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Yorkshire Chess History |
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Narrative: 18) The Start of Associations within Towns |
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The formation of an association of clubs is dependent on there being a large enough number of clubs within an area small enough to permit travel between clubs. This is essentially a matter of population density and the geographical area over which an area of adequate density extends.
Back in 1840, industrialisation had led to a tight cluster of densely populated towns in a part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, facilitating the birth of the original Yorkshire Chess Association. Yet within individual towns, in the early years, there was usually at only one club, occasionally two. As time went by, however, the population of towns got large enough to sustain enough clubs within a single town to sustain an association of clubs within a single town and its environs. The Somewhere & District Chess Association thus became viable.
The first (?) such association in Yorkshire was the Sheffield & District Chess Association formed on Tuesday 17th April 1883. Its raison d’etre was not initially to organise inter-club competitions but to act as a single body representing the town (as such it then was) as a whole to the outside world, in practice to the rest of Yorkshire. This task of representing Sheffield within Yorkshire had hitherto been assumed by its senior club, the Sheffield Athenaeum Chess Club. The various clubs were already playing matches between each other, but in time a formal team competition was created, such as is now the main purpose of such associations.
Yorkshire cities and towns now acting as centres for such associations are Bradford, Doncaster, Halifax, Harrogate, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield and York. In the past there were small ones centred on places like Rotherham and Wath-upon-Dearne, but, as public transport has improved, these areas have been sucked into the ambit of larger, adjacent associations.
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Created 25/04/2012 |
Copyright © 2012 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 25/04/2012 |