Friday 5th May – The D team went to Stafford last Friday, and came accross a very strong Stafford team chasing the division 2 title, with Newcastle and our own C team. Nigel has provided the usual entertaining report as the Dees came 2nd in the match – see Nigel’s Reports
Wed 10th May – The E team hosted Meir in a division 3 match, aiming to haul in leaders Alsager B, and put out a very strong team including new recruit Richard Lee (rated over 2100 !!) on board 1. With a huge rating advantage – the biggest seen in the NSDCA this season – 1167 points over 5 boards – the E team were overwhelming favourites. As is often the case, the ratings were irrelevant when it came down to battle. Phil Grocott on board 5, was held to a draw and when Adam Fields added the expected win on board 4 all was going to plan. Unfortunately we failed to get any points from our engine room on boards 2 & 3, as the Meir underdogs performed incredibly well, and even on board 1 we were made to work hard for our other success to draw the match. This ended the E team’s chance of catching Alsager who are 3 pts clear and therefore division 3 champions. Congratulations to them.
Fri 12th May – The F team travelled to Cheddleton to face an improving pair of youngsters in the hosts D team. Our team was constructed mainly from regular E team players due to mass unavailability of 15 players previously used by the F team this season. So thanks to Dave Price, Matthew Dean and Mike Keenan we were able to fulfill the fixture without defaulting a board. Dave Price was faced with a tough game on board 1 and duly came unstuck, while Cheddleton’s two teenagers showed their improvements with good performances to win on boards 2 and 3, and give Chedd an unassailable lead. With the match fate already decided Matthew drew on his vast thirst for a challenge, and won after a long end game to make sure we avoided a whitewash. It was a fitting way to end the F team’s campaign showing our fighting spirit as the team finished the season with a guarantee of 3rd position in the table and having used a total of 19 players – more than most clubs in the NSDCA can boast in total.