In 1961 the Met Office HQ moved from Dunstable to a brand-new state-of-the-art building in Bracknell. The Chess Club was re-founded in 1961 and apart from 8 years of apathy in the 60s-70s it continued for the life of the building. Pip Sarson (145 - 149) continued to show leadership of the club (champion, A team captain, and organisation) into the 1980s.

David Dicks (116-74) played regularly for Met Office CC until we moved to Devon in November 2003, so his membership spanned 56 years. David was club champion in 1996, forking my Q in the final after we both knocked out A team players. David's last grade was 74 and he is somewhat older than that.

Two founder members in 1961 Brian Edkins (130-79) & David Macklin (110-83) continued to play for the club until 2003. Dave Macklin plays regularly at Chess congresses in Torbay and is now a Slough and Bucks player.

The club's strongest player was Frank Woolford (186–) who continued to score over 85% in the club's slowplay and blitz tournaments well into his sixties. The Berkshire League 2nd Division has recently been named after him - a fitting memorial to an outstanding chess player.

We have two Grading Lists from the 1970s. In the all-Berkshire list for 1973/74, the overall range of grades was 90 to 203 - similar to 2009's New Grades. Because the list contained only players with 8+ games in the latest season (similar to category C now), only 5 Met Office players were listed :- Frank Woolford 186, JM Cradock 171, Tony Pearson 160, Pip Sarson 149, Chris Long 140.

The county grader provided us all our players in the Berkshire 1976-77 'Master List' :- Mike Bader 152, Terry Fagan 149, Chris Long 147, Pip Sarson 145, Wilf Taylor 135, Robin Rumney 123, David Dicks 116, Will Hand 113, Mr Banner 103, Brian Edkins 98, Cliff Russell 73. (Your website author's first ever grade was the same year : 97 at Orpington Chess Club).

In the late 70s the club thrived and ran sometimes three and usually two 6-board teams in the Berkshire League. Two then young club members Wilf Taylor (124–145) & Will Hand (137–92) have played against Devon clubs in 2005-06. Two lady members Jessica Hand then Alison McClure (BCF 150+) enhanced the club.

The 80s and 90s saw fresh talent, including David Roberts (163–189) who decided not to move to Exeter, and played at least one GM in the 2007 WECU championships in Exmouth. Richard Wood (134–152) gave up chess in 1997 to take up croquet, string quartets, and climate research, but has scored 50% in 5 recent Exeter League Division 1 matches. The A team oscillated between the Berkshire 1st and 2nd Divisions, and also included Steve Murray (130–158), Simon Waters (135–158), and Gil Ross (98–136) who are already well-known in Devon chess circles.

Gareth Ward (90–128) joined the Met Office in 1993 from suburban Kent chess, and took on the B team captaincy from Bob Whyman (93–114) except for one year when Norman P Gunther (103 - 135) took the reins. The B team usually just missed promotion from Berks Div 3. Bob was Club Secretary for more years than anyone could remember, and also played regularly up to 2003.

Norman's father Alex Gunther (97–48) also played for the club, and when graded 48 for the last year of his life, he reverted to 97 for his last season losing just once to our club member Paul Lewis (106-124) Paul seems to have been merged with the Reading player of the same name, on the ECF grading database. Twice our Blitz champion in the 1980s, John Austin (111-126) returned to Chess in 1998, bought a house in Exwick cheaply in 2001, but then took a job in the USA in 2003 so he never became a 'chessdevon' player.

The club has run slowplay and blitz internal competitions for which we have trophies each engraved with over 20 winners - see the Roll of Honour below.

We won the Berkshire_Chess_Association (see Archive > Trophy winners) Division 2 Trophy in 1962, 1985, 1988, 1993 (three-way tie), and 2003. We won the Jubilee Plate (1st-round-losers Cup) in 1994. The B team were Division 3 champions in 1981 & 1987.

In 1999 Gareth persuaded the club to try fresh challenges - BCF National Club u125, then the Surrey-Hants Border League (clubs around Guildford) to escape from the ineligibility rules of the Berkshire League. The club ran one 6-board (Berks) and two 5-board (Border) teams for our final two seasons in Bracknell.

Around this time we were aware of but hadn’t met an employee Andreas Keil (152–179), who worked at our Farnborough site in 2000-02 before returning to Germany for 2 years. Andreas played board 1 for Fleet Chess Club in the Border League.

The club’s active membership just before we left Berkshire was about 15, comprising 7-8 employees, 4 Met Office pensioners, and 3-4 refugees from other clubs (including Peter Byre who has played the Exmouth Seniors congress). In 2003 the club donated some members and both Leagues’ places to Bracknell CC who at the time were one team with no home venue.

You can see other players we haven't mentioned above, in the Club Champions Roll of Honour below and at http://grading.bcfservices.org.uk/getclub.php?club=Met%20Office%20Berks&inactive=1

Only 4 *keen* chess players started at the Exeter HQ in 2003, and their exploits will form a future history of the Met Office Chess Club in Exeter. In 2008-09 the club regained the membership levels (13) we had in Bracknell, allowing us to run four (albeit 4-board) teams for the first time ever.

2008 : Graham Bramley (94) = Lee Gillard (e121) = Wilf Taylor (134) all 6/10 after playoff >>
>> Gareth Ward (90) 4/8 >> David Thomson (e92) 1/8.

2007 : Andreas Keil (176) 6.5 / 7 won play-off >> Lee Gillard (e95) 6.5 / 7 lost play-off >> Will Hand (112017H) 4 >> Gil Ross (100) 3.5 >> Wilf Taylor (136) 2.5 >> David Thomson (U) 2 >> Graham Bramley (e105) 1.5 >> Gareth Ward (97) 1.5

2006 : Andreas Keil 6/6 >> Shane 3.5 >> Steve Mullerworth 1.5 >> Gareth Ward 1. Our guest entrant Shane was (like Andreas) a former member of Fleet Chess Club, and ~140 over 10 years ago. 

Steve Murray won the 2004-06 tournament and Andreas Keil the 2006 tournament. Andreas also won the 2006 Blitz, to become only our 3rd player to win both events in the same year, after Frank Woolford (1983 1984 1990) and David Roberts (1995). The 2007/08 tournament was not completed - Graham Bramley should be credited for playing 4 of the 6 games and his deserved win on time against Steve.