Len Dorrington

Len Dorrington was a great worker for Bristol and Gloucestershire chess. Many of today's players will not remember Len because he gave up playing competitive chess a few years ago, but his record speaks for itself. Len was treasurer of the Gloucestershire Chess Association for about twenty years, and also President of the Bristol League in 1955-56.

Sea Mills Chess Club was started in 1949 when the warden of Twyford House, Shirehampton, advertised for someone to start a chess club as part of their facilities. Len Dorrington replied and thereby got stuck with the job of Secretary until 1981. The club was then called Twyford House Chess Club.

The move to Sea Mills was in 1962 -- there were fears of Twyford House closing down and this coincided with the offer of the present accommodation at Sea Mills; hence the change of name. While at Twyford, the club had proceeded from one team in div 4 (bottom division then) to three teams in Div 1, Div 3 and Div 4, respectively. The League K.O. Cup has Twyford House inscribed a couple of times. The K.O. Cup also has the name of Sea Mills on it; on this occasion the final was won 6-0.

Through Len's efforts, Sea Mills became popular as a venue for County matches. Devon played many of their matches at Sea Mills. Gloucestershire and Somerset also found it convenient, and for a number of years the North/South match was hosted there. Len established quite a reputation for brewing tea at all these events.

The first edition of the Bristol Chess Times appeared on the streets in April of 1980. The issues were typed on to wax stencils using an ancient typewriter and then run off on an old duplicator. Len volunteered to help with the printing, and when I met him in 1994 to research the 100th issue of the Chess Times, Len confided he still had that duplicator in his attic!

The funeral will be at Canford Crematorium at 2pm on Tuesday 25 January. Flowers are welcome, or a donation may be made to SEQUAL (previously known as the Possum Users Association) which supplies equipment to disabled people. A postscript may help explain how Len got involved with SEQUAL. While at Twyford House, the chess club were asked if, as a special favour, they could cope with a lad who was terribly disabled. Of course they did, but the favour was the other way round. He was the most regular attender of all club members and became Club Captain and Captain of the A team. He qualified as an accountant and was founder and Secretary of the Possum Users Association. His name was Robert Bowell, who died in 1979 aged 32.

John Richards
16 January 2000

Two examples of Len's combative tactical style: