Tonight saw the SCS “A” team win the South Cheshire Shield after a close encounter with our own SCS B team. First game to finish was on board 2 where Rick Renegade (“A” team) was held to a draw by Martin Gill. Chris Rhodes was first over the winning line for the As and followed later by junior Amy Lovatt keeping up a 100% record in the comp to ensure victory for the A team and clinching the Shield. Last game to finish was the bd 1 game where the B team’s Martin Frisher tasted success in his first match for some considerable time.
The B team played their penultimate SCS match at Alsager on Tuesday night and emerged as narrow winners 2.5 – 1.5. The win looked unlikely after the bottom two boards scored 1-1 with Nigel Gardner picking up our full point, leaving Martin Gill and David Hulme in play and both serious material down. Martin Gill managed a fortunate escape on board 2 as his opponent missed a sacrifice leading to either a bank rank mate for us or a Rook advantage. Meanwhile David Hulme was under the cosh on bd 1 and claimed a 2 minute penalty in desperation to avoid defeat. Even then he was very lucky to get a draw thanks to an Alsager spectator mentioning he hadn’t pressed his clock with only 6 seconds remaining. At this stage David was down to a King and pawn remaining against a King and two knights.
The result meant Crewe B went into their final game against Crewe A as joint leaders and the possibility of winning the Shield if they could repeat their previous derby victory. Alas it was not to be for the Bees as Crewe A cruised to the title with a match to spare !
Congratulations to Dave Price and his team and commiserations to Les Hall and the B team.