Winner of the club championship four times (1909, 1911, 1913 and 1914).
W. A. Paley Hughes
By Brian Denman
William Alfred Paley Hughes was born in the Highworth Registration District (located I believe in Wiltshire) in the September quarter of 1865. In 1907 he was a member of the Worcester CC and in that year he competed in two tournaments at Ostend. Some quite strong British players made the journey to Ostend and in the Easter event he scored 9.5/18. The tournament was won by G Shories, who had been a member of the Hastings CC for a short time a few years earlier. Later in the year Hughes competed in a summer amateur tournament at Ostend and scored 4.5/11.
He seems to have first joined the Hastings CC in the 1908-9 season and before the end of 1908 he had made his county debut. In his first season he won the club championship and he was to repeat this achievement in 1911, 1913, and 1914. He achieved very similar results in the county championship winning the title in 1909, 1911, and 1913. He competed in the Kent and Sussex Congress in 1909 and he did very well to come second to G A Thomas (later Sir George Thomas) in the main event. By way of contrast, he surprisingly came last in the same event two years later. In 1910 he competed in the British Championship at Oxford and scored 5/11. In this event he nearly scored a shock win against Henry Atkins, the dominant English player of the time. As it was, a draw was a very good result.
Hughes continued to play for Hastings until at least 1915. He subsequently moved to London and joined the Athenaeum CC, though I do not know when he left the seaside town. In 1924 he briefly rejoined the Sussex team, though in that same year there is also a record of him representing the Athenaeum CC. His style was based on solidity and he does not seem to have usually been an aggressive player. He died in October 1936 in London at the age of 71.
Please see a a few of his games below:
Paley Hughes,WA - Ginner,AG Hastings CC Championship, 1909 Source: Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 20.3.1909. 1-0
Watt,JA - Paley Hughes,WA Hastings CC Championship, 1909 Source: Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 22.5.1909. 0-1
Cole,HG - Paley Hughes,WA Kent and Sussex Congress,1st Class Open, 31.05.1909 Source: Hastings and St Leonards Observer of 5.6.1909. 0-1
Paley Hughes,WA - Atkins,HE British Championship, Oxford, 08.1910 Sources: British Chess Magazine, The Field, and 'The Year-Book of Chess, 1911' - E A Michell - Michell and Hollings, London (1911). 1/2-1/2