Chapter 4 – 1950-1959

Reverend Lacy-Hulbert (pictured), the long serving County Secretary resigned after an extraordinary twenty-four years in the post, with Jack Baldwin taking over in 1953. Otto Schalscha began his long tenure as President of the Association. 

During this decade Ludlow schoolboy Philip Gough won the individual title three times, Otto Schalscha and Jack Baldwin twice each, whilst the title was won or shared once each by D.C. Mease, J.T. Love, P.A.R. Mondelski, R.W. Lewis, HD Gemmell, and A. Ayris.

Jack Baldwin County Secretary 1953 – 1973

Jack Baldwin (died 1991) originally of Wellington chess club and later of the new GKN Sankey Chess Club (now Coddon Club) was County Secretary from 1953 to 1973 and President for some years after that. Jack’s relinquishment of the office of secretary to Dr. Jeff Cox in June 1973 thus ended a remarkable era in which we only had effectively two county secretaries from 1929 to 1973. How many other non-paying organisations could match that? He was county Champion in 1956, 1957 and 1963. He first played for Shropshire in the early thirties and played through some bleak times up to and beyond the County’s historic win against Worcestershire in 1969 – our first victory since 1916! He probably played for his county more than any other player. An interesting character, he was one of the earliest members of the Communist Party of Great Britain – his strong socialist beliefs being strangely contrasted with the Shropshire gentleness of his personality. His news column in the Shropshire Star still continues today – currently in the capable hands of Toby Neal (also of Wellington Chess Club) on Tuesday evenings.

Otto Schalscha – County Champion 1951, 1953 ,1962

Otto Schalscha (born Upper Silesia, died in Trench, Telford 1975) of Shrewsbury Chess Club, who was long serving and highly respected President of Shropshire Chess Association well into the 1970s, is an amazing example of Lasker-like chess resilience. Already regarded as older generation when he won his third title in 1962, he continued to pop up with wins against the strongest county players in his later years. He astounded everyone by having a leg amputated after a period of illness and practically having to be restrained from visiting his local chess club from hospital. As soon as they did let him out a clock appeared as if by magic at his elbow and once again he was to be found, gracing by a charming manner and delicate wit, any chess event in the area. 

Philip Gough – 3 Times County Champion

Philip Gough was a Ludlow schoolboy, the first of his age group to rise to the highest levels of Shropshire chess. He first appeared in 1950 playing for Ludlow and soon made a dramatic impact, helping the club to win the league title three times from 1951 to 1953. He was county individual champion in 1952, 1953 (shared with Schalscha), and in 1954 after which he left for University. The photo from 1957 shows him, now an Oxford University player, making a winning appearance for the county during the Xmas break from college. Thus he was in the same team as veteran Reverend A.P.Lacy-Hulbert who had also played for Oxford half a century before.

D.C. Mease – Wellington

A Yorkshireman by birth, Desmond Mease won the County Individual title in 1950 jointly with J.T. Love and outright in 1960. He still produced outstanding chess as a veteran (pictured in 1971) for the county team in the 1970s, as in this battle of former champions of their respective counties.

P.A.R. Mondelski – 1955 County Champion

Pal (pronounced Paul) Mondelski was a Pole who moved to the UK during the war. He ran a thriving chess club at the A.T. and E. Works (later Decca) in Bridgnorth. When the club folded c1964 Mondelski retired from active chess. According to Jack Baldwin, apart from his duties as Grading Officer, he used to keep a vast card index of opening variations and could quickly dig out the last word on any particular system.

David Everington recalls, “My last vivid impression of him comes from the Shropshire Worcestershire match of the 1963/64 season, having been recommended by my chess mentor, Jim Samworth, and, having lost on boards 14 and 12 against Warwickshire and Staffordshire respectively I had, naturally been promoted to board 9. In a desperate effort to avoid ending the season on a blank score I gambled in the opening and, as luck would have it, my opponent Ernie Underhill fell into one of the most well known traps in the Caro-Kann:

1.e4 c6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 cd 4.Nxe4 Nd7 5.Qe2!? Ngf6?? 6.Nd6 mate. 

“The clocks had only been going for about five minutes and Mondelski turned with a look of disbelief and exclaimed in broken, excitable English that he had never seen anything like that before. He then buried his slowly shaking head in his hands and managed to regain sufficient concentration to draw his own game after getting into some difficulty.”

R.W. Lewis – 1957 County Champion

In 1957 R.W. Lewis shared the County Individual Championship with Jack Baldwin. Although at the time he was still a schoolboy at Ludlow Grammar School, he also played on top board for the Ludlow team.

The 1957 club championship final for the Silver King Trophy was a double-headed home and away tie between Ludlow and Wellington. The finalists for the individual championship were Lewis (Ludlow), Baldwin and Schalscha (Wellington), and Mondelski (Bridgnorth). It was agreed that the top board clashes in the club championship would also count for the individual event. Thus Lewis drew with first Schalsha and then Baldwin to share the individual crown but could not prevent Wellington claiming the Silver King. 

Ray Cox – Shrewsbury

Incredibly Ray Cox was still a pupil of Priory Grammar School when this game was played, arguably at the time the best ever performance by a Shropshire schoolboy! It certainly surprised many people at the tournament and it deprived Warwickshire’s Ritson-Morry, a regular competitor in the British Championship, of first prize. RayCox left the county soon after but returned in the late 1960s to take an active part in playing and administrative affairs

H.P.F. Swinnerton-Dyer

An occasional but welcome recruit to the top board for Shropshire was Sir Peter Swinnerton-Dyer (b.1927), the son of Sir Leonard Dyer (see 1940s History). He has the distinction of being the only player to represent Shropshire who is mentioned in Modern Chess Openings (in the section on the rare Ponziani Opening). Sir Peter, 16th baronet and landowner of the Westhope Estate near Craven Arms, was later knighted for his outstanding contribution to Number Theory in his role as Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University. 

Here he extricates himself from a bad opening against his well-known opponentand gains a pawn and then a piece when Black blunders in a bad position. In the early fifties Sir Peter gave up chess in favour of bridge.