SHEFFIELD Chess History |
Contents: |
Sam Haystead Memorial Trophy |
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Sam Haystead was born in 1984. By the age of 6 he had been diagnosed as having the wasting disease multiple schlerosis. He took up chess at the age of 14. In time he became confined to a wheelchair, but he nevertheless cheerfully made the most of life within the limitations imposed upon him. Though his family home was in Tickhill, he got involved in the Sheffield chess scene. He was the winner in 2004-05 of the Sheffield & District Chess Association’s G. W. Moses Trophy. He played for the Sheffield D team which won the Yorkshire Chess Association’s Silver Rook competition in 2004-05.
In January 2006, at the age of only 21, Sam contracted a chest infection from which he was unable to recover, and as a result he died. At the time he was a regular member of the Rotherham Juniors A team in the S&DCA’s Davy Trophy, as well as playing some matches for the B team, and he had played in Sheffield D’s first two 2005-06 matches in the YCA’s I. M. Brown Shield competition.
The Sam Haystead Memorial Trophy was donated to the Sheffield & District Chess Association by the then treasurer of the Association, Mike Brumby, as a memorial to Sam Haystead. The trophy is awarded to the winners of the tournament conducted among first-round losers in the Richardson Cup competition, commencing in 2006-07 season.
The trophy is an EPNS goblet with handles, on a metal-banded plinth. The goblet itself is about 11 inches tall, and the plinth adds a further 3 inches to its height.
The inscription on the front reads:
SAM HAYSTEAD
MEMORIAL TROPHY
The inscription on the back reads:
DONATED BY
MIKE BRUMBY
(Click here for a photograph of the trophy.)
Winners’ names and dates from the start of the competition are inscribed on the plinth’s metal band. Winners to date have been as follows:
(2003 denotes season 2002-03, and so on.) * for 2015 the trophy was erroneously engraved “Rotherham A”
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Created 02/09/2013 |
Copyright © 2013 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 16/02/2021 |