The division 5 derby between our “E” and “F” teams was played on Wednesday with the result going as expected. Draws on the top two boards were good enough for the Es as Chris Rhodes and Steve Ballantyne held Dave Price and Phil Wright. With big grading advantages on boards 3 and 4 Amy Lovatt and Nigel Gardner both won to secure a 3-1 victory for the “E” team.
Last night saw the “A” team start their Div 2 campaign with a re-arranged trip to Cheddleton to avoid an early season postponement. Despite the absence of top board Ola Titiloye the As had a good grading advantage over the host’s “D” team. First to finish was Doug Barnett with a win on bd 5 soon followed by a draw on bd 3 for Neville Layhe. The “A” team were guaranteed at least a share of the points when Rick Renegade, making his NSDCA debut won on board 4 in convincing fashion. On bd 1 Karl Lockett was playing Chedd’s junior star Jacob Boswell (age 15, grade 177) and despite a promising middle game position found himself on the backfoot as Jacob found a way to win. Last game in progress saw David Hulme lose to Karol Grzybowski as Karol recovered from a Knight deficit with David running out of time, to give Chedd D a creditable draw and leave skipper David Hulme disappointed with the drawn match result.