"I've met men on the road who could tell you the name of every star in the sky"

I thought I'd played chess for Northampton Working Men's Club (or Whyte Melville, as we were often called) only in the national club knock-out competition, which was a tournament to which Market Harborough did not aspire.

But, sorting out some old files, I found I had also played a season for them in the Northamptonshire league and done rather well too.

All of which makes more sense of this memory...

I was playing some five-minute games at Whyte Melville after winning my league game, and there was a beat-up old guy watching us. Even non-players are entranced by people playing blitz.

We got talking, and he asked me his favourite quiz question. What was the correct name of the Southern Lights? I knew the answer and he was suitably impressed.

And then he said something I've never forgotten: 

"I've met men on the road who could tell you the name of every star in the sky."

It sounds like a tale from the pre-war days of tramps and tramping, but that is what he said. 

I blogged here about the Whyte Melville Club last summer.