Tuesday night saw our team lose a close contest against mid-table Wallasey 2. Our captain was optimistic of a positive result when the opposition arrived missing their regular board 1, with all their players moving up a board. For our part there was a bit of board switching to equalize black and white games through the season. An early draw for Olawale Titiloye on board 3 arrived when his opponent defended accurately in a messy position, where playing on would have left us a pawn down. Next up we fell on board 5 where Chris Rhodes was outgraded as normal in the 1st division. A draw on board 4 for Neville Layhe was a good result against his 150 grade opponent, leaving us 2-1 down and top two boards in play with both Karl Lockett (on bd 1) and David Hulme seeming to have winning opportunities. Unfortunately Karl’s advantage evaporated just before David was about to convert his. This defeat leaves us as near certainties for relegation as competitors Wallasey 1 beat champions Penyffordd the previous night to send us back into bottom position.
Full league tables are available on the Wirral League Website, from the link below.
http://wirralchessleague.com/tables.php