Tuesday night saw the start of Season 3 in the 4NCL online league. Crewe A were up against familiar opposition Preston South End, while the B team faced Cornish Wreckers. It was another tough night among many for the A team as despite expecting to play in division 4, they were reinstated in division 3 at short notice, having twice finished bottom of division 3 where they should have dropped a division. With Karl Lockett and Rick Renegade being heavily outgraded on top two boards it was no suprise that Preston were two games to the good early on. Lukasz Holcman made his 4NCL debut for the club on board 3 and faced a similar outcome, leaving Neville Layhe (aka Whitevanman) on board 4 to save our blushes as yet again he produced the only positive result for the team with a comfortable draw. And so the A(OL) team concluded their first match losing by 3.5-0.5.
The BOL team however proved far more successful in their division 6 encounter. Our youthful team comprised two 17 year olds, Harry Gardiner, Lukasz Michalek plus Adam Fields and Kobus Nienaber. The latter two rattled off quick wins to set the team on their route to victory and soon the match was secure as Harry made it 3-0. Meanwhile Lukasz defended an exchange loss soundly with an extra couple of pawns to allow a draw. The final score being 3.5-0.5 to the B team.
Thursday saw some games in the 1st Round of the NSDCA 5-round congress with our club providing 14 of the 34 players involved. Other games have yet to be played.
In the Open section David Hulme lost to the top seed.
In U160, Neville won with Harry and Lukasz’s H & M all drawing
In U130, Kobus won.
In U100, Mark Randell and Pawel Stanny won.