Welcome
Club Information:
CHESS Minister!:
CCCC Championship:
The Club publishes a magazine entitled ‘CHESS minister!’ 3 times a year to keep members in touch.
If you are interested in joining us, please contact the Secretary:
The Club publishes a magazine entitled ‘CHESS minister!’ 3 times a year to keep members in touch.
If you are interested in joining us, please contact the Secretary:
I can’t remember in what way in the summer of 1967, Ivor Davies took the initiative to found the Clergy Correspondence Chess Club. I must have seen it in Church Times, though whether it was an advert, a letter or a feature I am not sure. I replied and received a reply which asked why, if clergy could have their cricket competition, they could not have a chess competition? There was no answer to that!
There were five of us that first season – J.G. Wright, A.Schofield, Kenneth Procter, Ivor Davies and myself. I do not know what the others’ results were, but I only managed a draw against Schofield and a win against Wright. By the following season more players had joined – Tim Partridge was among the new members - and we were arranged in two divisions.
Among the early members was Henry Percy. My 1934 copy of “The Church Directory and Almanac” lists him as deacon 1910, priest 1911 – having first been a Wesleyan minister. By the time he was playing in the CCCC he was probably in his 90s. His hand writing was unsteady – but not his play. Another character was Vere Ducker. He invited my wife Marjorie and I to stay with him in Surrey on one occasion. We found, to our pleasure, that he was a connoisseur of fine wines! He had been a central figure in the preparation and follow-up of “The People Next Door”, a countrywide initiative in mission and ecumenism in Lent 1967; he was, he told us, the only person to have read every one of the hundreds of feedback letters. He was also a keen follower of Derbyshire cricket, to the extent of attending and speaking at annual meetings.
20th birthday Congress at Ecton House. At the board are Charles Mason & John Morris (the finalists). Standing, from left: Geoffrey Harper, Tim Partridge (with Bailey Shield), Brian Shephard, Bruce Carlin, John Gowing, Eric Hodgess Roper, Ivor Davies, Henry Cullen, Anthony Foster, Arnould Hurt.