Association team matches were played either, although the individual knockouts continued to thrive.
Stanley was a great character, and he had a wealth of anecdotes of events from his earlier days. One of his favourite stories concerned the occasion when the Lindley team had to visit Brighouse for the final deciding fixture. The match was closely contested and the games continued for a long time (there were no clocks used then), so much so that when finally the Lindley team had proved victorious they found out that they had missed the last tram back to Huddersfield. So they had to walk back all the way to Lindley.
Post World War II
On re-starting the Watkinson League after the War, the teams taking part were, Huddersfield, Halifax, Lindley, Ravensthorpe, the Huddersfield Industrial Society, Britannia Works & David Brown’s Gears. They were soon joined by the Polish and Ukrainian Clubs.
Jack Walker (of Lindley) took over as secretary, being succeeded in the early 1950’s by Harry Wadsworth (of Huddersfield). Harry continued in office for about 15 years. In 1952, the Huddersfield Club initiated a weekly chess column in the Examiner, and Harry contributed a weekly report of Association matters, using the none-de-plume of ‘Max Lange’, for many years. He was also the captain of the successful Huddersfield Knights team.
At the AGM of 1957, Stanley Littlewood resigned as President, as he thought that he had held the position for so long, it was time to give someone else a chance. He suggested that it would be beneficial if the office was only held for 5 years. His successor was Norman Calvert who had been a successful secretary in the past.
Handicap System
It was in 1958 that a major change to the handicap system was introduced. Previously each club received a block handicap for the season, depending on results from the previous season. Each club had to produce a list of registered players, and this handicap evaluation was based on the strength of a club’s strongest players.
Now a change was introduced which required that every registered player should have an individual handicap, from 0 to 10, with 6 points being awarded for a win, and 3 points for a draw. These were initially agreed by a show of hands at a special committee meeting, at which all clubs were represented, at the beginning of the season. Later it was decided that a separate Handicap Committee should be elected to determine these handicaps on a more studied scientific method. Prominent early