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Northern Counties Chess Union Established 1899 A constituent unit of the English Chess Federation |
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Trophies |
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Edmund Spencer Memorial Cup
The cup is of sterling silver, with the Sheffield hallmark for 1937, and was manufactured by Cooper Bros. of Sheffield.
After the death on 07/01/1936 of Edmund Spencer (18/06/1876- 04/01/1936), while in office as secretary of the Northern Counties Chess Union, it was decided to institute a Northern Counties Boy’s Championship competition with a trophy bearing his name, in recognition and commemoration of his work for the NCCU.
Initial Plan
The competition was to be open to boys who were under 18 years of age on the 31st of March at or near the end of the season concerned. Thus for the first season the competition would be held, 1936-37, entrants would have to be under 18 on 31/03/1937.
Each constituent county of the NCCU was to nominate one participant for a season’s competition. The winner would then be the NCCU’s nominee for the British Boys’ Championship competition and would also be “the guest of the Union at a British Chess Congress”.
A special fund was to be set up, maintained with annual contributions from the constituent counties, to pay travelling expenses in connection with the Northern championship, the British Boys’ championship, and the British congress.
Revised Plan
People must have had second thoughts, as the idea of a Northern Counties Boys’ Championship as such was dropped.
The new idea was that each county would organise its own boys’ under-18 championship, and that the NCCU would provide a trophy which would be awarded to each county in rotation for tenure for a season by that county’s Boys’ Champion. All counties’ boy champions, each season, would receive a small replica of the trophy to keep.
The NCCU’s nominee for the British Boys’ Championship would, under the revised plan, be selected from the various counties’ boy champions.
The age qualification was revised to not being over 18 on the 30th of April at the end of the season of the competition.
War
By the time of the 1939 NCCU AGM of 1939, the trophy had been secured. However, the protracted dithering meant the 1939-45 war kicked in before the event could be launched. The first winner appears to be that of 1954, so that was presumably when it started, a mere 17 years late. These days the event is hosted by a congress nominated each year by a county according to a rota.
Plinth
In time the space for engraving ran out, and an added wooden plinth was made in 2016, at no charge to the NCCU, by Ed Sowerby of Mexborough.
(See here for a list of winners.)
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