It's funny how you know people and yet you don't know them.
John was a regular attender at our folk club at the Red Lion in Newburgh, Lancashire with his wife Jean and two of their grown up children Joanne and Steve. All of them performed - Steve and Joanne made a great duo and both did solo items, Jean and John preferred to read poetry (neither of them would claim to be singers). John often found interesting snippets in the paper that he thought would amuse us - little stories, limericks and poems that people had sent in. Occasionally he wouldn't be able to make it. "He's at a chess tournament this week but he'll be back next week" was the answer to our question to his absence. So he played a bit of chess on the side.
Sadly John passed away last week and his funeral is this afternoon and we'll all miss him.

What I didn't realise was that when he was away that week "playing a bit of chess" he was actually winning the title of British Senior Chess Champion and on further googling he and other members of his family have been winning chess tournaments for years!

John's obituary is here

I've mentioned this on Mudcat not because of his folk club connections but I realise that other people have interest aside from folk and if that includes chess then possibly you may have come across John at some point in your life and may not have heard of his passing.

Mark