January has seen us involved in 6 Cup matches, covering all four of the NSDCA competitions – Open, Major (U1825), Inter (U1600) and Perry (U1375).
The first match saw our big guns deployed on the 8th Jan when our Open “A” team faced tough opposition from Holmes Chapel. The task was made much more difficult as two of our top five players were unavailable. Captain Carmel took matters in hand and calmly assembled our team, with all six players contributing to a sound victory 4-2 as previously reported on here by Martin Burns – the displaced captain of our Cup Holders. Martin will relish the challenge of leading our Open Cup B team when we face Alsager in the quarter-final. Oddly enough the “A” team are through to the final already as they await the outcome of the top half of the draw involving Alsager, Crewe B, and Macclesfield.
In the Intermediate Cup we were handed a walk-over as Northwich failed to raise a team. Consequently George Bulbeck’s team will play away against either Kidsgrove or Alsager in the final in an attempt to retain the trophy won under Nigel Gardner’s leadership last season.
In the Major Cup we played Alsager last week in the semi-final. Looking to get into our 4th consecutive final we came unstuck against spirited opponents. Despite outgrading our opponents on all five boards we were unable to find success in any game and were knocked out 3.5-1.5.
The Perry Cup saw all three of our teams in action. First up our defending champions (Perry 1) led by Steve Ballantyne played Alsager on 13th Jan. Again we outrated our opponents on every board and emerged successfully as Mario Scarpa and Keith Dudeney won their games with black on boards 2 and 4 respectively, while captain Steve got the crucial half point to ensure success in the knowledge that a 2-2 draw would have meant Alsager proceeded on tie break. The team face a daunting semi-final against the Gables Perry 3 team who possess a rapidly improving squad of youngsters under the skilful guidance of Chris Hankey.
Our junior Perry 3 team made the trip to Meir to play their quarter-final on Wednesday (21st). Freddie Lee-Cooper took a valuable scalp to win on board 2, but Meir’s vastly experienced team proved too strong in the remaining games to win 3-1 and progress to the semis.
Our Perry 2 team made the long trip to Leek to face Cheddleton on Friday (23rd) and in an evenly rated match, found the top two boards tough going as Cheddleton fielded two juniors who will soon surpass the 1375 rating limit. Dave Roberts’ win on board 3 proved our only success on the evening as we were knocked out 3-1 like our Perry 3 team earlier in the week.