Another death, announced in the EDP today: Paul Blake, a teacher of mine at the City of Norwich School, who gave me a lot of encouragement in my cricket (off-break bowling) and especially chess. He gave a huge amount of his time to organising and transporting the all-conquering CNS chess team in the early 1960s, and probably if it were not for him I would never have got involved in club and county chess, which has given me huge amounts of pleasure (as well as a little agony).

 Mr Blake was a member of the United Reformed Church on Ipswich Road, Norwich,  and I met him again in the early 90s when he was involved in speaking to the Christian group at Cedar House, Albemarle Road, where my mother lived at the time. He was a gentle, caring man who did a lot of unsung good.

Among those still living, it’s quite remarkable that four friends all have birthdays on July 4 or July 5 – Joan Brown and Liz Day (4) and Anita Carey and my god-daughter Holly Henderson (5). Clearly get on well with fellow-Cancers!