The Crewe CC tourists had a trip to the seaside last weekend, as it was time for the Rhyl Congress. The tournament was held, as usual, in Rhyl Town Hall, a building made world famous for its leaning tower. Results were kept top secret, and were not published on the usual channels until today, I believe.
We had two entries in the Minor, Mal and Jack. In the last round they were paired together to decide who would win the prize for the best Crewe player in the section. I am not sure how much the prize was, but ask Mal because he won; well done to him.
I did not play on the Friday night, and when I turned up on Saturday I had an unpleasant surprise waiting for me: I was paired against the Crewe CC chairman. Pricey played well but in a tense position but he dropped 2 pieces for a rook and I managed to bag the point. Our chairman then went on an unbeaten run to score 2.5/5.
Three Crewe players tried the Open; Jamie, Oskar, and Harry. Best performance was by Harry. Harry’s only loss was to the tournament winner, Keith Arkell, who got his revenge for last year. Harry finished clear second, bagging another win against a titled player. Jamie also fell victim to Arkell, but bounced back, playing some fine attacking stuff, I did enjoy watching him maul his last round victim. Oskar and Jamie both ended the weekend on a decent 2/5.
In a recent news item our secretary mentioned that Crewe A beat Crewe B. The top board in this match featured our two club champions, James R (rapid play champ) and Harry (classical champ). There was a glaring omission in this report. It was not mentioned, that Harry, who was playing on increment, with about minute left, managed to win the dreaded king, bishop and knight, v king ending. Great stuff, maybe Mario can get the full game score on the site. Will Crewe win the league again this year?
Stay tuned.