KES Chess A Team 1968-1971

Contents Introduction Peter Edwards The A Team > Chess Club > Sheffield Schools’ League > Sunday Times > Correspondence Chess > British Championships > Non-Chess Stuff Earlier Generations The B Team and Others Other Schools

The A Team Assorted Chess-Players are Admitted to King Ted’s In 1964, Ralph West Bailey, Steve John Mann and Peter Graham Edwards started at KES. Ralph entered form 1(2) which had Mr A. G. Jones as its form master.  Another pupil joining Ralph in 1(2) was Charles Frederick Buddery, who had come from the same junior school as Steve Mann, namely Glen Road Junior and Infant School.  “Our Charles”, as his mother referred to him, in time inherited his father’s butchery business.  Many years later, a Civil Service colleague of Steve Mann advised that Charles had gone on to become a millionaire.  Where did the rest of go wrong? Meanwhile, Steve Mann and Peter entered form 1(3) which had Mr. Charles Henry Baker as its form master.  Three other chess-players in 1(3) were Stephen R Bailey who lived at Coal Aston, S C Webster whose first name I forget, and Christopher N Whitehouse.  Steve Bailey was to become board 1 of the B Team.  At many other schools he’d probably have become board 1 of the A team!  Steve Webster and Chris Whitehouse were of lesser calibre.  Steve Mann did not join the chess club in the first year, but Webster, Whitehouse and Mann spent time during the dinner hour playing chess on a pocket set.  While two were playing each other, the third was tasked with going to the tuck shop.  Steve Mann did not join the chess club until the second year, when Roderick I Nicolson of the older generation was still present.  Rod was probably Sheffield’s strongest junior at the time. Stephen John Mann, Stephen R Bailey, Stephen Lavender, Paul Huntingdon, Peter Richardson, Paul Palmer, H J Hall, A P Thompson; B S Nuttall, Paul A Cooper, Nicholas J Morton, Robert A B Hawkins, Nigel D Peace, Christopher M Wragg, R Neville Davenport; J P Smith, Neil Unwin, A Bishop, Michael J Jepson, Mr Charles H Baker, R Nicholson, Clive R Buckler, Mark C Rollinson, Martin J Lumb; Peter Graham Edwards, Nicholas M R Preston, Stephen C Webster, Christopher J Kutesko, A P Harvey, Christopher N Whitehouse. Steve Mallaband entered form 1(4) which had Mr. K. Bridgewater as its form master.  There were no other notable chess-players in that form. In 1965, Stephen John Lorber and Andrew J Spencer started at KES. Steve L entered form 1(1) which had Mr M. T. J. Axford as its form master.  There were no other notable chess-players in that form. Andrew Spencer entered form 1(4) which had the aforementioned Mr. Charles Henry Baker as its form master.  Another chess-player was Peter W H Smith who became a maths lecturer at City St George’s London University, evidently picking up a PhD en route.  In the chess world, he chose to specialise in correspondence chess, earning the International Correspondence Chess Federation’s International Master title in the year 2000. The A Team is Born Rod Nicolson left KES in 1968, going to Cambridge University; the whole family was very brainy.  He entered the 1969 Under-21 Championship at the British Championships in Rhyll and was then described as hailing from Cambridge.  He finished equal 22nd to 35th out of 57 participants.  That may have been Rod’s last serious chess engagement.  Rod’s departure from KES marked the point where the above members of the new generation took over. As I recall, Steve Mann was deemed captain, but all the work and enterprise in embarking on new initiatives was down to Steve Mallaband. Steve Mann played on board 1, but Steve Lorber may have become slightly stronger towards the end, and Ralph Bailey’s performance in the British Championship one year was a monumental performance.