Tuesday 13th Feb saw four of our teams in action. Starting with the B team in division 1 – they were beaten 3-1 at home by Alsager “A” who have moved to joint top of the table , although have played 2 more matches than the defending champions (our “A” team). The Bees were outgunned on boards 1 and 2, with Carmel and Martin F gaining draws on the other boards.
The C team also at home faired better in a 2-2 draw with Newcastle. All games were won with the white pieces, as captain Karl Lockett (bd 2) and Neville Layhe (bd 4) did the business for us. The C team have jumped from bottom of the table up to 3rd place, but trail the top two by 5 pts. This division remains the most closely contested with at least 4 teams very much in the title race (Alsager B, Crewe D, Fenton B and Stafford)
Division 4 leaders Crewe G played away vs Alsager D. Thanks to captain Steve Ballantyne for his comments on the match
“Another good win for the G team. 4 very tough games though. Malcolm on board 4 was a rook down early on, his opponent had a check mate but missed it, this was before 8.30pm. The next time I looked at board 4 Malcolm was a knight up in the end game and had a certain win. I offered Neil a draw in a very tight game, after 8 minutes thinking about it he accepted my offer. 5 minutes later Malcolm won. Jamie had a tough game, his opponent had 30 minutes to Jamie’s 5, but Jamie was up 2 pawns and won comfortably in the end. Pav was playing against a 9 year old who Neil rates very highly. The game finished at 10.25 with a close win for Pav. “
The G team need two points from their remaining three matches to secure the division 4 trophy.
The H team were at home against Cheddleton E. This was a very close match that could have gone either way. Unfortunately for us we lost narrowly 1.5-2.5. We started well as Finn Charbonneau won on bd 4, and then Matthew Dean got a draw by 3-fold repitition to put us in a strong position. We went down on board 2 to leave the scores level, and then in a winning position our latest debutant – Mario Scarpa – playing on bd 1, mistakenly picked up a wrong piece causing immediate loss. It was great to see Cheddleton’s team comprising three juniors, while we were able to give Mario his first game for the club and Finn played just his second as we continue to give experience to as many as possible, with 17 different members representing the H team so far this season !
In the Club Championship there were two games played in division 2 with wins for Doug Barnett and Dave Price, on a night where we had quite a few spectators watching the three matches in the main hall and approx 18 other members in the smaller room. Josh Cross also rejoined the club after a break of approx 4 years to take our current membership up to 65 members !