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Bridgend Tour

Paul Kendall was instrumental in finding the fixture, I believe it was a Milton Keynes college who introduced  Paul to Andrew Trickey, who was a wonderful host.

Michael must be thanked for arranging to purchase and collect the train tickets early. A tip there, we paid £24 return for a trip that would cost over £70 if booked on the day. Once again Paul’s wife booked the hotel early enabling us to save even more money.

The schedule was tight for the weekend, possibly an over preponderance of chess interfered with the alcohol schedule. So much so that the whisky we were given by the Bridgend club to help us on the journey back has been retained and will be a highlight at our 35th celebrations.

The numbers were disappointing, 6 of the 7 players who went were on our last trip to Edinburgh, 2 years ago.

As with most of Woodbridge’s visits the chess took secondary consideration to the meeting and greeting of new friends. The hosts Bridgend were delighted with the wooden chess set and board they were given and, in turn we were overwhelmed with their organisation, preparing food for us on both chess days, taking us back to our hotel on Saturday. Picking us up on Sunday morning to go to the chess club and then dropping us all back at Bridgend station after a very long day.

Our special thanks to Andrew and David for all their efforts.

As for the team what can I say there were 3 original members of the club, Paul our world wide traveller, Brian and Mustapha who were likened to  Statler and Wardolf  of the muppet show. Their constant good humour was always to the fore. A mention must be made of our junior team, Mark distinguished himself by being Mustapha’s knocker up.

One other thing before Sunday’s match the Woodbridge team assembled wearing their team ties, this made a difference as our opponents were visably  quaking before battle commenced.

Richard Manning

 

 

 

 

 

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