Dennis Victor Mardle is commonly found in Tom Sweby’s long running chess column in The Luton News. It’s hardly surprising since they both come from the same town, played in the same team and that Mardle, a true Lutonian, was by far the strongest of his generation from Bedfordshire. With the probable exception of William Ward, whose identity is less straightforward, he is still the strongest player Luton has produced to date.
The Luton News Feb 19th 1970
I managed to find one of Mardle’s tournament successes here http://www.saund.co.uk/britbase/brit50.htm (please scroll down to 1959). I have to say Mardle’s crushing defeat of British champion Wade (whose unwillingness to resign is rather embarrassing quite frankly) was a sure sign of his strength.
Wade – Mardle after 48. …f4+ Just how many connected passed pawns does it take for your opponent to resign gracefully?
I note that the tournament is listed at the 7th Bognor Open and in the zipped file as the Stevenson Memorial. My more senior fellow county players will recognize that as the eponymous R. Stevenson of Kent, since The Stevenson Cup, hosted Bedfordshire a number of times over the years. (see: http://mccreadyandchess.com/2015/07/02/reportage-of-bedford-chess-club-in-the-30s/).
Stevenson had, most unfortunately, great tragedy in his personal life. His first wife Agnes, four times British Ladies’ Champion in the 1920s was tragically killed when she flew to Poland to play in the Women’s World Championship in 1935 when she walked into a propeller after the plane had landed. His second wife, former world champion Vera Menchik died nine years later in London after a V1 Rocket hit her home at the end of WW2.
Mardle was not so fortunate in life as well. He received a C.B.E for his relentless work on Polio in 1988. During one of many visits to Kenilworth Road, Luton to watch his beloved team play, he drank from a cracked cup and therewith contracted the disease himself…I wonder if his exploits over the board in Bognor 1959 were inspired by his beloved football team’s cup run that month and those preceding?
Debilitating disease aside, I suspect Dennis would have been somewhere amongst that crowd after Luton returned home as losing finalists of the 1959 FA Cup. 31 years on, your author stood below the ‘Saxone’ sign welcoming the England Football Team after they returned home from Italia 90.
McCreadyandChess 
