Shifnal

Shifnal Chess Club Brief History

Shifnal Chess Club was formed in the late seventies its founder members were:- Jack Cheadle, David Lea, Frank Lockley, Malcolm Smith, Bob Hester and David Foster (now living in and playing for Ludlow). They met at the local village hall on a weekly basis. A team was entered in the Shropshire league in 1976. As with all clubs word got round and the club picked up Bill Jenrick, Eric Elwell (now playing for Church Stretton) and Paul Broderick who played tennis with Roger Brown who went to school with Colin Roberts.

After a few years the club had enough members for two teams. The club was strengthened by the arrival of Jim Copley and Richard Parry (now playing for Bushbury) and Keith Tabner (now with Telepost).

The club moved from the Village Hall to the Union Inn (now Jaspers) and later moved to the Jerningham Arms.

We had an influx of junior members at this time. These ranged from David Gibson (1986) and Alan Brazier (1980-84) who were dangerous opponents to one or two who just came to get out of the house. For the sake of completeness these are the other juniors:-

Gareth Roberts, Paul Jones, Mark Hayes, Tobias Wasmuht, David Green, Steven Wood.

Other members were , Curmyth Thomas (Tom), Klaus Wasmuht (was playing for Newport until recently), Dave Gostelow (playing for Telford prior to merger), Danny Griffiths (now playing for Newport), Tim Evans, Tim Campbell, Phil Cherrington.

Our finest hour.

1985 we won the Cox Trophy

1987 we regained the Cox Trophy

1988 we won the first division and our B team gained promotion to division 1. A massive achievement for one of the younger clubs. Despite not having the highest graded team in the league we had five players who were always available and this consistency and the odd bit of luck meant we were always a difficult team to play against. The team that won the trophies was Richard Parry, Jim Copley, Colin Roberts, Bill Jenrick and Eric Elwell. Roger Brown was part of the Cox Trophy team and substitute on the odd occasion we needed one.

Our darkest hour.

Dave Gostelow joined the club. (No that wasn't the reason). With the club policy of playing in strict grade order this would have meant we had a very strong first team with Dave Gostelow, Richard Parry, Colin Roberts and Jim Copley all graded between 160-175. At the club A.G.M. we decided to split the strength of the sides and have Dave as board one for the B team thus enabling Richard to be board one for the A team. Dave didn't like this and instead stayed with Telford. Worse was to follow.

In the A v B team match Danny Griffiths hadn't turned up. The rule is that if a player doesn't turn up within an hour he forfeits the game. Colin Roberts was playing him and thinking he hadn't got a game had gone down to the bar for a pint and a game of pool. At about 8:30 Danny arrived asking if he was too late. Colin sent him upstairs to see if he was in time. When Colin got upstairs he discovered that Danny had arrived with 28 minutes on his clock. Richard Parry had claimed the game and although Danny was willing to play the game with just 28 minutes left the A team refused.

Danny and Klaus left at the end of the season. So was founded Newport Chess Club!

Over the next few years the club started to shrink. We moved from the Jerningham Arms to Shifnal Town Football Club but the room was too small and club nights suffered. With only enough members for one team the decision was taken to merge with Telford Chess Club and so we became Shifnal & Telford Chess Club.