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Yorkshire Chess History |
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Woodhouse Cup, 1885-86 |
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Although the Edwin Woodhouse Challenge Cup competition had been thrown open to all chess clubs in Yorkshire at the 1885 annual meeting of the West Yorkshire Chess Association, only Hull Church Institute entered from outside the West Riding.
The original published fixture list featured seven teams: Bradford, Leeds, Wakefield, Sheffield & DCA, Huddersfield, Halifax, and Hull Church Institute. The venues for all the Hull matches were described as “to be fixed later”, suggesting it was felt an intermediate venue was appropriate for clubs outside the West Riding.
In time it became apparent that Halifax and Hull Church Institute would not be able to participate in the competition, and they withdrew. The fixtures were consequently rearranged, and published as follows [Sheffield & Rotherham Independent, 28/11/1885]:
Huddersfield had been due to play Sheffield at Penistone in round 1, but decided they couldn’t raise a team, and withdrew from the competition. Sheffield obtained permission from the committee to play at a later date, if Huddersfield felt able, but that didn’t happen. Huddersfield’s withdrawal stood, leaving only four clubs actually contesting the competition. At least that was one more than the previous year!
It is evident from the actual dates of matches played that the fixture list was revised a second time.
The rules provided that the club from the smaller town had the right to fix the number of boards, not necessarily an even number, from a minimum of eight to a maximum of twenty boards. Time permitting, two games were played on each boards, thus selecting an odd number of boards did not involve an inherent overall colour disparity between the two teams.
The fixtures actually played were as follows (click on fixture for details):
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Created 06/06/2012 |
Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 20/08/2014 |