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SHEFFIELD Chess History |
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Contents: |
Holroyd Trophy |
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The titular engraving on this electroplated base metal trophy says simply
PRESENTED TO SHEFFIELD CHESS ASSOCIATION BY H. H. HOLROYD Esq. SHEFFIELD CLASS “B” TOURNAMENT.
(Click here for a photograph of the trophy.)
It went into service as described in the above inscription in 1937, but it started life in 1901 as the club championship trophy of Hutton’s chess club. This club drew members from the staff of William Hutton and Sons on West Street.
William Hutton and Sons was a silversmith and cutlery firm originating in Birmingham, but moving to Sheffield in 1832. The Sheffield factory on West Street, completed in 1855, remained known as Hutton’s building after the cutlery connection ceased. This building is still there, having for many years housed Hartley Seed’s bookshop, but now housing newer concerns.
Mr. Harry Herman Holroyd joined Hutton’s Chess club in 1896, and later became secretary and captain of the club. This was at a time when the Sheffield league had yet to form its second division, and there wasn’t even a trophy to be awarded to the league winners.
Three other members of Hutton’s were three brothers by the name of Stringer. Between them, Louis Stringer, William Stringer and H. H. Holroyd decided to present a trophy for the Hutton’s club championship. This trophy was no off-the-shelf affair. The chasing on the trophy was carried out by Louis Stringer, so it was presumably made at Hutton’s factory. Thus the trophy is a purpose-made chess trophy, fashioned by a local chess-player using traditional Sheffield skills. On the reverse is a depiction of a game of chess in progress, with one of the players supposedly being Ruy Lopez, the 16th-century Spanish priest.
Winners of this trophy in the Hutton club championship were: 1901-02 H.H. Holroyd 1902-03 Walter Stringer (brother of Louis and William) 1903-04 W. Knowles 1904-05 R. Combes 1905-06 H. H. Holroyd
When Hutton’s Chess Club folded, due primarily to the Stringers emigrating to America, it was agreed that Harry, as the first and last winner, should retain the club championship trophy. Harry and other members of the Hutton’s club formed Walkley Reform Chess Club, around 1911.
In due course Harry presented the trophy to the Sheffield & District Chess Association for competition in Class B of the Sheffield individual championship, successive winners of which have been as follows (as engraved: to 1988 on the plinth, from 1889 on an added plinth):
Some of the engraving from 1989 to 2007 in now very faint.
It appears that from 2011 to 2015, a Holroyd winner was not determined in the Sheffield Championship which was by then being run as a single Swiss tournament with players, if things were done correctly, banded to identify “Class B” and “Class C” candidates.
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Created 05/09/2013 |
Copyright © 2013 Stephen John Mann |
Last Updated 16/02/2021 |