West London Chess Club

We are currently missing years 1899-1951 and there are small gaps between 1993 and 2001.

Points of note

The club's second President Llewellyn Archer Atherley-Jones QC (1851 - June 15, 1929) was a British politician and Barrister who eventually became a Judge.

Toward the end of 1949, the club affiliated to the BCF (now ECF) ^[71]. The information published in the BCM was taken from the December 1949 issue of the Gazette.

In November 1950, the BCM reports that at the club's 57th AGM, in order to encourage strong players to join the club and participate in the club championship, it was decided to award cash prizes in addition to winning the Sliver Championship Cup for a year. The prizes were £10 first, £6 second, £4 third and £2 fourth ^[72].

In the season of 1953-54 the location of WLCC is listed as 23 Stratford Rd, Earls Court Rd (Wed. & Sat. respectively) ^[5].

In the season of 1961-62, the secretary is listed as D. Shaw (the table above may need updating). The club location is still 23 Stratford Rd, now both Wed. & Sat. ^[6]

On 29th April 1967, the British Champion J. Penrose gave a simultaneous display at the club, lasting 4.5 hours. Penrose won 22 and drew 3 games out of 25 ^[8].

The club President from 1972-1985 was the renowned Sir Keith Joseph, a British barrister, politician, and Conservative Cabinet Minister under three different Ministries.

In 1997-1998, M.C. Price was entrusted with the silverware (documented in the AGM Minutes).

At the start of the 2000-2001 season, Peter Hawran (current treasurer and club officer since 1994) left the club. His treasurer's report submitted at the AGM stated that the club could not afford to pay for the Town Hall venue. Some members wanted to move to a pub, but the majority including Mark Lyell (returning) wanted to stay at the venue, thinking the club would not be stable elsewhere and would lose members if the venue changed. It was agreeed to have a "whip round" to temporarily stabilise the finances. Peter Hawran now plays occasionally for the Hammersmith Chess Club. Mike Price, Karl Osborne and Nick Rutherford followed him to Hammersmith over a period of years, for various reasons. Consequently, it took until the end of 2006 to locate the trophies, which were still with Mr. Price!

Driven by the need to increase the number of members, Mark Lyell set up the first Web page in 2001, which eventually attracted Ed Tandi to the club in 2004. A new Webmaster position was created and the Web site was enhanced quite significantly, in turn, attracting more members. In the 2005/2006 season, significant effort was put into the reconstruction of the club's history, displayed on the Web site. Despite this, the club was still finding it difficult to pay the high rental costs of Chiswick Town Hall.

In the 2006/2007 season, the club entered the London League's Eastman Cup and won it with help from strong players outside the club that captain Mark Lyell knew. Outside participation was allowed, even encouraged by the rules of this particular competition. In July 2007 driven by financial pressure, the club armed with this success and another Web re-vamp , went looking for commercial sponsorship. With some diplomacy on part of the Treasurer, the club secured sponsorship from the local brewer Fuller's, a company that shares deep historical roots in Chiswick. This temporarily resolved the issue of lesser paid subscriptions and rising League Fees.

Cost of membership over the years:

• 1943-44 £1
• 1967-68 £3.50 (£3 10s 0d)
• 1993-94 £30
• 1995-96 £30
• 1997-98 £32
• 2003-04 £45
• 2004-05 £45
• 2005-06 £50
• 2006-07 £50
• 2007-08 £60