This is a fascinating history of Essex club chess over the years. Go to the early years here and we find an array of club teams which is unthinkable now, even pre-covid. Take 1995-96: four divisions, 47 teams from 17 clubs. Ilford and Wanstead each fielded five teams, but were outdone by Eastbrook (the one-time name of Barking CC) who entered no fewer than nine teams! Division I was 10 boards in those days, Division II eight, the others six.
And what of Powdermill, Billericay, Waltham Forest, Newham, and Thamesview? (Beckton Rooks also entered, but presumably withdrew before playing any matches as all their “results” are marked “void”.)
The Archive opens in a new tab, but on a plain page without site navigation. To re-gain site navigation return to this page via the link provided.
While in David Millward’s Archive, if you navigate any of the sub tables from the Season’s Index, the return route to the Season Index is normally labelled “Main Essex League Page” which may include the Season within the label, e.g. “Main 2008/2009 Essex League Page”. Within those sub tables is further navigation to other sub pages. If you get stuck, use your browser’s ‘back’ icon and remember the Archive opened on a new tab, so you can simply click on the original page still open.
The ECF LMS Archive Also opens in a new tab on a plain page (no site navigation) but has fewer individual links per page – e.g. in the Results List for each team there are no individual links from any particular match to the match card, nor links to a particular team’s fixture list (yet). The pages in the ECF LMS Archive are pdf pages, rather than html as in David’s system, but we hope the navigation provided is sufficient.
David Millward’s Essex League Archive 1995-96 to 2020-21
Use the links below to access the League Archive at the required point. Once in the Archive, navigation is possible between Seasons, but for large jumps return to this index by the link provided.
| 2020-21 | 2019-20 | 2018-19 | 2017-18 |
| 2016-17 | 2015-16 | 2014-15 | 2013-14 |
| 2012-13 | 2011-12 | 2010-11 | 2009-10 |
| 2008-09 | 2007-08 | 2006-07 | 2005-06 |
| 2004-05 | 2003-04 | 2002-03 | 2001-02 |
| 2000-01 | 1999-2000 | 1998-99 | 1997-98 |
| 1996-97 | 1995-96 |
There was no 2020-21 League Season, due to covid, but we have added a page to explain the missing season – if only for history’s sake – and the link to the following first season back, 2021-22, now leads seamlessly into the ECF LMS Archive index page, i.e. the first season in the ECF LMS Archive index below.
ECF LMS Archive
League Secretaries:
- 2021-22 to 2022-23 – Tom Barton
- 2023-24 – present – John Davenport
Since 2021-22, the Essex League has been managed on a third party system, the
ECF League Management System (“LMS”).
While to all intents and purposes, the ECF LMS system, complete with past seasons, is always available, the major system issue which the ECF LMS system suffered at the end of April 2026, when many websites (but not ours) were victims of a hack-attack, brought home to us the need to retain our own historic records of the Essex League independently of the ECF LMS online system. Following that attack, the ECF LMS system was restored from a backup dated 22 April, just over a week earlier, and subsequent fixtures/results were lost and had to be re-entered by the teams concerned.
To cover against similar eventualities, when the outcome might be more catastrophic, we have put in place a system by which the LMS data is pulled into our website’s data on a daily basis. Our website is built on a different platform to that of the ECF LMS, so there is a systemic fire-break between the two. And, yes, our website is backed up regularly. For the online data during the current league competition (when in play) the ECF LMS is the only place where current season data can be viewed and updated (by those authorised to do so). As noted above, the data is pulled into our website on a daily basis, but we do not build the Archive until the season is completed.
We are currently in process of building the Archive for the five past seasons – from oldest to newest – which can be viewed via the links below.
This section of the Archive is in process of being built. 2021-22 and 2022-23 are complete. 2023-24 is next being worked upon. We build the main index for each season first, complete with its links, but those links will not work until the pages they link to are created and uploaded; clicking on a link for which page has not been supplied will trigger a “page not found” error. These pages as indicated above are already accessible on the ECF LMS system in “Past Seasons”; their replication here is simply creating our own record of our League competition – ‘belt and braces’.