27/03/2019
A GUEST WRITES: A beautiful essay by Phil Walters, a member of Carlisle Austin Friars Chess Club...
"Last Saturday was our last league match of the season, against our A team. Someone brought the Cumbria Open League Championship cup to the match. I started to look at the engravings which told a story.
The inauguration of the cup was 1895. The cup had a story to tell, also it raised some questions that should be asked.
This cup, although not particularly polished, stood there with some pathos and huge dignity. It had survived two world wars and an influenza pandemic .Outlived many good and kind chess players. It had seen monarchs and governments come and go, but most strikingly it told another truth.
This proud cup, representing the pinnacle of Cumbrian chess struggles, recorded the previous chess club winners back to 1895. The clubs had been playing to win this trophy so long that the beautiful curved sides of the cup were fully engraved. So later club winners had had to use the silver collar applied to the wooden base, to record their glory.
What shone out from the surfaces of this slightly tarnished cup was the number of different clubs that had thrived in Cumbria.
What had caused the demise of so many clubs? What cataclysmic event had happened? Was the dull surface , a reflection of something? What were the causes of this lacklustre? It made me reflect!
Clubs proudly engraved on the cup, now demised were far too many. It brought back memories of players and shared games from my past. Memories of the old club venues Also characters who shared wit and wisdom on car journeys around Cumbria.
Clubs no longer active, or gone like Whitehaven, Workington, Arnside, Cockermouth, Grange, Millom and latterly Sasra. Only one Phoenix - Keswick.
Questions are raised.!
What makes Keswick so different?
Are there common factors visible now that explained this gradual extinction?
In 1895 I cannot imagine travel was easier, if anything it was more effort than now.
Was a chess match viewed as a privileged day out, a change from a humdrum existence?
Was cost a factor, can’t imagine money was easier to earn in 1895, certainly not in 1929! Working life, and leisure time balance, for most is better now?
Have gender roles changed so much?
Or is it that new chestnut “ the Internet “ ?
Is this apathy, and if so, what is driving it?
Are our youth so changed? Is education so altered?
I leave these questions largely unanswered at the moment. Having said that, I hope these chess notes, raise some thoughts. By definition most chess players are thinkers. They seek pleasure by fully immersing their minds in a beautiful game. It is true escapism! Moments of both calm and stress! But mainly a quantum of solace? In this confusing world, each needs their allowed quanta of comforts.
Competitive chess between people should be on the increase, not on the decline?
Any answers please on a postcard- OOPS ! I mean email!
Demise of handwritten correspondence is easily explained?!"
Phil Walters ( hopefully not a dinosaur!).
