Ralph Allen
Ralph Allen died on 5 July 2024.
He started to come to the Lichfield club when he was a teenager around 50 years ago, and joined the Burton club in about 1978. He played for Burton in the Derby & Dist. League for many years. He played for Lichfield in the Birmingham & Dist. and Wolverhampton Leagues, and was a regular first team Division One player in all these leagues. He was a strong player, maintaining a rating over 1900 for most of his career and took some big scalps in his hay-day.
After the pandemic, when league chess resumed in 2021-2, he was a key member of Burton & Lichfield team. Later his health and mobility problems restricted the number of appearances he could make. Ralph was always rather unpredictable, but right to the end he showed that he could be up there with some of the best in the league.