BACK TO HISTORY
WOODBRIDGE CHESS CLUB 1977 to 2007
This club has survived 30 years as a team, and it is wonderful to see so many members of the original side here today. The story of our first 25 years is written on two laminated sheets, which are displayed on the side wall. Without our members and good friends today’s celebration would not have been possible. Thank you all for your attendance here today. In 2002/3, back in division 3 we won the league with a score of 9/10. Richard Freeman with 6/8 on top board deservedly won the best performance, closely followed by Adrian and Rod. No tours were undertaken. 2003/4 we finished 10th of 11 with only 2 points, once again our best performance was won on board one, Neil Carr scoring 3.5 from 6 matches and another newcomer Graham Smith being the only other team member to exceed a 50% score. 2004/5 We won LL3 with 9 from 10. A stunning 7.5 from 8 saw John Davenport taking the best performance trophy, Adrian, Charlie and Rod finished a respectful distant second. Our tours restarted, the Ypers Chess Club invited us over to help them celebrate their 80th Birthday, Bryan Gaze took on the task of organising us. We were amazed that after getting to our hotel in pouring rain, our leader took the van and went to pick up one of our strays while the rest of us ate and drank liberally. There was a bigger surprise when our leader returned; he not only caught us up with drinking he actually passed us, some going! The next morning Freddie Van Uxem came to our hotel and took us to a nearby building plied us with food and drink until we could hardly move. Nevertheless Richard Freeman and Charlie Harding both won their respective tournaments. Well done Bryan. 2005/06 was the highlight in LL2 we finished 5th of 11, our highest placing ever. After knocking on the door for the two previous seasons Adrian Elwin went one better and won the coveted mug with 5 from 8, closely followed by Graham, Richard F and Colin on 4.5. Les achieved 8 draws from 8 a feat achieved once before, no prizes for guessing who that was. Our trip was to Prague, was again very well organised by Bryan unfortunately we were unable to find a chess club to play. However we found a very good hostelry near our hotel and spent two interesting evenings there. On the second night with many good beer drinkers lined up we found ourselves being “lapped” by Barry who apologised saying he had a bit of a thirst. 2006/7 we achieved 8th of 11. The best performance was from Paul Kendall with 4.5 from 7, who pipped Colin and John on board order. Highlight was a recent trip to Strasbourg. Where we played a match against a French and German side, our team finished 3rd ensuring we had very happy opponents. Once again many thanks to Bryan who put up with quite a few organizing problems 5 players on any early flight, 5 on a late one and one from Poland. The French transport system there was well tested, during the weekend we used aeroplane, hire car, tram, buses, boat and train. One of our best tours.2007/8 was another excellent season we finished with 5 match points and 50 game points, final position 5th. Once again our best performance winner came from Milton Keynes. Graham Smith won with 5.5 points on board order from Richard Freeman, other notable performances were from new member Aiden Corish who competed in every match. Our best wishes go to Paddy Loyd who left us to live in the Far East. One individual match stands out in our memories where we beat Mushrooms 2 by the score of 8.5 to 1.5. Our trip to Paris failed due to circumstances beyond Bryan’s control.