Andrew Dearnley outside
Alltel Stadium in Jacksonville
before Superbowl 39
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Andrew Dearnley
I am 44 years old and a Bank Manager for a large global bank and have worked there since I left school a long time ago! I have been fortunate to work in New York and Toronto so far and that's enough about work.
I have just taken over as England's delegate to ICCF and have been assisting Alan Rawlings for the last 3 years.
I learnt chess at 4 years old just before school and I was
lucky to have a junior school headmaster who was keen to take
his school chess team all over England to compete. We even
had coaching sessions in London run by Leonard Barden, who
still writes the chess column for the London Evening Times.
At this time I used to regularly play GM Nigel Short, who
was on the same circuit of junior tournaments. He was a year
younger than me and all of a sudden he got a 'bit' better
and I stayed being a County player!
When I got to high school I took up rugby league ( a tougher/better
Northern game than rugby union!) I loved this game and I played
twice a week and spilt my time between chess and rugby until
I decided to take up the latter professionally. I played for
Leeds second team until I badly injured my knee (no pads all
over the body in this game!) To some extent playing both games
was a blessing because eventually I took up postal chess when
I found I did not have time to play OTB. I joined the British
Correspondence Chess Association (BCCA) Through this group
I met a US player Ted Greiner (Harrisburg, PA) and my interest
for American football started. He is a Steelers fan and I
had just seen my first few games on English TV and decided
to support the Eagles. I liked scrambling QB Randall Cunningham
and the late, great Reggie White who will always be my hero!
28 years later I am still a passionate fan and have been lucky
to see the Eagles play in Super Bowl XXXIX in Jax, in the
loss to the Patriots. I try to get 'over the pond' every year
to see them play. I just love Philly as a place and more recently
I have started to go to road games, the last one being Washington,
where they did not particlary like my kelly green shirt! I
was also 'insulted' when a 'skins fan thought my northern
accent was Scottish! Sorry George ;-)
I watch 3 or 4 live games on TV every week. Isn't satellite TV great?
AMBITION : To see the Eagles WIN a Super Bowl and
visit every Pro NFL stadium and also retire early to do route
66!
FAVOURITE PLAYERS : Reggie White, Brian Westbrook,
Seth Joyner and Brian Dawkins
FAVOURITE OTHER TEAM : Chicago Bears
LEAST FAVOURITE TEAMS : Cowboys (goes without saying!!),
Raiders (don't like their attitude!) and Redskins
LEAST FAVOURITE PLAYER/COMMENTATOR : Troy Aikman
FAVOURITE CHESS PLAYER : The best thing to come out
of Denmark before Søren, Bent Larsen - Love his original play/ideas/unusual
openings
FAVOURITE/SPECIALIST OPENING : From Gambit (white side!)
Done lots of research on this opening and I have never lost
to it at CC. Damn I bet that puts 'the dampers' on that!
FAVOURITE CHESS AUTHOR : Andy Soltis
OTHER INTERESTS : Watching Rugby League, following
my hometown team Huddersfield and travelling abroad. I have
been to Norway recently where I met Raymond and he made me
climb a mountain! This Easter I was in Havana meeting Pablo
Salcedo (Cuba's delegate) and enjoying sugarcane juice - not
to be missed!
NEXT MAJOR JOB : Try to organise a decent ICCF congress
in England 2009.
Have a great season and I hope you will all nearly be as successful as the EAGLES. Well you got to have confidence when you have never won the big one!
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