Club History 3: The Fifties

Post War Activity

Worcester City Club entered the National Club Championships in both 1950 and 1951. They reached the provincial semi-finals, but were unfortunate to encounter the very strong Liverpool Club and lost on both occasions. By a strange co-incidence, the club at Liverpool was also founded in 1837. In the inter-club matches, Worcester defeated many strong clubs and Bonham in particular scored some notable victories. In one regional match against Hereford on Board 1 he sacrificed his queen and announced mate in seven moves! Later when Worcester played Exeter, Bonham beat F.E.A Kitto, the West of England Champion.In 1952, Worcester players helped to organise the first 100-board match between Worcestershire and Warwickshire at Worcester Guildhall, the forerunner of many other county fixtures.

League Champions in 1958-9 and 1964

Worcester City Chess Club has won the Worcestershire County League on numerous occasions, generally fighting it out with Stourbridge in the early post-war years. Probably the Club's strongest performance was in the 1958-9 season when all seven matches were won with the astonishing game tally of 30 wins, 10 draws and only 2 losses. The team composition was Reg Bonham, Douglas Wormald, Maurice Smith, Tom Widdows, Maurice Bissell (currently secretary of Worcestershire Chess Association), Tom Waits (another Worcester Royal Grammar School master). Teams from the Club have won this league on 15 occasions. Tom Widdows was Competitions Secretary of Worcestershire County Association's league and wrote a regular chess column in Worcester Evening News (now the Worcester News) from 1945 to 2005. Until that time Tom was the longest serving chess correspondent for a newspaper, a distinction now taken by Britsh master Leonard Barden who writes for The Guardian.