An apparent omission from the 1999 NCCU Centenary booklet was reference to the fact that Lincolnshire was one of the counties involved in forming the NCCU.

For the North of England v South of England matches of 1893 and 1894 there was no idea of a Midland area, and Lincolnshire, along with some others now in the MCCU, was part of “The North of England”. The Lincolnshire CA was one of the counties at the inaugural meeting of the NCCU. Significantly, the Midland Counties chess Union had been formally constituted back in August 1897, when the counties involved were Warks., Derbys., Heref., Leics., Northants., Oxon., Notts, Salop, Staffs., and Worcs. - not Lincolnshire.

The Lincolnshire Chess Association in question was one of the organisations created by the Reverend Arthur Bolland Skipworth. Skipworth had a habit of organising a chess event, and then when he’d organised a follow-on event, dubbing that second event the second meeting of some organisation he had meanwhile created off his own bat, having meanwhile lined up some prestigious associates. Thus, he ran a chess-playing meeting at Louth in the first week of 1877, play starting on 02/01/1877, without any mention then of a Lincolnshire CA. The follow-up event, held at Grantham from 31/12/1877 to mid-January, was however described as the second meeting of the Lincolnshire Chess Association. Earl Brownlow was said to be president with HRH Prince Leopold being a patron, he having donated a Silver cup for the winner of the top section. (The winner of the first event got just the monetary prize of £5.

The Rev. Skipworth had done much chess organising in Yorkshire before returning to his native Lincolnshire, and would have supported Lincolnshire joining the NCCU, though he died on 27/11/1898, so missing the inaugural meeting by 62 days.

There was a Lincolnshire player among the 8 players contesting the 1900-01 NCCU Individual Championship, one J Wilson, who was nominated by Lincolnshire rather than him qualifying by being Lincolnshire Champion.

It is very probable that this initial Lincolnshire CA soon fizzled out after Skipworth’s death, which is confirmed by a reference in January 1910 to the “re-formed Lincolnshire County Chess Association”.

Written by Steve Mann