Fellow chess players from Bedfordshire, you may have wondered when Bedford Modern School’s James Plaskett first represented England? I now know, however, the finding of the answer was somewhat incidental! In casually looking at an S.C.C.U Bulletin from 1970, I saw the Clare Benedict cup being mentioned, as it was due to be played in Paignton later that year. Admittedly, I confess I couldn’t recall exactly what it was, and so took a look online to refresh the memory. I quickly found all details on Olimpbase and delved further, noting that the final tournament was held in Cleveland 1979, and that GM Plaskett participated. He had not long left school, so I thought I would check whether he had made his debut there or not.
The debuts of those who have played competitive chess in Bedfordshire and represented England.
1st William Ward. Debut 1900 Anglo-American Cable Match1
2nd Dennis Victor Mardle. Debut 1959 England – Dutch friendly Match 2
3rd GM James Plaskett. Debut 1979 Clare Benedict Cup3
- Match details can be found here (do scroll down to 1900). William has been recorded playing for Luton several times and performed numerous simuls also, before establishing himself in London, as he had family just outside Luton in King’s Langley and spent some of his life there. Ward is well documented on this site and can be found here. You may find more information about Ward here and may note that my post previously linked can also be accessed on that site. ↩︎
- Info about this can be found here (scroll down to 1959) and here. Once again, there is a wealth of information about Dennis on this site, who was born and went to school in Luton, and was the subject of old Tom’s column many times (please use the search bar) ↩︎
- See here. ↩︎
M J M
