Welcome to the home of Rotherham's chess players. We're currently meeting at The Bluecoat, The Crofts, Rotherham S60 2DJ on most Wednesdays from 7pm. ➡ How to find us
A new home, a new hope
We have a new venue for the 2024/25 season! Our thanks to The Bluecoat for stepping in to host us at short notice after the Three Cranes' unexpected closure.
The 2023/24 winter season was a real struggle for us in a very tough Division 2, meaning we'll be playing in Division 3 next year. Fixtures will be published on the ECF LMS in the next few days.
Things went better for us in the Summer League where we managed to finish 2nd behind a very strong Worksop side—congratulations to them on a deserved championship.
We look forward to welcoming new friends and old rivals alike to our new home. See you on the 64 squares!
Au revoir Three Cranes...
We recently received the unexpected news that the Three Cranes Inn, our home for the last 3 years, is coming under new ownership and will be closed for refurbishments for at least a month.
Putting chess aside for a moment, this is obviously a difficult time for the wonderful staff who've looked after us so well over the years—we'd like to place on record our thanks to them, and we wish them all the best.
This leaves us without a regular home venue for the time being. On a happier note, we've had a chat with the new landlords who seemed positive about having us back once the refurb is completed, so we hope to be able to return to a new and improved Cranes in future. However, we've had to change our plans at short notice, particularly as our 2024 Summer League campaign begins on Wednesday.
The current plan is as follows:
• There will be no Wednesday club night from 29 May until at least 26 June
• Our home fixtures on 10 and 19 June will now be played away instead
• Our next home fixture against Chesterfield is on 17 July, by which time we hope to be back 🤞
More updates when we have them.
(Nearly) end of season update
With our 2022/23 campaign nearly over (barring a dead rubber against champions-elect Sheffield Nomads) it's time to take a look back over the season just gone...
It's fair to say it's been tough this year facing off against some very strong sides, but we've secured ourselves a berth in Division 2 for next season when just a few months ago relegation seemed a real danger.
A spate of close-run victories in February and March against fellow strugglers Woodseats B (3½-2½), Sheffield University (4-2) and Ecclesall B (3½-2½) was decisive after we'd only secured a single point from the first half of the season.
It's been great to see new arrivals Jacob, Mark, and Damien taking part in their first full season. A special mention goes to Jacob for being the only Rotherham player to manage a plus score this season with 5½/9 at time of writing.
We now look towards the 2023 Summer League which will kick off on 17th May. Naturally, we'll be meeting at the Three Cranes as normal on Wednesdays when we don't have a match scheduled.