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Held at the Odd Fellows’ Hall, Halifax,
on Wednesday, 27/05/1857.
This “Annual
Meeting” seems to have been the sort of extended playing session,
involving guests from other clubs, and with refreshments being served,
sometimes called a “soirée”, rather than the type whose
primary purpose was administrative matters such as election of officers etc.
Indeed, there’s no indication that the latter purpose was served by
this meeting.
The Halifax
Courier of 30/05/1857 contained a report on this meeting which stated
that Halifax Chess Club had only recently been revived. The club had not
been represented at annual meetings of the West Yorkshire Chess Association
over the period 1853 to 1856. It may be that Frederick William
Cronhelm had dropped out of chess activity due to advancing years (65
years of age in 1852) and nobody else had kept things going. The
expansion of the original Yorkshire Chess Association to the broader Northern
& Midland Counties Chess Association can only have served to remove stimulus
from Yorkshire chess clubs.
Halifax Chess Club
seemingly experienced a greater ebb and flow in its fortunes than did most
other clubs. It was again not represented, but for the odd person, at
West Yorkshire Chess Association meetings from 1861 to 1868, and then had
another “revival” around 1868-69 (see 1869 Bradford-Halifax meeting).
The report in the Halifax
Courier read as follows:
ANNUAL MEETING
OF THE HALIFAX CHESS CLUB.-
On Wednesday last, the annual meeting of the members and friends of this
club was held at the Odd Fellows’ Hall. The attendance was
good, some fourteen boards being in use. Among the gentlemen present
we noticed John Craven Esq., president of the club, and Messrs. Leyland,
Walsh, Nussey, J. [sic] A. Brierley, J. H. Brierley, Fleming, Law, Marchant,
Coton, J. Wainhouse, (secretary), Whitman, Cooper, Parker, Scott, Rigg, and
Tasker. The players from neighbouring towns were Mr. Tomlinson, from
Wakefield; Dr. Scott, Messrs. Watkinson, Cooper, Taylor, and Taylor [sic],
from Huddersfield, and Mons. Mrozinski. Play commenced at three o’clock
and was kept up till six, at which hour the abstraction of the courtly game
was exchanged for the more material pleasures of a collation. The
company were speedily back at the tables, and play was resumed and
continued to nine o’clock – the coffee hour. The club, it
is only fair we should add, has but recently been re-organized, and though
numerically strong, numbers many inexperienced players. Nor has the
recent session been as assiduously devoted to practice as could have been
wished. Yet the play on Wednesday was uniformly good. Before
collation, some spirited, though not obstinate, games ensued between M.
Mrozinski and Dr. Scott, of Huddersfield. Both these gentlemen are without
doubt extraordinary players , but at close quarters the former gentlemen
would unquestionably deal sorely with his adversary. In the evening,
other gentlemen sat down with M. Mrozinski, and excellent play was witnessed.
Altogether, the annual meeting passed off in a manner that must have been
highly satisfactory to the members of the club.
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That chess was
still the province of only the more affluent, independent classes is
evidenced by the fact that play started at 3 p.m. on a Wednesday afternoon,
so limiting attendance to those who could take the afternoon off from
whatever employment they might have. (On the other hand, half-day
closing might have been a consideration.)
The identities of
the dramatis personae , were discernible, would appear to be as
follows:
J. [sic] A. Brierley
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Halifax
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Thomas Allen Brierley
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J. H. Brierley
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Halifax
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John Henry Brierley
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Cooper
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Halifax
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Coton
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Halifax
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John Craven
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Halifax
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John Craven,
senior
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Fleming
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Halifax
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William Fleming
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Law
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Halifax
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Leyland
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Halifax
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Francis Alexander Leyland
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Marchant
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Halifax
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probably
John Marchant
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Nussey
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Halifax
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Parker
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Halifax
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G. L. Parker
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Rigg
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Halifax
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probably
Samuel Taylor Rigg
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Scott
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Halifax
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W. H. Scott
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Tasker
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Halifax
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probably
William Tasker
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J. Wainhouse
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Halifax
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Jonathan Calvert
Wainhouse
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Walsh
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Halifax
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Edwin Walsh
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Whitman
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Halifax
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Tomlinson
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Wakefield
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William Henry Bedford Tomlinson
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Dr. Scott
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Huddersfield
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Dr. William Scott
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Watkinson
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Huddersfield
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John Watkinson
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Cooper
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Huddersfield
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Duncan Anderson Cooper
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Taylor
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Huddersfield
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George Henry Taylor
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Taylor
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Huddersfield
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(2 Taylors?)
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Mons. Mrozinski
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The identity of “Mons.
Mrozinski” is unclear.
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