Plan B Forum

It would surprise few people that an entrepreneurial chess champion lives in Cambridge.



But Slide Martin is not a student at the elite university - instead he is a 61-year-old rough sleeper. Accompanied by his pet dogs Check, 13, and Mate, three, Slide has found a loophole in begging laws by challenging the world's cleverest students to matches - and winning. Knight of the road: Slide Martin, 61, challenges students at Cambridge University to games of chess and accepts a donation if he wins, which means police cannot arrest him for begging under the Vagrancy Act

He plays them on the streets and in parks on his brown and cream coloured chessboard and accepts a donation from them if he wins. Slide has managed to get round the city's laws on begging and street selling almost completely by offering a service and including a voluntary donation.

HOW SLIDE AVOIDS THE LAW
Begging for money or food is illegal under the Vagrancy Act 1824. Once punishable by hard labour it now carries a fine of up to £1,000.

Cambridgeshire police Sgt Kevin Misik said: 'The acts described are not offences of begging under the Vagrancy Act therefore are not enforceable by police officers.
'Although they are not begging, there may well be issues with people acting in an anti-social manner and if this is the case we would urge people to report this to police by calling 101.'
Slide has also got round Cambridge City Council's trading laws because only people selling products, not services, need a licence to sell on the city's streets.

Head of city centre management Emma Thornton said he also did not count as a peddler or charity collector.
'I don't think it's something we would act on unless it was becoming something lots of people were doing', she told MailOnline.
'It would hinge partly on whether he's asking for a donation directly or whether people are giving it voluntarily without a prompt.

'I've not seen him myself but I can imagine it - we are a city of innovation after all. Nothing surprises me in Cambridge.'

.The former chef, who was made homeless 35 years ago, claims he is a master of strategy and has even dubbed himself the 'knight of the road'. Officially police say there is nothing they can do about his activity - although he claimed officers have been known to take one or two of his pieces to scupper his game. He said: 'Offering chess for free means the police can’t arrest me for begging because I am offering something - and I always carry spare pieces in case someone steals one. 'I mostly win. They are not very bright in Cambridge - they wouldn’t have to go to college if they were. 'I play with the students in the park if the weather is good. Otherwise I set up in streets in Cambridge and challenge people to a game.

'I don’t take drugs but I do like a drink and the drunker I get the better I play chess.' He added: 'I am a proper old tramp in the true sense of the word and have been travelling all over the country for 35 years and been from Land’s End to John O’Groats. 'Slide is my birth name. My mother told me she named me Slide because I was conceived in a playground and she didn’t want to call me Swings or Roundabout.

'Check and Mate are my companions. Mate is Check’s granddaughter. I pass through Cambridge a lot and am here at the moment because a close friend was taken ill and I am helping out.'
Other homeless people in Cambridge are also using a loophole by ‘playing’ penny whistles or other instruments in a bid to get around the law. One homeless woman said: 'If I hold my penny whistle then I can say that I am busking. I actually can’t play a tune on it. I just make a noise and hope the police will go away.'