St. Andrews Chess Club was founded in 1970. Its principal officers included Bert Milner and
George Willoughby – both now deceased. I remain in touch with George’s son, David, via
cards at Christmas. The Club’s name was taken from the nearby Presbyterian Church on the
corner of Prospect Street and Baker Street, from which accommodation was rented. In
seasons 1970/71 and 1971/72, I played top board for the Hull Grammar Schools Chess
League team and recall visiting this venue. Over more than 50 years. St. Andrews Chess
Club has moved several times. Its homes have included a hotel in Pearson Park, the Y.P.I.
Sports Complex on the east side of Chanterlands Avenue, The Queens Hotel, George Street
(shared with Hull Civil Service and now demolished) and a social club on Walton Street –
opposite the area used by Hull Fair each year. At present, our room is rented from Our Lady
of Lourdes and St. Peter Chanel, Cottingham Road at a cost of £285 per quarter. During the
winter chess season (September to May), meetings are held twice per week on Monday and
Wednesday evenings. In the summer (June to August), this reduces to once per week on
Monday evenings. The full membership fee is £70 per annum.
I have played at all of the venues mentioned. The following factors link many of them:-
1. A low rent or free room on the understanding/expectation that sales at the bar will
justify the arrangement. Even after the recent 25% rent increase, we are only paying
the equivalent of around £13.50 per night.
2. Accommodation shared with other sport and/or social activity. This facilitates low
rental payments but usually compromises on playing conditions.
3. The rent only covers use of one room. Facilities enabling club members to access
and offer refreshments to guests are not included. Refreshments may be available
from the owner of the venue at a commercial rate.
Does the level of the rent determine the amount of the membership fee or is it the other way
around? You judge, but I think that the answer is clear. Let us consider the three factors in
more detail.
1. On reflection, I am of the opinion that evidence shows that, for many years, chess
players have opted for poor playing conditions rather than pay a realistic membership
fee to secure good quality premises. This usually means sharing with other tenants
whose activities are incompatible with the quietness required for good chess.
Dancing, squash, table tennis, social clubs, bars, etc. continue to be accepted as
suitable bedfellows. If chess club members pay a weekly equivalent of £1.35 by way
of membership fees what do they expect? Our hobby is very cheap compared with
most others, even taking into account the English Chess Federation fee of £20 per
annum and travel costs. For example, my weekly hour of yoga in a modern church
hall, with no other activities taking place, costs £7.00. This is reduced to £6.50 by
booking blocks of lessons. My subscription to Parkway Cinema, Beverley, with its six
screens, costs £150.00. One hour dance classes for children in Hull are around
£5.00.
2. As far as I can see, a chess venue, shared with other activities, has only one
advantage. It reduces the hire charge. The obvious disadvantage is noise from the
other activity disturbing thought processes. I am unaware of any chess governing
authority preventing matches being played at a venue deemed to be ‘unsuitable’, but
it is likely to have occurred somewhere. At present, St. Andrews members choose to
play in a room adjoining dance classes and a brownie group meeting. There is a
kitchen, to which we have been refused access.
3. Having just one room has only one advantage. Financial. There are several
drawbacks:-
It is impossible to conduct coaching sessions when serious games are in progress. Verbal
exchanges between coach and students disturb those contesting competitive fixtures.
Meetings of club officers cannot be conducted when serious games are in progress.
Postgame discussions that could be conducted in a separate room will generate requests for
quiet from those engaged in serious games.
St. Andrews is the only chess club in Hull located west of Beverley Road and should expect
to attract members from this large hinterland. It can reasonably be argued that what we offer
is less than any of the other open clubs. My suggestion is that officers should investigate
whether better accommodation is available within a distance of 1 – 1½ miles of our present
location. A different method of funding would be required, similar to what has been
successfully adopted in Ilkley. Membership fees would be set at a level capable of achieving
this outcome, via monthly standing order payments. The following figures are based upon a
membership of around 20:-
20 members paying £15 per month = £3,600.
90 club evenings per year at £40.00 per evening = £3,600.
To secure good accommodation, most organisations are charging £10.00 per hour. Unless
anyone has a better suggestion, we will have to continue with the present substandard
facilities. There will be very limited prospects for securing new members, especially juniors,
whose parents will opt for taking them to the other open clubs – especially Hull Chess Club.
Parents now expect better for their money and are prepared to pay realistic prices. If in
doubt, ask friends and relatives what they pay for ballet classes, football clubs, cricket clubs,
etc. for themselves or their offspring.
Throughout my life, chess players have usually opted for the cheapest accommodation that
they could find, operating from free rooms in clubs and pubs until told by the publican that
they are not drinking enough alcohol and some other organisation offers better returns. The
costing for my proposal is as follows:-
Annual equivalent of £15.00 membership fee - £180.00.
Annual English Chess Federation membership fee - £20.00.
Total annual expenditure - £200.00.
Weekly equivalent of annual expenditure – Just over £4.00.
Expenses - transport costs, refreshments, etc. are the same whatever we choose to do.
I am proposing that you pay around the cost of a pint of beer per week for your chess. If you
are able to suggest an alternative structure for securing decent accommodation that will
attract new members, I am eager to see details and costings. If a small second room is
available at the venue, I would seek permission to use it for meetings and coaching
sessions. If my proposal came to fruition, we would have to give three months’ notice to our
current landlords. It would also be sensible to seek legal guidance to ensure that the club
does not have to leave any new venue without a reasonable period of notice.
David G. Mills. Joint Club President.
I tend to agree that a sharp rise in costs will reduce the membership, people will tend to vote with their feet and just move to other clubs - I would for a saving of around £150 per annum
The major issue would appear to be the venue suitability / facilities (I enloy a cup of tea with my chess) - other clubs with much smaller memberships e.g. East Hull, Victoria Dock, appear to have a much better venue with a much smaller membership - so obviously low cost venues.
This is probably the best route to explore and just as an aside I believe some large supermarkets offer free meeting rooms to community groups (like us), this may be worth investigating (Asda @ Mount Pleasant definitely do this).
Or any other community venues in the surrounding area even libraries
Steve Crow
All good points Dan. I think that £200 per year would almost certainly put off new members from joining, especially when they can go to a bigger club like Hull and get it for a quarter of the cost.
Another consideration is that outside of local chess some of us will be paying for other chess related resources which increase the cost of the hobby. For example, I currently pay subscriptions for Chess.com, aimchess and some online courses (which may or may not be a waste of my money 😅). I understand where David Mills is coming from though. Compared to the other clubs our venue isn't ideal and the noise is frequently mentioned by other teams. It's a bit of a revolving door, ideally it would be nice to move to better/quieter premises which may help to increase our membership numbers but we'd need an increase in membership in order to afford and sustain the new premises.... I don't really know what the answer is. With regards to HERCA public events; I help out at a reasonable amount of these which does lead to conversations about the club. I know that some of the other clubs have printed leaflets that they give out - This might be worth looking into, especially with the social program coming up at the British Championships, chess will be actively promoted during this time. If we have any remaining development funds from HERCA to use, I'd suggest that we invest in some leaflets for these events.
Dave Atkin
I think in these difficult financial times (#CozzyLivs) asking member to pay huge increase for chess is a little insensitive. This is a hobby that a lot of people pick up precisely because it is so cheap and accessible.
I do pay for things if they are worthwhile, I think to the average new member at the moment I don't think an increase in fees represents any value for money. Without even thinking about the venue itself, we have some very used, mismatched chess sets, an aging chess library, and I couldn't find a working pen in 3 attempts the other day.
I used to go to a board game club before I got into chess. That was £4 a week but included access to a full library of well-maintained games, a stocked fridge and a 10% discount at the local board game shop round the corner. I was quite happy to pay.
I think that if we increase the fee, we risk alienating a lot of current members and risk losing potential new members.
One way we can increase the club's revenue is to actively seek out new members. By participating in some of HERCAs open days and events and generally just get the clubs name out there. This was in part of the reason for putting together this website.
We are competing with other Hull clubs, both HERCA affiliated and the more casual clubs and board game groups that are out there, as well as the behemoth that is Chesscom and LiChess. Online, fast-paced chess is at an all time high right now. Most of which are a cheaper option that us at present.
Another way we could potentially increase our revenue is to ask members that can afford to pay a bit more to give a bit more, and maybe reward that generosity with some token rewards (maybe make them "gold members" that get a mention in AGMs or something. For those that know, I'm thinking something along the perks of being a Patreon subscriber)
We could potentially have fund raising events, or special buy-in events or something else to increase our funds. Get imaginative!
I think everyone would like our facilities to improve and maybe if we get the ball rolling without increasing the fees too much then making a move is less of a financial risk and in turn incentivises people to join and pay a little more and we will then be able to afford all these extras we currently don't have.
I don't think it hurts to see what's out there and cost it up and see where we stand financially to make it work. I don't think we are there yet and obviously will need to be put to the members in some sort of vote anyway, so we are probably a long way off.