Mick sadly died last week after a short illness.
He joined Gambit in 1991-92, after two seasons at West Bridgford, and became a reliable and regular player, playing over 30 league games in a season several times. In 2000-01 he and Austen Carlton joined Dark Horses to experience a different club but ended up rejoining Gambit when the two clubs merged in the summer of 2001. He played for Gambit until 2019-20 but did not return when we resumed league chess in 2021-22.
Mick played in many weekend tournaments, and reached double figures in a few seasons. The ECF rating database shows him playing in over 70 congresses and in over 20 RPs since 2002. He appears 8 times on our Roll Of Honour on the Club Information page, winning in Minor and Intermediate sections. His purple patch came in 2012 when he won 3 of the 7 events he entered, and he has also beaten IM Jonah Willow, albeit when Jonah was a 120 grade 10 year old and Mick was 133.
Mick’s style of play was unconventional as he often sacrificed positional soundness to launch unsound attacks, but he occasionally got his rewards for such risky play. He had quite an intense manner over the board.
Away from the board Mick was far more relaxed and good company. He told an unending number of jokes. He was an intelligent man, a university graduate I believe, but had an uncomplicated view of the world and didn’t do “nuance”.
I had the pleasure of going to quite a few weekend congresses with Mick. One of the best was Liverpool on my 40th birthday weekend with Austen Carlton and Ian Fillingham. We 4 also had some fantastic weekends at the Hawick congress. In addition Mick and I did Sheffield twice and Scarborough several times. Mick also came to my 50th birthday weekend in Sheffield, where he made the terrible mistake of asking for a Guinness in one of the best pubs in Sheffield at Kelham Island, only for the barmaid to look at him in disdain before replying “This is a real ale pub”.
Mick never pretended to be anything other than himself. He was a “character” as many chess players are, but essentially he was honest, straightforward and decent.