Another extremely busy week for the club, started with the division 3 C vs B derby on Tuesday, followed by C hosting Cheddleton D and Bees going to face Newcastle C on Wednesday, and concluding with our A&F teams facing Cheddleton B and G on Friday.
The division 3 derby saw the Bees flying in the ascendancy as they inflicted defeat on the C team. An early draw on bd 4 between C team skipper Dave Price and Simon Layhe, preceded the first shock as Bees captain Rick (the grenade) Renegade explosively attacking Karl Lockett on bd 1 as Karl faced his first loss of the season. Chris Rhodes held a pawn advantage which was converted to an overwhelming monster as Julian Bulbeck’s defences were breached to put the Bees in total command. The last game saw Neville Layhe beat Amy Lovatt to give the Bees a resounding win by the score of 3.5-0.5 to put them in 2nd place with a game in hand to overtake the top of the table C team. Meanwhile Nigel Gardiner picked up a useful half point in division 2 of the Rapid-play.
Wednesday saw another brilliant night at the Mals Club, with four players away at Newcastle, another 19 members in attendance, plus our visitors from Cheddleton. The C team were happy to end up with a draw, following two draws on bottom two boards by Dave Price after throwing away a huge advantage, and Julian Bulbeck holding on when a pawn down. David Hulme picked up the sole win on bd 2 before the visitors tied the match with a win on top board. The match ended 2-2, but subsequently Cheddleton have been penalised for playing an ineligible player (not registered with the ECF), and the match score has been adjusted to show a win for Crewe C.
The B team had a superb result as they defeated Newcastle C by 2.5-1.5. The top two boards were under pressure and a half-point from Rick Renegade proved vital, as Chris Rhodes and Simon Layhe underlined their small grade advantages with wins on bd 3 and 4, to take them top of the table, before being removed as the C team gained an extra match point with penalty referred to above.
With the B and C teams in action, there were some more crucial games played in RP division 2 as the title chasing trio of Nigel Gardiner, Lukasz Michalek and Kobus Nienaber all added point to their tally. Lukasz now leads with 9/14, from Nigel with 8/14 and Kobus on 8/10. Les Hall sits in 4th place on 4.5/8. It looks like being a close run competition with just a few weeks to go before the 31st December deadline.
Friday night saw our “A” team facing a strong Cheddleton B team. An early defeat on bd 3 was an ominous start, and captain David Hulme was lucky to escape with a an agreed draw when a pawn down on bd 5. Cheddleton showed their superiority when junior Sam Parry played beautifully to win on bd 4. We appeared to have a major advantage on bd 1, when Bart Fajfer misplayed the position and lost to another junior Jacob Boswell to consign us to defeat before Karl Lockett gained a consolation draw on bd 2 for a final score of 4-1 to Chedd. However a penalty has since been imposed on Cheddleton for playing an ineligible player (as mentioned above) which has reversed the result to a 2-2 draw.
The F team report is shown as a separate news item.