Author: David Hulme

As noted in part 1 of this month’s news the club continues to grow, and now has 25 junior members amongst the current list shown on the Website. Last week’s Staffordshire junior congress highlighted the great achievements of some of our juniors as reported by chairman Dave.

On Tuesday 25th Richard Lee hosted the 2nd of his popular coaching sessions aimed at our leading players. From all accounts this was a resounding success, but obviously outside the bounds of your writer, who slips down the club’s batting order. It is incredible to note that I was once playing top board for the club and now appear at No. 19 in league rating order.

The Club Championship provides opportunity for all members to compete against each other with 5 divisions and 67 members involved. Harry Gardiner is chasing a hat-trick of being Club Champion and has made another brilliant start to the campaign with 6.5/7. Only a fool would bet against him retaining the trophy.

Division 2 has only seen a small number of games played so far but the strength of the competion has gone up siginifcantly from last season with 5 players rated 1600-1700 and one over 1800. Included in this section is 14 year old Tommy Cooke who is unbeaten in 13 games since 1st July.

Division 3 has seen a lot of activity with Phil Grocott beating all in his path so far with a commanding 5/5, for an event rating of 1752 to date, which is over 400 pts more than his league rating !

Gerald Parton currently leads the Div 4 competition with 3.5/4, but it would be premature to try and predict the eventual winner.

Division 5 has 14 members involved with recent newcomer Barrie Wood running away with 7/8. This section has 12 juniors including our two youngest members -Jasper Ludlow aged just 6 and Arlo Hurst age 7 who played each other last week.

In conclusion November has been another amazing month seeing the membership reach new record numbers. The club played a record number of league matches including one night with 5 home matches and an average attendance of 49 members per night excluding visiting teams and non-playing parents and guardians etc.

We have just played our final match of November to conclude our busiest ever month – playing 22 NSDCA matches and recording a 50% success rate, with 8 wins, 4 draws, 8 losses and 2 derbies.

After collecting 7 of the 9 NSDCA trophies last season, it is looking like we could be empty handed this season based on the current league tables.

While the club continues to grow, now with over 80 members, it is great to see increased competition from the other clubs who will all be trying to stop the biggest club walking off with all the trophies again. It is looking likely that many clubs will feature in the 2025/26 NSDCA Honours Board.

In division 1, Alsager “A” and Holmes Chapel “A” appear to be the strongest teams, while Macclesfield are having a super season after being promoted. The three Crewe teams are having a tough time, with defending champions Crewe B surprisingly involved in the wooden spoon contest. Newcomers Northwich pitched themselves into the top flight mainly to avoid excessive travel, bring some fresh blood into the league.

Division 2 is likely to be very keenly contested with Cheddleton A probably the favourites, along with Stafford currently unbeaten. Crewe’s three teams continue to knock spots off each other while Alsager “B” look very comfortable. Newcastle voluntarily took promotion from div 3 last season and have found it hard going so far after five games, but with the arrival of a new top board – rated over 2000 – are likely to climb the table soon.

Division 3 looks like being a one horsed race with Holmes Chapel B head and shoulders above the rest. Their team is rated as highly as all teams in Div 2 and appear to be heading back there after being relegated last season. Crewe H and Alsager D have been cut off at the bottom of the table and their early December clash has been postponed due to 6 Crewe H players being unavailable, which seems to defy logic for a club boasting 80 members.

Division 4 is the hardest section to call as the top five teams are sepated by just one point. Gables B, Kidsgrove B and Crewe I currently have identical records of 6 pts from 5 matches, while Crewe J have the incredible score of 6 pts from 6 games having drawn all 6 !. The team currently 5th – Cheddleton C – could jump to the top of the table if they win on Monday against joint leaders Gables B, while any other result puts the Gables on top of the pile. Great credit must go to Chris Hankey for his development of the Gables Junior Club, who could well be heading to great success in the not too distant future.

Division 5 appears to be a two horsed race, with Meir holding the aces with a perfect start to the season with 5 wins and Cheddleton D tucked in just behind on 9pts from 5 matches and unbeaten too. It is wonderful to see all 5 divisions with at least 7 teams providing a much better balance of fxtures than recent seasons.

There has only been one match played in the knockout competitions so far with Crewe Perry 1 sneaking through against Gables Perry 1, while Cheddleton have progressed from the 1st round following Fenton having to concede.

Trust it to happen on the Club’s busiest ever match night as five visiting teams fought the elements and battled through police cordons to get to the club.

Many thanks to all the teams that attended tonight and managed to field full line ups despite the horrible weather and disruption which prevented many Crewe members from arriving.

Despite all the obstacles thrown at us, it was a night to be proud of Crewe Chess Club and the NSDCA. A brief summary of match results showed

Div 1 – Crewe C beat Northwich 2.5-1.5

Div 3 – Crewe G beat Alsager D and Alsager C beat Crewe H by the same score as above

Div 4 – Crewe J drew with Cheddleton C to make it 5/5 draws !

Perry Cup – Crewe Perry 1 scraped through against a very young Gables 1 Perry team – same 2.5-1.5 score line.

Thanks to all of our visitors for contributing towards a superb night at Crewe Chess Club.

Full details of all results can be seen from our “fixtures tab” and the NSDCA LMS (North Staffs & District Chess Association League Management System).

The sun keeps shining (metaphorically speaking) as the Club continues to grow. September has been an incredible month with attendances averaging 57 members per week, plus visiting teams ensuring the Caritas Centre has been packed out throughout the month.

Tuesday night (30th Sept) was another superb night as the Internal Summer competitions all reached their conclusion. Firstly looking at the Open Knockout final Richard Lee played Carmel Barwick and came through victorious, although reports from the analysis room afterwards told how Carmel could easily have won. The Major knockout final had already been played the previous week as 13 year old underdog Tommy Cooke defeated George Bulbeck. The Intermediate final saw Dave Roberts playing a recent arrival Simon Humphries, with Dave emerging as the winner.

It was also the final night of the Grand Prix Rapidplay which started in early July for members rated under 1300. The tournament has been a roaring success with 22 players taking part and 131 games played in total. The competition winner is the player with the highest percentage score, subject to playing a minimum of 10 games. 17 of the 22 met this requirement, with Jack Patullo achieving the highest score of 84.4% ahead of Lee Bebbington on 77.3%.

Congratulations to all the Summer Tournament winners – Richard, Tommy, Dave Roberts and Jack who will receive their trophies at next year’s AGM. All names have been added to the “Honours List” shown on the website under Members Page, which dates back to our first tournament held in May 2015 when Greg Willet won the inaugural Time and Point handicap.

Details of all the Summer Club tournaments have now been archived and can be seen in the “past seasons” tab on the Crewe Chess Club’s LMS pages.

The NSDCA league season got underway this week with 3 of our 12 teams in action, while 2 teams were sidelined by opposition postponements.

Div 2 – D team – won at Cheddleton 2.5-1.5, with David H winning and draws from Simon L, Ebube and Pawel.

Div 4 – I team – won against Gables B 2.5-1.5, with Tim and Phil winning, backed up by Steve B’s draw.

Div 5 – K team – lost vs Meir 1-3, with Lee B picking up our sole point.

Meanwhile at a packed Caritas Centre on Tuesday (59 members + 2 visiting teams), the Summer knockout semi-finals were all completed to give line ups for the finals as:

OPEN – Richard L vs Carmel

MAJOR – George Bulbeck vs Tommy

INTER – Dave R vs Ian

Oh what a night – to remember – on 9th September 2025 as we held the 11th Annual Time & Point Handicap with a massive 56 players taking part; 60 members attending in a record turn-out plus a number of spectators and parents sat around the hall’s perimiter.

As usual the night started with a little expected chaos, as two members failed to arrive out of the 55 entries which caused hiccups with 1st round pairings. This was compensated for by two late entries and just after a bye was awarded to the odd numbered mid range player, we had another new arrival.

This was the first time the club was using its Swiss Manager software and Harry Gardiner took on the challenge of sorting byes, withdrawals, new players and pairings which was pretty daunting. Harry did a phenomenal job, after Keith Dudeney had expertly input all the 1st round results, as we emerged with pairings for the 2nd round at 8.25pm, a little behind schedule. However the 2nd round started at exactly the same time as the 2024 event, which was a credit to Harry’s efforts bearing in mind we had 20 more players than the previous year

After this things ran a little more smoothly as the Events officer started reducing time allowed in all games with an excess of 20 minutes in total. As regular readers will know this 5 round event is unique as it gives handicaps to most players to add to their scores as well as extra time for lower rated members. This makes it very difficult for the top players to win the competition as they need to score 5/5 to have a chance.

By the time we got to the end of Round 4, it was time to work out who had a chance of winning before we started the final round. And what excitement this created as it was announced 3 players were on 4.5 pts after 4 rounds (incl handicaps) and then there were a further 11 on 4pts, with 3 players on 4/4 and others on 4 pts due to their handicaps being added to their running scores. On top of all this David missed one other player who was 4.5 pts !

Luckily as the results rolled in for round 5, just one player emerged with 5.5 pts which was Richard Fish who had scored 4/5 plus his 1.5pts handicap. From the group of 3 who were on 4/4, two players drew and eliminated themselves from the Trophy chase, as Carmel Barwick was the only member to complete the course with 5/5 which guarantees an automatic share of 1st place.

And so we came to the conclusion of the competition which required the Armageddon tie-break to be applied. Carmel won the toss for choice of colour, selecting white thus gaining an extra minute on her standard allowance of 5 mins, while Richard had 11 minutes and just needed a draw to win the trophy.

See the play-off game here …. which ended in dramatic style with Carmel emerging victorious with just two seconds to spare. A great credit to both finalists who played in such a sporting manner, with chairman Dave applying his Arbiter skills in a tense climax.

The scores and results can be seen on the sheet below taken from Swiss-Manager, with handicaps added afterwards to show Final scores and positions

Congratulations to Carmel who becomes the 10th different winner of this event, with Richard as runner-up. There were some great performances as youngsters JJ Patrick and Jack Patullo finished joint 3rd with 5 pts alongside the ever-youthful Mal Green.

Thanks go to everyone who played and contributed to a fantastic night, and special mentions go to Harry and Keith for their work with the Swiss-Manager software and the team of clock setters (Harry, Dave Price, Lukasz) as well as those that set up the room at the start of the evening (Barrie, Doug, Harry & Dave P).

Just a quick note to say we had 171 attendances averaging out at 43 per week for the month of August, despite dozens of members taking a break or being on holiday. This represents an increase of more than 28% on last year when we had 133 attendances, and is pretty remarkable for the time of year.

September promises to be a great month as members return after summer/school holidays and we have the following scheduled itinerary:

Sept 2nd – 6.30pm onwards – summer knockout semi-finals, Grand prix Rapidplay and Club championship games.

Sept 2nd – 8pm – Richard Lee coaching session in small room

Sept 9th – 7.20 arrival for 7.30pm start in the Annual Time & Point Handicap event for the Les Hall Memorial Trophy – all members welcome. Please let David Hulme know if you can play in this fantastic annual event.

Sept 16th – NSDCA 2025/26 League season commences with four home matches for teams A (div 1) , I (div 4) , K & L (div 5), together with outstanding knock-out semi finals and the usual club night with internal competitions and social chess in the small room.

Sept 23rd and 30th – Usual club nights with mix of NSDCA League matches, social chess in the small room and internal competitions in the main hall, noting 30th September is the cut-off for the Summer knock-outs and Grand Prix Rapidplay.

Finally a gentle reminder to all members that annual subs are now due. Adults £30 and Juniors £20 (U18 @ 1.9.25) for the year 1.9.25 to 31.8.26

1. PRE-SEASON MATCH: We suffered a big defeat in Tuesday’s (19th August) Pre-season challenge match as Chester made their first trip to Crewe since we formed our club in 2014. We sent the invitation a few weeks ago and after an original plan to play 10 boards each, Chester pulled out the stops to increase the teams to 13-a-side. Like the annual Wallasey challenge, the idea was to make teams reasonably close in ratings and we succeeded by selecting teams with just a 26 total point rating difference. As the News at Ten gongs sounded the match was perfectly balanced at 4-4. After that things went down hill for us as Chester reeled in several wins to emerge comfortable winners 8.5 to 4.5. Full score card is on the LMS.

It is planned for us to take a team of up to 20 players next August, to see if we can gain revenge !

2. SUMMER KNOCKOUTS: After the recent AGM the draws were held for the semi-finals of our Summer knockouts as follows:

OPEN: Carmel vs Oskar and Lukasz vs Richard

MAJOR: Tommy vs Doug and Nathan vs George (Bulbeck)

INTER: Simon Humphries vs Gerald and Freddie vs David Roberts

All games to be played by 16th September, with Simon already through to the INTER final.

3. SUMMER GRAND PRIX U1300 RAPIDPLAY: This new event is well in progress and is a little different to most of our competitions. As many players take holidays and summer breaks, this competition winner’s trophy will be awarded (at the next AGM) to the player with the highest percentage score rather than the most points, as at the closing date of 30th September. Any player who has completed less than 10 games will not be eligible to win the competition and players can play a maximum of two games against any other opponent, with one as white and black.

4. CLUB CHAMPIONSHIP 2025/26 – The new competitions start on Tuesday 26th August. Pairings have been posted on the club’s LMS section. There are five divisions this season due to the increase in number of members. The pairings can be seen by following the links from the fixtures tab which show all NSDCA fixtures (once they are published) as well as all Internal Competitions.

5. TIME & POINT BLITZ HANDICAP: This will take place on Tuesday 9th September, commencing at 7.30pm. It is a five round (swiss-type) blitz event with a combination of different times being allocated to all members to complete their games and handicap points (between 0.5 and 2.5) to add to players scores on top of their results. The idea is to make sure lowest rated players have a chance of competing with the highest rated.

This will be the 11th annual competition and is usually chaotic and a lot of fun. The winner will receive the coveted “Les Hall Memeorial Trophy” at the next AGM.

PLEASE CONFIRM WITH DAVID H IF YOU WISH TO PLAY IN THIS EVENT ASAP.

6. NSDCA LEAGUE SEASON 2025/26: Fixtures are due to be published by 31st August. Since our AGM on 12th August, the league has decided to run an extra division so there will now be 5 divisions and therefore we have chosen to enter two more teams (K&L) into division 5, making 12 teams from Crewe.

7. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTIONS: The secretary has recently sent an email to all members asking for payment of subscriptions for the year 1st September 2025 to 31st August 2026. Adults £30 p.a and Junior (U 18@ 1.9.25) £20 p.a

8. Any questions on the above please contact secretary David Hulme or any other member of the committee.

Last night saw our Annual General Meeting being held in front of a record attendance of 43 members plus a few guests and potential new members, after receiving 15 apologies for absence (mainly due to holidays).

The main highlight of the night was as usual, the Presentation of Trophies. This year the guest presenter was our top player Richard Lee who continues to attend the club every week despite a 100 + mile trek each way ! Before making the awards Richard told the assembled audience that he felt priviliged to be asked and how proud he was to be associated with such a friendly club which in his words; is the best he has come accross in 20 years or so of competitive chess, which includes playing 4NCL chess for Cambridge University.

The presentation took much longer than previous years due to the volume of awards. There were 15 internal club trophies presented, plus 7 NSDCA league trophies and the South Cheshire Shield. To supplement this there were further awards made by Steve Ballantyne to individual members of the victorious South Cheshire Shield “A” team and the Perry Trophy “A” team.

After the prolonged meeting, we held a four team Blitz competition with 28 players staying behind until after 10.30pm. The four highest rated players in the club were assigned to different teams with Gee Cross’s team (Crewe 4) emerging as the winners on board difference just ahead of Crewe 2 led by Harry Gardiner. Full details are shown on the LMS under AGM Team Blitz

Tuesday 15th July – Last night to complete Round 1 of all Summer knockouts

Wednesday 16th July – NSDCA AGM at Meir Chess Club 7.30pm

Monday 21st July – Wallasey vs Crewe for the WC Trophy

Tuesday 5th August – Last night to complete all Summer KO Quarter-finals

Tuesday 12th August – Club A.G.M 7.30pm followed by the AGM Team Blitz (approx 9pm start)

Tuesday 19th August – Crewe vs Chester pre-season challenge match

Tuesday 26th August – start date for Club Championship 25/26 (if not involved in Summer knockouts)

Tuesday 9th September – Annual Time & Point Handicap for the Les Hall Memorial Trophy

Tuesday 16th September – Last night to complete all Summer KO semi-finals

Tuesday 30th September – Last night to complete all Summer KO finals