Welcome to the home of Rotherham's chess players. We're currently without a venue and not running social nights, but usually meet at a town centre venue on Wednesdays from 6:30–9:30pm.
Au revoir Three Cranes...
We recently received the unexpected news that the Three Cranes Inn, our home for the last 3 years, is coming under new ownership and will be closed for refurbishments for at least a month.
Putting chess aside for a moment, this is obviously a difficult time for the wonderful staff who've looked after us so well over the years—we'd like to place on record our thanks to them, and we wish them all the best.
This leaves us without a regular home venue for the time being. On a happier note, we've had a chat with the new landlords who seemed positive about having us back once the refurb is completed, so we hope to be able to return to a new and improved Cranes in future. However, we've had to change our plans at short notice, particularly as our 2024 Summer League campaign begins on Wednesday.
The current plan is as follows:
• There will be no Wednesday club night from 29 May until at least 26 June
• Our home fixtures on 10 and 19 June will now be played away instead
• Our next home fixture against Chesterfield is on 17 July, by which time we hope to be back 🤞
More updates when we have them.
(Nearly) end of season update
With our 2022/23 campaign nearly over (barring a dead rubber against champions-elect Sheffield Nomads) it's time to take a look back over the season just gone...
It's fair to say it's been tough this year facing off against some very strong sides, but we've secured ourselves a berth in Division 2 for next season when just a few months ago relegation seemed a real danger.
A spate of close-run victories in February and March against fellow strugglers Woodseats B (3½-2½), Sheffield University (4-2) and Ecclesall B (3½-2½) was decisive after we'd only secured a single point from the first half of the season.
It's been great to see new arrivals Jacob, Mark, and Damien taking part in their first full season. A special mention goes to Jacob for being the only Rotherham player to manage a plus score this season with 5½/9 at time of writing.
We now look towards the 2023 Summer League which will kick off on 17th May. Naturally, we'll be meeting at the Three Cranes as normal on Wednesdays when we don't have a match scheduled.
Richardson Cup R1 🏆
We opened our Richardson Cup campaign with an unlikely victory over Sheffield University yesterday. The match was tied at 3-3 and, having lost on both top and bottom boards, most of us presumed that we were out, but surprisingly we qualified for the next round 11-10 by virtue of our lower board count, having won on boards 2, 3, and 5.
The draw for Round 2 is already made, so we'll be facing what could be a terrifyingly strong SASCA 1 side at home, most likely on Wednesday 16th November. We've got the league to worry about before that though, with a visit to Woodseats on Monday 24 October before we welcome University A back to the Cranes on Wednesday 2nd November.
We'll be meeting on Wednesdays as usual on non-match nights. See you there!
For some pics from tonight click "read more" 👇