A couple of matches took place this week, with Crewe D travelling to Alsager on Tuesday and the “A” team hosted the “E” team on Wednesday.
The match at Alsager was a very close affair, and could easily have seen the D team suffer their first loss of the season in the absence of captain Nigel Gardner. Dave Price assumed team leader role for the night which strengthened the regular team by pushing Adam Fields down to board 4 from his designated place on bd 3. Rick Renegade made it 3/3 as he continued his excellent form on top board. Draws from two Davids – Lambton on 2 and Price on 3 helped the team, with the key success coming from Adam playing his first match since February 2020. The final score being 3-2 for the “D” team as they jumped back to the top of the League Table.
The “A” team were probably slight underdogs against the E team, with both teams reduced to four boards, with the As missing the normal bd 4 and the E team without their previous board 5. For the second week running the “A” team only avoided the whitewash as youngster Lukasz Michalek was the sole victor on board 2, underlining his recent improvement in rating. The E team’s successes came from their own youngsters Harry Gardiner and George Bulbeck with white pieces on boards 1 and 3, while Julian Bulbeck’s grade advantage was decisive on board 4, to give the E team a winning margin of 3-1. The E team remain 4th in the league and the A team stay 5th.
There was a couple of Internal Winter Tourney games played, with Karl Lockett extending his lead at the top of division 1 with another win to take his tally to 6.5 pts from 9 games.
In division 3, Oskar Jarzynski who is just 9 years old, played his second game in the competition, and propelled himself into the joint lead as he made it 2 from 2. This division now has 7 members taking part and is aimed at newcomers and existing members graded under 1300, and looks like it will develop into quite a healthy competition. This division is an “all-play-all with two games” and sits alongside divisions 1 and 2 with 13 members and 10 members respectively. These divisions are set up to allow all members to play competitive games at their own pace, with a deadline of 30th June 2022 intended.