Ken -the online agony uncle for troubled chess players.
Gary, Cranfield Hello Ken and please offer advice over the following issue. Two week’s ago we had a match in Luton and some things happened that could have been avoided. To start, a younger member, say 18, brought his electric guitar down and started blasting out 70s heavy metal when people were actually playing and trying to concentrate. This did not go down with one member and so him and the guitar player went out into the snow and had a fight. After rolling around for a bit and exchanging a few blows, they came back in and things were much quieter but the mood in the club was very low and I thought the fight would start up again. Luton is so working class and I imagine the same sort of thing goes on everywhere there but we weren’t expecting it at the chess club. What should we do to prepare for matches away to Luton with its bad live music in the club?
Ken: oh Luton eh? Rough place. Now listen, most likely they will have a few nutters at their chess club, if this is Luton we are talking about. How disturbed they are I don’t know but probably quite a lot. I suggest you wear sunglasses inside and put earplugs in. You’re not in the most gentlemanly part of Bedfordshire I can tell you.
Gary: yes but why must we tolerate such behaviour?
Ken: put simply, it’s Luton -get used to it. They need to fight in that town so let them get on with it. In time you will come to see much worse. You may want to bring your own instruments down and have a jamming session -take some boxing gloves if you do!
McCreadyandChess 
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