14-10-2022, 08:37 PM
(This post was last modified: 14-10-2022, 08:39 PM by Craig Pritchett.)
I have only just seen this post and am saddened.Jim was a very strong junior player, who scored the best Scottish result at the 1966 Glorney Cup in Paris and played subsequently at Student International level.
He and his family (he had married a Czech wife) spent some time in Prague towards the end of the 1970s. Jim worked there in a professional IT capacity but this was certainly an unusual 'migration' from the 'West' to a then quite hard-line communist country (albeit one firmly held down by the USSR, which had sent in the tanks in 1968 and effectively crushed the popular reformist Prague Spring movement).
Around that time, Jim surprised me by turning up at one of three tournaments I played in through the 1970s in Decin. After the event finished he invited me to spend a day or two in Prague, where I met the family and had a thoroughly good time. They were the most wonderful hosts. My condolences to all those who have lost him.
He and his family (he had married a Czech wife) spent some time in Prague towards the end of the 1970s. Jim worked there in a professional IT capacity but this was certainly an unusual 'migration' from the 'West' to a then quite hard-line communist country (albeit one firmly held down by the USSR, which had sent in the tanks in 1968 and effectively crushed the popular reformist Prague Spring movement).
Around that time, Jim surprised me by turning up at one of three tournaments I played in through the 1970s in Decin. After the event finished he invited me to spend a day or two in Prague, where I met the family and had a thoroughly good time. They were the most wonderful hosts. My condolences to all those who have lost him.