The busy schedule continued after 19 matches last month, we have 15 more lined up for February.
The E team kicked off the month on Friday 2nd, with a division 3 match away to Cheddleton D. Captain Nigel’s masterful planning ensured we fielded a full team despite many of the regular squad being unavailable. We still outrated the opposition by approx 250pts, compared to a 600+ advantage in the home game. Joe Moxon clocked up our only win on board 2, with the skipper drawing on board 3, and Pawel Stanny promoted into the team also drawing on board 4. Final score 2-2 leaves the E team midtable.
On Tuesday 6th, we had 3 teams in action (A,C&F) all at The Caritas Centre. The 1st division match saw the “A” team as league leaders take on Cheddleton “A” without our two highest rated players. Despite this we still managed to outrate the visitors slightly – manly on the lower boards. Giving up over 100 rating pts on each of the top two boards proved too much for us. However we were able to secure a comfortable draw as Karl Lockett forced home his advantage late on to conclude the match 2-2. The highlight for us came on board 3, where our new member Kamil Zak made his debut (becoming our 47th league player this season) and won in quick time to put us 1-0 up. The “A” team remain top of the league, unbeaten with 12 pts from 7 matches.
In division 3 our C team played Holmes Chapel B. With captain Karl Lockett required in the “A” team, the team needed cover. The early skirmishes ended in draws for both of our black games for Andrew Raeburn (bd 1) and Julian Hawthorne (bd 3). We managed to gain the upper hand in both white games as Neville Layhe won on bd 2, and Dave Price did likewise to finish the match with a flourish 3-1 for us.
Our F team faced a stronger than expected Cheddleton C team in division 3, and were without captain Dave Price who was called into duty for our own C team. The visitors had a very experienced team who were too strong for us and inflicted the first loss for the F team this season after an unbeaten run of 8 matches. The two youngest members of the team put up spirited fights as James Coney and Oskar Jarzynski both battled to well earned draws, as the team went down 1-3.
In the club championship division one, David Lambton added a win to his tally to stay in contention, and extended his unbeaten run to 18 games since early September, while his rating has moved from 1747 to 1843 making him the best improver in the club over this period !
In division 3 of the club events, there were wins for Mal Green and Mark Randell who keep themselves in the promotion battle.