P.B.Sharratt
Paul Bradley Sharratt 27th May 1951 to 10th February 2026
The WDCL and the greater chess world lost one of its stalwarts with the sudden and unexpected passing of Paul Sharratt on 10 February.
Paul made an immense contribution in many different ways, particularly in Midlands chess but also on the national stage. His local achievements are too extensive to list definitively, but he was CEO for the Midland Chess Counties Union, former President of the Birmingham Chess & District Chess League, President of Dudley & District Chess League, former secretary of Stourbridge Chess Club and founder and secretary of Kinver Chess Club and of course WDCL Records Secretary for six years.
In terms of personal achievements, he was presented with the Jim Friar award for services to Worcestershire chess in 2020, captained the Worcestershire u1650 team to become 2016 national champions, and won the Worcester & District Chess League individual competition for the Ball Cup in 2015. He was rightly proud of these achievements. Former MCCU CEO Ray Dolan said: “He was a legend”.
He did not, however, restrict himself to Midlands Chess. Before retiring, Paul was a head teacher and brought his professional knowledge and experience to bear through his contribution to safeguarding.
He was an ECF safeguarding officer, member of the ECF safeguarding team and a 4NCL safeguarding officer. He was primarily responsible for updating both the ECF’s and 4NCL’s Safeguarding Policy and was working with the rest of the team to enhance our ability to support the provision of DBS certificates throughout the chess world. He was a driving force who will be sorely missed.
That is not to say that Paul’s interests were limited to chess. He was a family man who was speaking last week about how he was looking forward to spending time in the summer away with his wife in their caravan and how his son’s adoption of two twins resulted in him becoming a grandfather. As County captain, he ensured that matches did not clash with Wolves’ playing at home where he was a season ticket holder with his son.