Fletcher Morrow Tournament 2025

Ballarat Chess Club hosted the 15th annual inter-city challenge match against our old rivals Geelong Chess Club for the Fletcher-Morrow shield at the Ballaarat Mechanics Institute in Sturt Street on Sunday 10th August 2025.
This year also marks the centenary of the very first match between our 2 Clubs, and so we were keen to make it a special occasion. Geelong were able to muster 20 players for the trip, while Ballarat had 25 players on hand as well, and so over 40 players were assembled for this special event. This enabled us to field 2 teams each, with the 'A' teams competing for the shield, and the 'B' teams competing for “bragging” rights.
The BMI was also keenly aware of the historic occasion, and the Hooper Room, site of that first match, was made available for speeches and photos, with the original chess tables and chairs in place.
President of the BMI, Paula Nicholson, was in attendance to welcome the players, and Phil Roberts OAM, a noted Ballarat historian and patron of the BMI, gave a brief address on the 1925 match. Photos were taken by BMI photographer Ellen Becker.  After the formalities, the assembled players moved upstairs to our splendid Club venue in the Humffray Room for the ensuing battles.

Perhaps we should have played downstairs and reproduced the 1925 triumph! Sadly, despite fielding close to our dream team for the 'A' match, we once again fell to defeat in the Fletcher-Morrow challenge with a 3.5-6.5 score. Only Club Champion, Declan Smith, and Scott Stewart scored morale boosting wins, with Paul Dao, Justin Goodison, and Patrick Cook holding draws.
The 'B' team, a strong team in itself, was also defeated with a 3-7 score. Paul Marko, Shanaya Guha, and Ryan Lambrou gathered the 3 wins.
So, the powerful Geelong team were able to reverse the 1925 result, whilst also once again holding the Fletcher-Morrow shield. The overall score is now 10 match wins for Geelong, 4 match wins for Ballarat, and one tie.
Thanks go to the team Captains, Patrick Cook for Ballarat, and Jack Smith for Geelong, for gathering so many players, the Ballarat Mechanics Institute for coming to the party, Kevin Perrin for liaising with the BMI, and the players themselves who contributed mightily to an enjoyable day of chess.

Geelong Report by Rob Dejanovic

On Sunday, the 10th of August, 20 club members ventured west to face the Ballarat chess club in the centennial match. Although the history seems to be contradictory about who won the first inter-city encounter, we certainly know who won the 100th anniversary match. It was a beautiful day for chess in Ballarat, and the hosts did a fantastic job accommodating the event. A big thank you goes out to the Ballarat chess club for the time and effort made to host the historical match. We had access to the original rooms, and they even organised a historian to give us an overview of the games played. Paula from BNI spoke about the venue.
We had a great and diverse representation from our chess community playing, which was great to see. There were two teams in total for each club, consisting of Team A & B, each with 10 players. Jack Smith was the team captain for Geelong, where Patrick Cook was the Team Captain for Ballarat. It’s amazing to see that Patrick has continuously represented Ballarat for 15 years straight, which is an amazing feat in itself.
In the end, it was a dominant performance by Geelong. The results were as follows: Team A – Ballarat 3.5 – Geelong 6.5, Team B – Ballarat 3 – Geelong 7. It was amazing to see so many of the Geelong club winners playing alongside each other, representing the club. We had no less than 6 former and current winners playing in Team A. We have demonstrated where our club has come over the past 12 months, with so many great new people joining us in 2025.
I am looking forward to the 2026 rematch. Let’s see if we can include a Team C Wouldn’t that be something? Thank you to all the members who made the effort to travel to Ballarat and represent the club. Special thank you to Mio Ristic, who shared his photos with me. It was a great day with great people and something that I will not forget in a hurry. It was very impressive to see. Looking forward to another great week of chess.