Early Beginnings
The first known founder (and organiser) of Crowthorne Chess Club was JMO (John Michael Osborn) Curtis known as Mike to his friends. He was a teacher of History and Classics at Wellington College, Crowthorne, Berkshire. Indeed, as a member myself in the early 1970s we would meet on Monday evenings in one of the classrooms of the Classics Department at Queen’s Court. Strangely, I remember that Mike’s telephone number was Crowthorne 2012.
Here is the initial press article from the Bracknell Times of Thursday, 26th September 1974 (courtesy of Paul Dupre):
“Bracknell Times – Thursday 26 September 1974
Chess is booming
CHESS seems to be the booming pastime in and around Wokingham.
Last week, Winnersh started to expand its own club and now a new club
is to be started in Crowthorne, at Wellington College.
The Crowthorne Chess Club will start on October 7 and will meet on every
following Monday at 7.30pm. The organisers of the club hope that it will
develop quickly and soon be competing in the Berkshire League.
It will meet in the new Queen’s Court building at Wellington College and will
share the excellent equipment already in use by the college chess club.
The maintenance of the equipment and the sundry expenses are expected to
be met by an annual subscription of about £2 for each member.
There are a number of well known players living nearby and it is hoped some
simultaneous displays and “teaching and entertainment” sessions will be held.
The international player Miss P. A. Sunnucks has promised to assist in the early
stages of the club’s development.
Anyone wishing to attend the first meeting on October 7 should go to room H4
in the History Department at the college.
Further information can be had from Mr J. M. O. Curtis at Wellington College.”
My initial 1974 membership (and my first chess club) followed on the back of the huge media interest in the 1972 Spassky-Fischer match in Reykyavik. My Yateley School team mate, Mark Johnstone joined shortly after myself. Mark is now a highly successful barrister.
From those days the following members I can recall (using old scoresheets): M. Hameau, Norman Grant, Ken Preston-Wyse, John Evans, Terry King, John Sweeney, Fred Marzillier, R. Thompson, EM Davies, A. Keith Langford , A. Wort, ? Keeler, AM Foss and Ralph Knight.
The Berkshire League Beckoned
Crowthorne became affiliated to the Berkshire Chess Association for the 1975-6 season and in 1976 won its first trophy when the A team won the FS Woolford Trophy, for winning Division Two.
Early members at that time included Stan Dolan, Jon A. Freeman, Gordon Ironside, Arthur Sydney (“Sim”) Tonks (who lived in Scotland Hill), Don Derrick, Martin Harvey, Ron Crow. I went to UCL in September of 1978 and gave up chess completely in 1983 to restart my academic career at The University of Sussex and did not “play” again until 2004.
For the 1979-80 season Dr Nick England took over from Mike Curtis as Secretary. Nick was on Crowthorne 5623 and lived in Rose Cottage, taught Physics and went on to become Lord Lieutenant of the Isle of Wight. The 1983-84 season saw a handover to Doug Legge who continued in post until 1985-86 to be replaced by Laurie Crowe.
1983 FM Richard Webb joined the club. Ken and Christine Coates (based in Yateley) joined in 1988 (and Christine in 1990) Ken having played for ICL Bracknell.(which folded) along with Mark Taylor who also joined Crowthorne.
Sadly, Mike Curtis passed away on September 14th 1985. Having been a Japanese PoW he had carried a burden of ill health since 1945.
In 1984 an internal event was created called the Khyber Cup (now called the John Purkis Shield) which was an unrated rapidplay tournament of five rounds held at a members home. The first winner was Richard Webb. It has been held to the present day and even Covid-19 did not interrupt it.
The 1988-89 saw Gordon Ironside take over from Laurie as Secretary. Match Captains for that season were (A) Mark Saunders, (B) Ralph N Knight and (C) Barry D Halley.
The Surrey Border League
Around about this time (1986?), Crowthorne became affiliated to The Surrey & Hampshire Border League (known as the Surrey Border League these days) and in the first season won the Haslemere Trophy. In 1989 the A team won the top division of the Border League which had the strong Guildford and Camberley teams to contend with.
Richard Webb became Secretary for the 1989-90 season whilst living in Yateley and the Match Captains were as the previous year. Richard continued in 1990-91 and Neil Staples became A team Match Captain, Mark Saunders moved down to the B team and Vick Stegglass managed the C team. In the following year Mark Saunders resumed his A team captaincy, Gordon Ironside took over the B teams and John Purkis (of Khyber Cup fame) the C team.
Mark Saunders ran a junior team during this period and regular players were Andrew and Nicholas Coates and occasionally Christine who acted as chauffeur.
After seven years service Richard stepped down and Peter Larwood took over for the 1996 -1997 season continuing in post until 2015 when replaced by the current Secretary, Jonathan Welton.
Past club Presidents have included Nick England, Richard Webb, Sim Tonks, Ken Norman, Ian Murray, Mark Taylor and Colin Purdon.
Jon Freeman won the Cadogan Cup (the Berkshire Individual Championship) in 1983 and Richard first won the same in 1984 and the Berkshire Quickplay Cup in 1990 retaining the title in the following year.
In 1993 Crowthorne first won Division One of the Berkshire League and, for the first time, The Premier Precision Trophy, the main knockout competition of the Berkshire League. 1993 was the first year of total dominance in the Berkshire League winning Divisions One, Two (albeit shared), Three and the Premier Precision Trophy. Crowthorne, to some extent, had replaced Reading as the club which had dominated the league for years since its inception in 1910.
In 19?? John Rawlinson (Mathematics) took over as liaison between the club and the College. john kindly facilitated the clubs meeting venue moving from the Classics Department to the Mathematics Department, also in Queen’s Court. During the time that Wellington College awarded bursaries for chess John ran a hugely strong Wellington College team of pupils which won the Berkshire League, Division One.
The Wellington College team included (now IM) Felix Jose Ynojosa-Aponte, Alex Galliano, Lateefah Messam-Sparks, (now IM) Brandon Clarke, James Holland, Akash Jain and Adrian Archer-Lock and latterly, William Foo.
In 2023 the club vacated its home in the Mathematics Department and relocated to the rather splendid Monro Pavillion so named after Hugo Monro who was the 12th Master of the College replaced in 2006 by Sir Anthony Seldon. Since then the club relocated to “The Shooting Hut” and then briefly the Raglan Building and then to its current home outside of the confines of Wellington College in the modern air-conditioned Morgan Centre. The Morgan Centre is named after the Reverend Henry Morgan. . He served as the second vicar of the local St John the Baptist Church, beginning his duties in 1884.
Other notable members and past members of the club include IM Shaun Taulbut, IM Tom Hinks-Edwards, FM Stephen Dishman, FM Paul Cooksey, FM Ian Thompson, WIM Natasha Regan and WFM Louise Head amongst others.
Our current Secretary is Jonathan Welton, President is Harriet Haslehurst and Treasurer is Harvey Duckers
John Upham, originally September 2024, updated July 2026