Three matches to report on this week as the D team played Cheddleton E in division 4 in a re-arranged match on Tuesday, while the “A” team hosted Fenton B in division 2 and the U110 B team faced Newcastle in the Perry Trophy sem-final on Wednesday. A further match was scheduled but Cheddleton could not raise a team for the other Perry Trophy semi-final.
The D team did the business against Chedd E with a 3-1 win. Doug Barnett and Neville Layhe got draws on top two boards as Harry Gardiner won the battle of the juniors on board 3 and Les Hall won the skippers battle on board 4. This was our first attempt to use the club on a Tuesday night and apologies are due to our visitors as the game was played to a difficult background of noise due to other activities within the club.
Wednesday night was a fantastic night for all chess players at the Mals Club. When I arrived at 7.15pm there were already some 20-odd members playing friendly chess before the two visiting teams arrived (from Newcastle and Fenton). I counted 34 people playing chess plus several other parents and spectators which filled the room with a great vibrancy.
The Perry Cup match report can be seen below thanks to captain Nigel Gardner who must be in line for “Chess Newsreporter of the Year” award.
The “A” team had to wait until 8pm before the full Fenton team arrived due to severe delays on the A500/D-road. The home team romped to a surprising 5-0 win as Ola Titiloye gained the first point as he breached the bare King-side defences of his opponent’s Sicilian defence. Shortly afterwards Bart Fajfer extended a pawn advantage from an opening gambit to end up with two rampaging Bishops and 6 pawns against a poorly placed Rook, Bishop and 4 pawns to extend our lead to 2-0. David Hulme won the captains clash on board 3 after being squashed in the early middle game to unleash an attack with assistance from his opponent’s poor choice of exchange. So 3-0 and the match points secured for our division 2 top of the table team. Chris Rhodes outplayed his opponent on board 4 with a rare chance to have white for the “A” team, before Doug Barnett continued his 100% record for the As in his own style of squash-buckling play proved too much for his player despite being very close to running out of time.
Captain David Hulme was delighted with As team first ever 5-0 win having taken nearly 5 years to achieve in division 2. With just one match remaining against bottom of the table Holmes Chapel Rooks the dream of our first division 2 title is still on, but we need title rivals and favourites Cheddleton B to drop at least 2 points from their last 3 matches in their tricky run in against contenders Macclesfield and Newcastle B.