John Edge took on 10 club members on July 20th in his annual simultaneous display. He won 8, drew with Maureen and lost only to "birthday boy Don Curry".

We have a new member. A warm welcome to Logan Gregory!

The first round of the Summer knock-out hs been completed to schedule, all but one game. UPDATE. The second round deadline of July 20th has also been achieved.

The Tony Evers memorial match against Stourbridge was held at Stourbridge. A brief report can be found Here.

The first Summer Event was a quickplayer tournament on June 15. John Edge won with a perfect score of 6/6. Tony Taylor scored an excellent 5/6 to be runner up and Julian Taylor took the grading prize with 3/6.

A challenge match against a Warley Quinbourne team of juniors was played on 3 June. An honourable draw resulted. Full results can be seen here.

Congratulations to Tony Taylor who drew the final of the division 5 league individual and so is joint champion for the year.

The 2010 Summer knock-out draw has been made. Click on the tab in the menu. Please note the dates that each round will be completed by and try to play games before then!

The 2009 Club knock-out tournament has been completed (at last!), and resulted in a win for John Edge over Maureen Clark. The final was a very interesting game which could have gone either way. John has annotated it here.

The AGM was held on 18 May. Draft minutes are available here. Prize winners were Pete Banks and Bob Grimes (Quickest win, jointly). See the Games section for both games; Derek Digger (Player of the Year); John Llewelyn (Reg Beasley Trophy); Maureen Clark (Best at Monmouth); and the wdcl div 3 team (Kevin Ryder Trophy). The Summer knock-out final would be between John Edge and Maureen Clark.

It's official! The Winter season is over and John Llewelyn has won the Reg Beasley Trophy with an excellent score of over 70%. Malcolm and Windsor tied second, with identical records. Don was the 4th player to exceed 60%. See the Tables section for full details.

There is still time to play some ladder games before the AGM. See the Ladder section.

The bdcl division 5 side faced a relegation play-off with Westminster on 5th May. Unfortunately they were disadvantaged by the unavailability of players who had become tied to the division 4 team at the end of the season, and lost.

The Reg Beasley table is now up-to-date to the end of April. And it looks a certainty that congratulations and the trophy will go to John Llewelyn with a score of over 70%. Well played, John!

Another promotion! The BDCL div 4 team have secured promotion to division 3 next year. Well done to Don and the team.

Congratulations are due to Tony Taylor's WDCL div 3 team who have won their last match of the season to become champions of the division. Well done to all!

The Reg Beasley table is now up to date to the end of March. See the Tables section. Malcolm has no more games to play, so the title will go to either Windsor or John L if they can hold their nerve. But both have several more games to play. It could be close!

The date of the AGM has been set. It will be held on Tuesday May 18. Please make a note in your diaries and attend if possible.

Congratulations are due to Tony Taylor on reaching the final of the bdcl individual for division 5. Can he lift the trophy?

The Reg Beasley table is now up to date to the end of February. See the Tables section. Malcolm and Windsor both have good scores and have played the minimum number of games required (11). Can John L, with an even better percent, keep it going for a few more games? Or can Don or John E put in a spurt and catch up?

We have a new member. A warm welcome, please to Paul Hodges.

The Reg Beasley table is now up to date to the end of November. See the Tables section.

It is with much sadness that we report the death of Fred Freshwater, after a short illness. He will be very much missed. UPDATE. For some chess memories of Fred, see the new section in the menu above.

Good results for Pete Banks, who beat Phil Bull, and Tony Taylor, who drew with Mike Groombridge in the first round of the Rock Cup. The latter game is now in the Games section.

Now up to the end of October, we have joint leaders in the Reg Beasley. Fred and Bob have 83%. And Derek has taken over as the most active player with 14 games played already this season.

The Reg Beasley table has been updated to the end of September. Bob, Mark B and Windsor still have 100% records, albeit from just one game each, and lead the way. John Southcote is 'head-addict' having played 9 games already. Click on the Tables link above.

Stewart Fishburne took on 14 players simultaneously on August 18, winning 12 and conceding draws to John Edge and Andy Ambrose.

Three of the semi-finalist in the Summer Knock-out are now known. Dale will play Maureen, whilst Don awaits the winner of John Edge v Bob Grimes.

The new grades are out! Check out the Members link above. And there is a link to the whole on-line gradings database in the Links, section.

Several games have taken place in the ladder competition, but so far no challenges have been successful! To arrange a game, check out the rules in the Ladder link above.

Twelve members and guests entered the quick-play tournament on August 4th. First was Andy Ambrose with a perfect 5/5. Dale Jackson was runner-up, one point behind. The grading prize was shared between Pete Banks and Tony Taylor with 3 points.

And a warm welcome to Ade Desalu, another new member.

The John Edge Simultaneous display on July 7th was a great success, particularly for John who produced a perfect score of played ten, won ten. Well done, John!

We have a new member. A warm welcome, please to Colin McClean.

The Reg Beasley, Kevin Ryder and Quickest Win trophies were presented on the Awards Night on 30th June. Click Here to see the magnificent trophies and Here to see the presentation party, Ross, Helen and Madeline Beasley (Reg's son, daughter-in-law and widow) with winners Jon Asbury (Reg Beasley Trophy), Joyce Evans (Captain of the Kevin Ryder Trophy winning team) and Mike Hadley (Quickest win trophy).

The Tony Evers match against Stourbridge has been held. Stourbridge were excellent hosts and managed to win by the margin of 6-4.Click Here for more details

The Summer Events programme is in full swing. See the panel below and the Summer Knock-Out draw, above. In the first tournament night on 9 June, John Edge won with a perfect 8/8. Pete Banks won one grading section with John Southcote and Tony Taylor sharing the other.

Twenty-two members attended the Agm on May 20th. Minutes of the meeting are available here. Congratulations to the Trophy winners: John Edge - Summer knock-out; Mike Hadley - Quickest win; John Southccote - Player of the year; Jon Asbury - Reg Beasley Trophy. More detailed statistics from the 2008-9 season are available here

Stewart Fishburne has won the BH Wood Best Game prize for 2008-9 awarded by the BDCL. See the GAMES section for the winning game.

Many Congratulations to Jon Asbury on winning the year-long race for the Reg Beasley trophy. To go unbeaten over 21 games and to score 73.8% is a splendid effort. A win in his last game would have given the title to Dale Jackson but he only drew and he slipped to third behind Malcolm Hunt. Their scores of 71.1% and 70.8% were also tremendous performances. Dale deserves special praise for sportsmanship as his opponent's mobile phone went off during the last game but Dale chose not to claim the game on this technicality. Well done!

Congratulations are in order for the Dudley League division 3 team captained by Joyce Evans. They have won their league with an unbeaten score of played 6, won 4 drawn 2. Well done!

The Reg Beasley Trophy is now down to a two-horse race. Jon Asbury has finished his season and is in the lead. Only Dale Jackson can catch him and with the Dudley division 1 side still having 3 matches to play, this one will go to the wire.

The Pittaway Cup Final has been lost by the narrowest of margins to Wolverhampton. Congratulations to them, who won despite the handicap, by 5 1/2 to 4 3/4.

What a week Dale Jackson had! Wins on Monday, and 2 on Tuesday (one a resigned adjournment) have propelled him to the top of the Reg Beasley table. Jon Asbury won on Tuesday and Wednesday to maintain his challenge and it looks a 3-horse race between the two of them and Malcolm Hunt.

The AGM will be held on 20 May. Will all members please may every effort to attend. And please submit any agenda items to the club secretary as soon as possible.

Mike Hadley has taken the lead in the Quickest Win competition, by winning in 14 moves in the worcester first division against Worcetser City, when his opponent 'forgot' to move his attacked Queen. Can anyone else win even quicker?

Pete Banks has had a variation named after him. Yes, really! Have a look at this link

The club has been donated the chess library of former Halesowen resident Bill Cross, who played for the Dudley club in the 1980's and 90's. The books will form the Bill Cross Chess Library and be available to be borrowed. Many thanks are due to Bill's son Robert, who made the gift. A full catalogue and more details of this excellent new resource can be found here.

The club has reached the final of the wdcl Pittaway cup after a resounding victory over Stafford in the semi-final.

Congratulations are due to John Edge who has won the clubs knock-out tournament, taking advantage of a league cancellation to play the final against Andy Ambrose, the defending champion. You can see the full completed draw from the panel at the foot of this column.

We have a new social member. A warm welcome, please, to Andrew Leech. And we also welcome back Mike Hadley, who has rejoined the club.

The bdcl division 5 team has reached the semi-final of the Townshend Trophy, having beaten run-away league leaders South Birmingham 5 in the last round.

The Summer Knock-Out is following its now traditional season-long pattern. John Edge has seen off Windsor Peck in one semi-final and will play Andy Ambrose, who earlier beat Bob Grimes, in the final.

There is a new leader in the Reg Beasley trophy (see TABLES). Following wins for the worcester county 2 side and the wolves first team, Jon Asbury has reached a score of 5/6 for 83%. Can he keep it up? Can anyone catch him?

The club progressed to the semi-final of the wdcl Pittaway Cup beating first division Kidderminster over 8 boards by 6 1/4 - 4 (including the handicap - which wasn't needed as we would have won on board count!).

We have a new member. A warm welcome goes to David Etheridge.

The Reg Beasley Trophy is awarded to the player making the highest percentage score for the club in league chess each season (from AGM to AGM) provided they have played at least 11 games (the number Reg played in his last season). A current leader board will appear in the TABLES section opposite. It should be an interesting race. Bob, Malcolm, John Llewelyn and Mark Bethel still have 100% records. How long can they keep that going?