The Bart's Boys Brigade 

St Bart’s Boys Brigade currently has three young men who are completing the work for their Duke of Edinburgh’s Gold Awards.   The award is divided down into sections, such as the expeditions, volunteering, skills, fitness, etc.   Connor Morey and Daniel Price are learning Chess, for their Skills section.  So, on most Wednesday nights, they settle down in the Church Hall/Room to hone their skills.   Although, they have also downloaded chess games onto their phones.

Every year the Wolverhampton Battalion of the Boys Brigade holds a Chess competition. In 2015, the competition was actually held in the Oak Room at St Bart’s.   In February of this year the competition was held at the Portobello Methodist Church, in Willenhall.   There were actually two competitions, one for the BB Junior Sections, and one for the BB Company/Senior Sections.

The Battalion Chess competition was organised by Peter Dawson who was a member of the 6th Wolverhampton in the 1970s and who played in the National BB Chess Competition Final against a Company from Ireland.

For historical reasons the 6^th Wolverhampton (Penn) Boys Brigade is only open to boys.  (This is due to agreements that were made with the other Youth Groups at St Bart’s and with St Bart’s).  However, the majority of the local BB groups are open to both girls and boys.  The defending champion, who won the Chess competition in 2019, was a bright young lady from the 3^rd West Bromwich BB.   

The competition was a round robin, in that everyone played everyone else.  The defending champion managed to defeat everyone, except for the two boys who were destined to be the finalists.   At the end of the round robin, there were three boys who were tied on equal points.  Two of these potential finalists were from the 6^th Wolverhampton (Penn) BB, and they were required to play Blitz Chess to determine which one of them would be in the actual final.   The game was won by Daniel Price, but it was a very even game and could just as easily have been won by Connor Morey.

In the final, the match initially looked very even.  But, Daniel was seen to smile after one of the early moves. Daniel Price of St Bart’s own BB group, emerged triumphant, from the three way final.   So, the Battalion Chess shield, has come home to the 6^th Wolverhampton.

Photograph of Connor Morey and Daniel Price

David Price

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Snippets from a Penn garden 

The recent months have been life changing for all of us. We will never forget Spring 2020, the lockdown, and the sacrifice of our wonderful NHS and Care Home staff. Those of us lucky enough to have a garden have found it a godsend. We had the added pleasure of sharing our garden with a pair of blue tits bringing up their family. I put a nest box in the tree featured in the January Newsletter early in the year. By March, a pair had taken up residence. It was a privilege seeing them going in and out while sitting in the garden during the lovely weather. By the end of May I worked out the young should be ready to fledge. Alas I was on the golf course, so Ros takes up the story.

Looking out of the bedroom window, I could see and hear a kerfuffle. Both adults were pecking at and bobbing their heads in and out of the hole. The first brave youngster then appeared and flew onto a branch. This was repeated another four times over a period of half an hour. There was a pause in all the activity. An adult entered the box. A few minutes later it appeared, followed by the final youngster.

What a joy it was to see six young blue tits fledge safely after all the hard work, attention and care their parents had given them.

Here are a few of the photos of ‘our’ blue tits.

Jon and Ros Norden

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