The club made a long awaited return to league chess on Wednesday, as we had four teams in action all playing in the same division of the North Staffs temporary structure caused by the Covid pandemic. As all our teams are in the same section we have decided to set up five teams with a pretty similar total rating.
The “A” team played the “D” team, while the B played the C; with the E team starting next week with a short trip to Alsager on Tuesday.
The D team got off to a flying start to the campaign with a 4-1 win as Rick Rengade, David Lambton, Julian Bulbeck and captain Nigel Gardner were all successful, and youngster George Bulbeck salvaging a board for the A team as he made his league debut for the club (as did David for the D team, although already playing in the 4NCL online team). An entertaining full match report can be seen on Nigel’s Match Reports tab.
The match between the B and C teams ended in a draw, with David Hulme and Reinhard Haack collecting the B team’s wins and Dave Price and George Jellis for the C team, with a draw on board 2 between Simon Layhe (B) and Doug Barnett (C).
Even with 20 members involved in league matches, there was still an opportunity for Harry Gardiner to add a further point to his haul in the club’s internal Winter Division 1 tournament, as he joined Karl Lockett at the top of the table.
The week ahead starting 1st November, will see the E team travel to Alsager while Round 6 of the Online 4NCL matches takes place at the same time. Wednesday will see the B team against the A team in the North Staffs League with numerous members continuing the Winter Internal Tournaments which ensure every member gets to play competitive games if they wish.