (1999-2000) in abeyance. The match held on Sat 21st September 2002 resulted in a conclusive victory for Bedfordshire, despite giving away a small grading difference on almost every board. Buckinghamshire was unable to raise a team between 2002 and 2012, so Bedfordshire retained the trophy. On resumption in 2012, it was won by Buckinghamshire. Since 2012, Buckinghamshire have had problems either finding a captain or raising a team which has meant that the competition has not been held on several occasions, hence the gaps. These were made worse by Covid, but the 2022 match has been held and, hopefully, the fixture will continue.

1931-32	Buckinghamshire	1965-66	Buckinghamshire	1985-86	Buckinghamshire	2013	Buckinghamshire
1932-33	Bedfordshire	1966-67	Buckinghamshire	1986-87	Bedfordshire	2014	Bedfordshire
1933-34	Buckinghamshire	1967-68	Buckinghamshire	1987-88	Buckinghamshire	2015	Bedfordshire
1934-35	Buckinghamshire	1968-69	(drawn)	1988-89	Bedfordshire	2016	Buckinghamshire
1935-36	Buckinghamshire	1969-70	Buckinghamshire	1989-90	Bedfordshire	2017	-
1936-37	Bedfordshire	1970-71	Buckinghamshire	1990-91	Bedfordshire	2018	Bedfordshire
1937-38	Bedfordshire	1971-72	-	1991-92	Bedfordshire	2019	-
1938-39	Buckinghamshire	1972-73	Bedfordshire	1992-93	Bedfordshire	2020	-
		1973-74	Buckinghamshire	1993-94	Buckinghamshire	2021	-
1945-46	Buckinghamshire	1974-75	Bedfordshire	1994-95	Buckinghamshire	2022	Bedfordshire
1946-47	Bedfordshire	1975-76	(drawn)	1995-96	Buckinghamshire
		1976-77	Buckinghamshire	1996-97	Bedfordshire
1957-58	Buckinghamshire	1977-78	Buckinghamshire	1997-98	-
1958-59	Buckinghamshire	1978-79	Buckinghamshire	1998-99	-
1959-60	Buckinghamshire	1979-80	Buckinghamshire	1999-00	Buckinghamshire
1960-61	Buckinghamshire	1980-81	Buckinghamshire	2000-01	Buckinghamshire
1961-62	Buckinghamshire	1981-82	Buckinghamshire	2001-02	Bedfordshire
1962-63	Buckinghamshire	1982-83	Bedfordshire	2002-03	Bedfordshire W/O
1963-64	Buckinghamshire	1983-84	Buckinghamshire
1964-65	(shared)	1984-85	Bedfordshire	2012	Buckinghamshire