8th Staffordshire Open, Bushbury, Wolverhampton, 27-29 May 1972

1972 Staffordshire Open		Fed	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total
1	John J Carleton	ENG	w24+	b23+	w2=	b17+	w6+	b5=	5
2	Jeff Horner	ENG	b25+	w12+	b1=	w10+	b8+	w3-	4½
3	Nigel J Holloway	ENG	w11=	b14=	w23+	b18+	w5=	b2+	4½
4	Timothy D Harding	ENG	b9-	w27=	b31+	w21+	b10+	w8+	4½
5	Robert S McFarland	ENG	b27+	w9+	b8-	w7+	b3=	w1=	4
6	Anthony J Miles	ENG	b28+	w26+	b13+	w8=	b1-	w9=	4
7	Keith B Richardson	ENG	b26-	b22+	w12+	b5-	w28+	w17+	4
8	Harry Lamb	ENG	w22+	b16+	w5+	b6=	w2-	b4-	3½
9	Derek Lamb	ENG	w4+	b5-	w16+	b24=	w17=	b6=	3½
10	Michael John Basman	ENG	w21+	b19=	w20+	b2-	w4-	b24+	3½
11	John V Innes-Reid	AUS	b3=	w17-	b25+	w26+	b15=	w13=	3½
12	John Anthony Sutton	ENG	w18+	b2-	b7-	w25+	w24=	b23+	3½
13	Robert Bellin	ENG	w15+	b20=	w6-	b30+	w14=	b11=	3½
14	Peter H Clarke	ENG	b29=	w3=	b26+	w19=	b13=	w15=	3½
15	Brian H Coop	ENG	b13-	w25=	b27+	w20+	w11=	b14=	3½
16	Peter C Griffiths	ENG	b32+	w8-	b9-	w29+	w18+	b21=	3½
17	David W Anderton	ENG	w30=	b11+	w19+	w1-	b9=	b7-	3
18	John M Ripley	ENG	b12-	w32+	b28+	w3-	b16-	w26+	3
19	Anthony Sadler	ENG	bye+	w10=	b17-	b14=	w23=	w20=	3
20	Richard A Beach	ENG	w33+	w13=	b10-	b15-	w30+	b19=	3
21	Ed H Goodwin	ENG	b10-	bye+	w30=	b4-	w29+	w16=	3
22	Gerald Homer	ENG	b8-	w7-	bye+	b23-	w27+	w28+	3
23	J Montgomery		b31+	w1-	b3-	w22+	b19=	w12-	2½
24	John E Horner	ENG	b1-	w31+	b29=	w9=	b12=	w10-	2½
25	M S Dunn	ENG	w2-	b15=	w11-	b12-	w31+	b29+	2½
26	Roger D De Coverly	ENG	w7+	b6-	w14-	b11-	w32+	b18-	2
27	Charles Cordel	USA	w5-	b4=	w15-	b31=	b22-	w30+	2
28	Roger Keely	ENG	w6-	b33+	w18-	w32+	b7-	b22-	2
29	Dr J K Walters	ENG	w14=	b30=	w24=	b16-	b21-	w25-	1½
30	(Reginald) David Picken	ENG	b17=	w29=	b21=	w13-	b20-	b27-	1½
31	Roger V H Butters	ENG	w23-	b24-	w4-	w27=	b25-	b32+	1½
32	Robert Colston	SCO	w16-	b18-	bye+	b28-	b26-	w31-	1
33	Anthony F Woodland	ENG	b20-	w28-	withdrew after rd 2				0 / 2

BCM, July 1972, ppn 242-244

Wolverhampton by W.Ritson Morry

The eight Staffordshire Chess Congress was held, like all its predecessors, at Northicote School, Bushbury. This year, thanks to energetic efforts by the organisers to improve the number and quality of the entry, a record gathering of 145 assembled on Saturday morning, May 27th to do battle in the various sections. This did not quite reach the target figure which the Committee had set for complete freedom from financial worry, but there is every reason to think that the programme offered will have proved a sufficient recommendation to attract the desired 160 plus next year.

The principal event, the Staffordshire Open Championship had 34 competitors for the £200 prize-list and among them were the names of two British masters, M. Basman and P. H. Clarke. There were also R. S. McFarland, the Midland Open Champion, A. J. Miles, the British Under 21 Champion and R. Bellin, winner of the Robert Silk Fellowship at the last Paignton Congress. It had also been expected that Raymond Keene would play, but selection for England in the Clare-Benedict Cup made it impossible.

In such a field the outright victory of John Carleton, himself a former Midland Open Champion, was a considerable personal triumph for the young Sutton Coldfield player and showed that his second prize with Basman at the Birmingham Congress was no flash in the pan. A courageous attacking player, who shows great skill in defending difficult positions, he tackled the job of playing six games in four days in vigorous style winning four and drawing two.

Quite surprising was the failure of Basman, Bellin and Clarke to reach the prize-list, but the heavy nature of the programme doubtless would have an adverse effect on players used to the more leisurely time-tables of international events.

For most of the way the tournament proved to be a struggle between Carleton, J. Horner, H. Lamb and A. J. Miles, but when, in round 5, Carleton beat Miles and Horner beat Lamb, Carleton and Horner entered the last round a clear point ahead of the rest of the field. As they had already met and drawn in round 3 other players were able to take a hand in the destiny of the first prize and when Carleton was held to an early draw by McFarland it seemed likely that the Bolton player might rob him of top honours, but he had his hands very full with N. J. Holloway who sacrificed the exchange for a lot of pawns and eventually won the ending to put himself into joint second place.

Complete results were:-

Staffordshire Open Championship: [as above] Grading Prizes were awarded to Coop, D. Lamb, Sutton and Innes-Reid.

Candidates Tournament: (1) M V Edwards, P A Harris 5/6; (3-4) D A Risley, C Southall 4½; (5-7) W Clayton, S G Johnson, P Williams 4; (8-10) M Curtis, J Fellows, R Porter 3½; (11-15) N R Andrews, A T Leadbetter, J Mildenhall, C B Russell, A Schroeder 3; (16-19) N Ardin, D T Fairbank, R I Kirkwood, T A Sweeney 2½; (20-23) R M Ewan, P J Jones, Dr C Lobley, P H Maddocks 2; (24) J C Freeman 1½; (25) J Southall 1.

Major Tournament: (1) R J A Cox 5½/6; (2) A C Southall 5; (3) R Butler 4½; (4-7) M W Alcock, J S Collins, L G Hesbrook, B M Jolly 4; (8) D G Edwards 3½; (9-14) G J Carless, R Challenor, J J Cox, R G Jones, N Pollock, T E Swain 3; (15-19) F Lloyd, Mrs M Lloyd, K Phillips, R J Quinton, D Rowe 2½; (20-22) P J French, D Hodson, R J Stevenson 2; (23) A K Black 1; (24) E J Ireland (withdrew after 4 rounds) 0.

Staffordshire Open and Closed Junior (Under-21) Championships: (1) R W Tarkowski 5½/6; (2) P S Terry 3½; (3-4) C J Mills, Miss W Terry 1½.

Staffordshire Open and Closed Junior (Under-18) Championships: (1-2) S Hasketh, S Hicks 4½/6; (3) S Dickens 2½; (4) A Powis ½.

Staffordshire Open and Closed Junior (U16 and U14) Championships: (1-2) P W Alldridge, C Baker 6; (3) M Ardin 5; (4) J E Crump 4½; (5-7) D Curtis, D Evans, P W French 4; (8-9) S Atkinson, J Rice 3½; (10) C Smith 3; (11) J McNally 2½; (12-14) M Peedle, G Taggart, G J Wilkinson 2; (15) S Poslussny (withdrew after 5 rounds) 2; (16) D N Birch (withdrew after 4 rounds) 0.

Alldridge and Baker shared the open Under-16 title, but Alldridge took the closed title alone. Ardin won the open Under-14 title and Crump took the closed title.

Staffordshire Open and Closed Junior (Under-12) Championships: (1) C C Benyon 7½; (2-3) T Ardin, J J Cox 7; (4) A Carrier 6½; (5-6) D Challenor, N White 6; (7-9) A A Belfield, A R Fowler, A W Cope 5½; (10-14) G W R Cantley-Thompson, S Gibbons, D W Poole, G Ralph, P White 5; (15-17) M W Hayes, P Northcott-Preece, D Smith 4½; (18-23) P Cox, D Elias, D Jones, R R Plant, A Terry, R Wilson 4; (24) D Buxton 3½; (25-30) P Gibbons M C Hancock, A Jones, I Walters, I B Banner, K Carter [no score given].

In the Staffordshire Open Lightning Championship, played at the end of the Congress there were 45 entries. P C Gibbs won first prize with 5½ points, R A Beach, P C Griffiths and R J Farley taking the remaining prizes with 5 points each.

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File Updated

Date	Notes
22 November 2025	95 games from the event. Many thanks to Andy Ansel for inputting and sending the games, also to Roger de Coverly for helping to amend scores.