History

For a season by season history and club records, go here.

Thornaby Chess Club was formed in May 2007 and has competed in the Cleveland Chess League ever since. The club was the idea of Brian Whitaker and Mike Creaney who saw a gap for a CCA club in Thornaby. The club played in the lounge at the Griffin pub at first and this proved to be an excellent venue for us and we stayed there for 7 years. The team for our first season was:
1. Mike Closs
2. Paul Douglass
3. Mike Creaney
4. Brian Whitaker
5. Chris Carabine
with Mike Closs's son, Elliot in reserve. With the standard of players available, Thornaby quickly achieved promotion from the C division in our first year and the B division the following year and we started playing in the top division for the 2009/10 season finishing a creditable 3rd.

By the end of the 2013/14 season our run at the Griffin came to an end when the pub expanded the restaurant side of their business into the function room. After searching around, we found that Thornaby Cricket Club was quite receptive to the idea of having a chess club on the premises, so we upped sticks and moved to our new home. Unfortunately this only lasted for three quarters of the season before we had to move again. This caused a bit of a panic as we had fixtures to complete, but we managed to find a temporary venue at the snooker club to see us through the rest of that season. In 2015 we moved into the Indoor Bowls Arena at The Pavilion and we stayed there until 2020 when we were hit by the Coronavirus pandemic. As restrictions were eased in 2021, the Pavilion management changed their policy on opening hours and their new hours meant that we could not host league matches, so once again a new venue was sought. We now play at the Veterans Hub and Bar in The Don War Memorial Museum on Cranworth Street and this has so far proved to be an excellent venue for chess.

Since first getting promoted to the A division, Thornaby have stayed in the top flight for 9 of the last 11 years, finishing 3rd 5 times. Over the years, Thornaby have won the Jeremy Burnett Plate in 2009, the B division in 2008/9 and 2013/14 and the C Division in 2007/8. Our B Team has won the C division twice in 2012/13 and 2014/15.

Some of our players have also achieved notable individual success in this time. Mike Closs was the overall Cleveland Individual Winner in 2008, 2009 and 2010. Brian Whitaker was the joint winner of the Cleveland Minor Trophy in 2017 and Brian Ellis also won this title in 2014. Our internal individual Club Championship history is here.

League History

Thornaby Aces (A Team)

Thornaby Bombers (B Team)

Thornaby B52s (2nd B Team)

Thornaby Cadets (C Team)

Thornaby Challengers (2nd C Team)

Thornaby Destroyers (D Team)

Thornaby Juniors (2nd D Team)

Durham League

Cup History

Tom Wise KO Cup

Jeremy Burnett Plate