Leagues

Birmingham and District Chess League 

We have four teams competing across Divisions One, Three, Four and Five. More information on the league itself can be found here:   https://www.birminghamchess.org.uk/​

Worcestershire Chess League

Slightly smaller than the Birmingham League, we typically enter three teams across the three possible divisions. We have won the top division on many occasions. More information can be found here: https://worcestershirechess.org.uk/

Club History

Early Days

​There has been a chess club in Redditch since at least the 1880's and probably much earlier.  

​We know that there was a chess and draughts match played between the Redditch Chess and Debating Club and the St George's (Birmingham) club on Saturday 30th April 1881 in the Redditch club rooms. The match was played with 10 boards of chess and 3 boards of draughts, with refreshments after the game at the home of the Redditch club secretary Mr A G Bayliss. There was also a Redditch  Bromsgrove match in 1884 - again played on a Saturday.  We also know of a chess match between the Stratford and Redditch clubs played over two legs on 15th and 22nd November 1889. 

In addition the legendary Joseph Henry Blackburne gave a simultaneous exhibition at the Temperance Society in Redditch in 1890. He was the strongest British player of the time and regularly amongst the top five players in the world.  

Chess club activities continued during the 1890's with records of Redditch matches against Lye in March 1895 and St George's in October 1895.

Aside from these early matches and events, the Redditch club (briefly) affiliated to the Birmingham League in 1900, with Redditch and St George's as early league members.  

Redditch were second division champions for the 1900 to 1901 season, but it appears that Redditch left the Birmingham League in 1903 and we have no records of the club until 1925 when the constitution was drafted.

1925 to 1960

Following the club's re-establishment in 1925, Redditch has entered teams in various divisions of the Birmingham and Worcestershire Leagues. We know that the club was active from 1925 onwards, aside from a short break during the second world war. We believe that Redditch will have been playing in the Worcestershire league during this period - however we have no details of the clubs activities until the 1960s.

The 1960s

Club records indicate that John Roe was club secretary and one of the leading players in the 1960's . The club entered teams in the first and second divisions of the Worcestershire League and met weekly on Tuesdays (which is the current club night) at the Fleece Hotel in Evesham Street in Redditch. 

There was some discussion of entering a team in the Birmingham league at the AGM of 1969 given the need to attract new members and the influx of people from Birmingham into the Redditch New Town areas - however a decision was taken to continue with just the two teams in the Worcestershire League.

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The 1970s 

The club grew in strength in the 1970's.

Jeff Heath had now joined the club and was one of the leading players, along with Jack Roe, Paul Robertson, Dave Aston, Rhys Bevan, Paul Thomas, Ken Butcher and Gary Boswell.  

The club continued with two teams in the Worcestershire league and after much discussion at the 1974 AGM and a subsequent special meeting, a decision was taken to enter a Redditch team in the Birmingham league,  with the only space available being in Division 3.

Redditch made a strong showing in the BDCL Div 3, were quickly promoted to Div 2, and became  second division champions in the 1976-1977 season – repeating the great performance of 1902, but this time winning all their games with a 100% record.  Redditch's first team was now playing in the Birmingham League Division !, with club teams also entered in the Worcestershire League.

The 1980s

The club continued to field one team in the Birmingham League and two teams in the Worcestershire league during the 1980's. Leading players in the club were Jeff Heath, Paul Robertson and Steve Wells. 

The team was not as strong as the division winning side of the 70's and moved down to the second and then the third division of the BDCL by 1986. 

Club champions of the 1980's were: 

1980    D Aston/ N Blackburn

1981 - P Thomas                           

1982 - N Blackburn

1983 - J Anderson

1984 - J Anderson

1985 - S Wells

1986 - J Heath/ D Preedy

1987 - S Wells

1988- S Wells

1989- S Wells

The 1990s

The club moved to a new venue, the Salop Road community centre in the early 1990's and was still fielding teams in the Birmingham and Worcestershire Leagues.

Notable players of the 1990s include Jeff Heath, Paul Robertson and Jason Cole. Club champions were:

1990- J Heath

1991- J Heath

1992- W Flew

1993- J Heath

1994- P Randall

1995- J Heath

1996- M Wackrow

1997- J Heath

1998- J Heath

1999- C Reid

2000-2016

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The club continued to meet at Salop Road during the 2000's and then moved via a couple of other venues to St John's Church Hall in Redditch and then to our current venue at the Alvechurch Sports and Social Club in Alvechurch.

Club Champions for the period have been as follows:

2000- J. Cole

2001- P Church

2002- D Dixon

2003- P Church

2004- J Heath

2005- G Stanton

2006- P Wood

2007- J Cole

2008- G Stanton

2009- M Clack

2010- J Cole

2011- D Spowart

2012- S Crockett

2013- J Cole

2014- J Cole/ G Stanton

2015- D Smith

2016 - J Vaughan

Club championships across Blitz, Rapid and Classical formats have only recently been reintroduced

2016/2017 Season

Birmingham League

The Redditch first team had a very good season, finishing top of division 3 with 20 points.

​This means that we were promoted to play in Div 2.  

2017/2018 Season

Our first team won the BDCL Division 2 championship. The championship went to the wire with Redditch and Wolverhampton tieing for first place on equal points and Redditch winning the playoff. This means that Redditch were promoted to Division 1 for the first time since the 1977/ 1978 season over forty years ago when we had a very strong team which stayed in the first division into the 1980s.

2017 to 2022

You can find results for previous seasons at the links here:

BDCL (2017 - 2022)  -  https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/35/previous​

​Worcestershire  (2021-2022) -   https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/31110/previous

2023/2024 Season

Redditch fielded teams in div 1, div 4 and div 5 of the BDCL . The last season we played in Div1 was pre-COVID when we lasted for one season before being relegated.  For 23/24 we were not the lowest graded side in the division, and our initial target was not to get relegated. That target got blown out the window as we won four of our first six games, only losing games to two of the three favourites,

so our new target was our best result from the seventies, which was sixth place with twelve points.  We surpassed this aim by finishing

best of the rest outside of Sutton Coldfield, Solihull and South Birmingham, with Redditch finishing fourth with thirteen points.  

Our Div 4 team finished top of their Division with promotion to Div 3.

​Our Div 5 team finished the season in tenth position, but with new players to join the team we feel that we are well set to move up the table for 2024/ 2025. 

We also had teams in the Champion and Challenger Divisions of the Worcester League, and also the u1650 and Rapidplay Leagues.

In the Worcestershire League, very few games were played for most teams:. and we are currently 4th in Worcestershire Championship,  4th in Worcestershire Challengers, 3rd in Worcester & District U1650,  and  4th in Worcestershire Rapidplay. 

2024/2025 Season

Birmingham Leagues

Redditch again fielded three teams this season, although this time across Division One, Division Three and Division Five due to the second team’s promotion from the previous season. The first team managed to achieve their goal of avoiding relegation in the increasingly tough Division One, finishing in 10th place. A notable achievement included beating one of the favourites, South Birmingham A, 4.5 to 2.5. Despite a strong effort from the newly promoted second team, results just didn’t go their way this season and they finished bottom of the Division Three. As for the third team, they ended the season with a top half finish which is promising going into next season. 

Worcestershire Leagues

Despite some mixed results in the Birmingham Leagues, Redditch made up for it in the Worcestershire Leagues by winning almost everything they could! Redditch’s first team won the Worcestershire Championship League, finishing with 17 points out of a possible 20. The second team also won the Worcestershire Challenger’s League scoring 9 points out of a possible 12. Unfortunately the third team finished bottom of the Worcester and District League although there were some good individual performances throughout! Redditch also entered teams in the Worcestershire Rapidplay Leagues, winning Division One and coming second in Division Two. Overall a very good season!