News

Annual General Meeting 9/6/2026

The club held the  AGM at the end of the season at the Queen's Head on Tuesday 9th June.

The following awards were made. 

• The Presidents Cup, awarded for services to the club, is awarded to Dan Billingham who stepped up and took over the club secretary’s role.
• The Denis Fernihough Trophy is for the most improved player. This year there was one player who really stood out and that is Che Duljeet Adams. At the start of the season, his ECF rating was 1631 and it is now 1704 so he has broken through the 1700 barrier.
• The Sydney Willets trophy is awarded to the most reliable club player and goes to Nic Fallowfield. Nic has always replied to emails promptly, provided lifts to other team members and took the time to share his games with the rest of the club. . .

The following officials were elected:

• President : Julie Wilson
• General Secretary :Dan Billingham
• Treasurer: Steve Alcock
• Website: Julie Wilson
• Publicity :Julie Wilson
• Social Secretary: Julie Wilson
• Safeguarding Officer :Adam Ware
• Birmingham division 3 team captain: Adam Ware
• Birmingham division 4 team captain: TBD
• Wolverhampton division 1 team captain:John Foxall
• Wolverhampton division 3 team captain:Steve Alcock
• Dudley division 3 team captain: TBD

The club needs more team captains. If you are interested in becoming a team captain or would like to help out, please contact Dan Billingham or Julie Wilson.

The club's venue was discussed at the AGM and it was decided to continue to meet on Tuesday evenings at the Queen's Head.

The AGM minutes can be read here.

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End of Season report 2026

The 2025/26 chess season has now finished and in terms of results was not such a successful season. The club felt the loss of 2 prolific chess players - Paul Sharratt and Eric Horwill who passed away. The club is mourning the loss.

BDCL2

It was tough going in BIrmingham division 2 and following a 3 way play-off the team were relegated to division 3.   We won 3 drew 1 and lost 7. The team's best player was Joe Friar who scored 6 out of 8.

BDCL4

This team was hampered by players not always being available for matches. This meant we often had to field a weaker team than we would have liked. We were relegated to division 5 which will probably be good for the club as players will be playing against opponents of a similar strength. The top performer was Che Adams who also scroed 6 out of 8. Dan Jones scored  3.5 out of 5.

WDCL1

We knew it would be tough in division 1 and it was. Unfortunately towards the end of the season, we had to default against Warley Quinborne basically because we had no players available and so were penalised 2 points. This did not help our points total and we finished bottom of the division.

Our best player was Nic Fallowfield who won 2, drew 5 and lost 1 . 

WDCL3

This team was used to provide games for some of our less experienced players. We finished comfortably in the lower half of the table. Adam Ware won 4 games and drew one and Che won 2 and drew 2.

Dudley division 3

This division is for players graded under 1650 which meant we had a limited pool of players to draw from. We finished 6th out of 8 teams.

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End of Season Blitz Tournament

On the 12th May, we held our end of season blitz tournament. Eight players took part in a round robin with a time control of 5|3 . The overall winner was Jeremy Fallowfield with a 100% score of 7. Adam Ware came second on 5 points and Ben Doran and Che Duljeet Adams tied for 3rd on 4 points.

Paul Sharratt

Sadly, Paul died of a heart attack at 9.00am on 10th February.

He leaves behind his wife Margaret and children. He gained a degree in Modern languages from Cambridge university, worked as a languages teacher and worked his way up to becoming a headmaster. He also recently gained a degree in statistics from the Open University.

He rejoined Stourbridge chess club in 2010. I believe he had previously been a member. He served as club secretary from 2021 to 2025. He was also the club safeguarding officer for a number of years and captained numerous teams.

He recently founded a new chess club close to his home in Kinver so that he was able to continue to play chess despite health problems.

Throughout his time at Stourbridge chess club he was always willing to help out and gave countless lifts to players attending matches, often not getting home until well after midnight.

Besides being a very good chess player, he must also hold the record for the most positions held in the chess world, serving on countless committees.

Here’s a list of some of his awards and positions held.

• In 2011 he won the award for most improved Stourbridge player.
• In 2016, he won the Ball cup as Worcester and District league individual champion.
• In 2019 he was elected president of Worcester and district chess league..
• In 2021 he won the Jim Friar award in recognition of his services to Worcestershire chess.
• In 2023 he was elected safeguarding officer for the ECF.
• In 2024 he was elected president of the BDCL.
• He has captained numerous Stourbridge and Worcestershire teams.
• This season he was the safeguarding officer for BDCL, records secretary for WDCL.
• He was the Worcestershire delegate to the ECF, BDCL and dudley and district league.

He will be greatly missed in the English chess world.

Paul's funeral is taking place on Wednesday 25 March at 11.30 at St Peter’s Church Kinver with a reception at Kinver Constitutional Club afterwards.

Mid Season Report

We knew it would be tough in division one of the Wolverhampton league but so far Stourbridge have held their own. They have won one match, drawn one and lost 2. There are several teams with much worse records so Stourbridge do not look in danger of relegation. At this point in the season, league tables are meaningless as teams have played different numbers of matches. The division 3 team is often used to give less experienced players match practice. The team is currently on 50% - won 3 lost 3.

In division 2 of the Birmingham league, Stourbridge have exactly the same record as in the Wolverhampton league – won 1 drawn 1 and lost 2. They need to win a few more matches to be sure of avoiding relegation. In division 4, Stourbridge are currently 9th out of 12 teams,  having won 1, drawn 2 and lost 2. Their one win was just before Christmas so hopefully their better form will continue into 2026. The best Stourbridge player in division 4 is board 1 Dan Jones on won 2 drawn 1.

In Dudley division 3, Stourbridge have found it difficult to field a complete team because of the rating limit of under 1600. So far they have drawn 1 and lost 1. There is no promotion or relegation in this league so players just play for experience and ratings points.

Christmas Blitz tournament

On Tuesday 23/12/2025, we held our Christmas blitz tournament. 10 players took part. The joint winners were Joe Friar and Dan Jones both on 8 points but officially Joe should be the winner based on the Christmas jumper tie-break. Joe only lost one game to Dan and Dan also lost one game against Che Adams. Adam Ware came 3rd on 6½ and Ben Doran and Che tied for 4th place on 6 points.

Eric Horwill

Stourbridge chess club stalwart Eric Horwill passed away at home in the early hours of 11th October 2025. Eric’s health had been deteriorating since the Summer. He was 92. Eric first joined Stourbridge chess club in 1946. His brother and father were also members. Throughout his life he has worked tirelessly to support the chess club, having served as club president and captained numerous teams. He also organised the Dudley chess exchange with Bremen Germany which was part of a wider sports exchange. To celebrate the 25th exchange, Eric walked from Dudley to Bremen ! Besides being an excellent attacking chess player. He was also an international race-walker.

Pre-season blitz

On Tuesday 19th August, Stourbridge chess club held its pre-season blitz tournament. It was an 11 round round-robin tournament with a time control of game in 5 minutes which is much too fast for some of us older players. The overall winner was Jeremy Fallowfield with a perfect 11 points. Dan Jones came second with 9 and Nic and Che tied for 3rd with 8 points. It was a good fun event !

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Online Chess

Stourbridge has an online club on chess.com. Any local chess players are welcome to join us online. We hold monthly tournaments and play "daily matches" against other clubs. 

There is a BDCL meta club which organises events for players associated with the BDCL.

In order to join either club, you need to be a member of chess.com which is free.

Useful links

(Each link opens in a separate window)

• How to join chess.com.
• How to join a club

Stourbridge Chess Club is now an affiliate of chess.com. If you use one of our links to access chess.com and then take out a premium subscription it will benefit the club. Being an affiliate enables us to offer diamond memberships as prizes in our online tournaments.

Tony Evers/Joyce Evans Match

This annual friendly match against Halesowen was held at the Queens Head on 22nd July 2025. . There was a really nice friendly atmosphere throughout the evening and the Queens Head put on a great spread!. Stourbridge outgraded Halesowen on most boards and beat Halesowen  8-2.

 Match Results

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ECF Membership

Worcestershire Junior Chess Academy

During school term-time the club meets on alternate Saturday mornings 10:00 am to 11:45 am at King's School Worcester, next to the Worcester Cathedral. Enter from Castle Place WR1 2NB.

If you would like to attend, please contact Simon Berry e-mail .

See Worcester Junior Chess Academy for more information.