Long Eaton Chess Club
For a period during the 1990s, Long Eaton was a very strong club, including Keith Arkell, the only grandmaster active in Derbyshire chess to date. The early history of the club is currently obscure, but more details will be added to this page if and when they become available. However, Andy Robins, club secretary and now the longest standing member, has kindly contributed information from 1983 onwards.
At some point in the late 1970s or early 1980s, the Long Eaton club merged with and incorporated the Shardlow club, which met at Tim Turner’s house in Wilne Lane and whose players included David Brown, who became a mainstay of the Long Eaton team. Other notable players at this point were John Hnydiw, a member of many years’ standing, Mike Barry and Joe Basker.
Back in 1983, the club met at the Queen’s Hotel in Long Eaton, which no longer exists as it has now been converted into apartments. At this time the team played in the second division of the Derby and District League.
In 1985 the club moved to the Curzon Club in Long Eaton, and Andy Robins joined in 1986. In 1988 the club was promoted to the D&D first division, but was relegated the following year. There followed several years where the team see-sawed between the 1st and 2nd divisions. Unfortunately, the space available to the club at the Curzon Club gradually contracted until it was unacceptably small, so in 1990 the club moved to the Pavilion Hotel in Long Eaton, which also no longer exists, now demolished and part of a housing estate. These were the start of the glory days of the Long Eaton club, where it grew to 11 teams and a total of 59 club members (29 adults and 30 juniors).
In 1993 the club left the Pavilion Hotel because it was being sold and moved to a smaller room at the Tiger Inn; membership also dropped. Nevertheless, this was one of Long Eaton’s most successful league seasons when they had Keith Arkell, Susan Arkell (now Susan Lalic) and several other strong players available. The room at the Tiger was too cold, so the club moved again after only two seasons to the Bell Inn in Sawley. There were still more than 30 members.
The club remained at the Bell for several more seasons until it underwent a refurbishment, when they relocated again, this time to the Moorlands Club in Curzon Street, Long Eaton where they have remained for more than twenty years. During this time, they have fielded a number of strong players including Tim Walker, Ray Evans and Kishan Lakhani.
The match below, played in the Derby and District League, was reported in the Derby Evening Telegraph’s Chess Notes column on 9th February 1968. It was my third ever league match.
Long Eaton v Bemrose School B
Played at Long Eaton on 6th December 1967 (LE white on odd).
| 1 | S Kisiel | 1-0 | Rupert M Mason |
| 2 | John Hnydiw | 1-0 | Z Julius P Mach |
| 3 | T Mowbray | 0-1 | Jeff K Wright |
| 4 | D Longden | 1-0 | Sean R Walters |
| 5 | Brian Higgins | 0-1 | Mike J Alderson |
| 6 | J Finch | 0-1 | Malcolm A Newsam |
| 3-3 |