Thanks to Toby and welcome Peter

Toby Neal is retiring as our regular news correspondent after a remarkable stint of 16 years. Peter Kitchen has kindly agreed to take on the role.

SCA President Matthew Clark paid this tribute to Toby:

I am delighted to pay tribute to Toby as he retires from writing his regular reports on the Shropshire Chess scene for the Shropshire Star and the Shropshire Chess website. Toby has been a part of Shropshire Chess for more than 30 years and has been one of the most popular and strongest players in the county over this period. His games stand out for their creativity and their entertainment value. Toby has been a real stalwart of Wellington Chess Club and has played regularly for Shropshire as well.  

Keith Tabner recalls that when he started the original Shropshire Chess website, Toby agreed that he should publish Toby’s weekly column there. The first article on the original website is dated 11/01/2005.

Toby brought a dry and witty humour to his articles that we have all enjoyed. They have provided a wonderful chronicle for Shropshire Chess on the website over the last 16 years. We are also very grateful to Toby for running the Summer Rapid Play Competition. This event has become more and more competitive in recent years and it has developed into an important part of the Shropshire Chess calendar.

Many thanks to Toby for everything he has done for Shropshire Chess and we wish Peter Kitchen the very best as he takes on the role.

Matthew Clark,
President of the Shropshire Chess Association

You can catch up with all of Toby’s articles by following the trail across the years in the News Archive, and more recently in the What The Papers Say posts. Our thanks also go to Keith Tabner for his equally long stint publishing Toby’s articles and maintaining the archive. (You can follow the story of Shropshire Chess even further back to 1845 through Keith’s History.)

A warm welcome to Peter, whose first article is published here today.

Nick Holmes
Website editor