Author: David Hulme

Mon 3rd April – Our Perry Cup (U1375) team went to play Meir in the final of the KO competition in pursuit of the trophy donated by Bob Perry to the NSDCA some years ago, who was in the Meir team trying to ensure the trophy stayed on home soil. Our team was dealt the unwelcome hand of a cry-off during the day, but thanks to Matthew Dean for stepping in at the last minute we were able to field a full team without defaulting a board !

The first game to finish was on board 1 in the unusual situation of a “3-fold-repitition” leading to an early draw. Our player Steve Ballantyne was unsure of this rule, so asked for rule guidance from our captain Dave Price who assured both players this was a draw, with Steve having an advantage his opponent was forced to repeat moves that pushed Steve into a forced reply. So even-stevens for now.

On board 2, Mike Keenan produced the key victory, to underline his consistent improvement over the last 15 months which has seen his rating move from 1208 to 1336, with victory against one of Meir’s very experienced quartet. The match was decided shortly after when Phil Grocott was offered a draw on board 3, to put us 2-1 in the lead. We knew that even if we lost on board 4, the trophy would be taken from Meir by virtue of board count, where the win on board 2 gets more value than a win on board 4. Matthew Dean played a long game with Bob Perry and even when short of time sportingly reminded Bob on more than one occasion to press his clock, as Bob used all his vast experience to level the scores at 2-2.

It was an exciting journey home for our players, buoyed by the success of winning the Perry trophy from the hands of its proud donor.

Monday 27 March – The F team played away at Fenton in the 3rd division, with both teams within 64 total rating points of each other – so an absolute negligible difference. Pawel Stanny with black on board 2, got us off to a good start, as a sharp queen-side attack opened up the castled position and forced a mating attack giving us a 1-0 lead. On board 4, George Jelliss was a piece up but running very short of time. With several ways of skinning the cat available, George decided to go the long way round the houses before an overwhelming attack with two rooks chased the King into submission and 2-0 to us. Steve Ballantyne seemed to be in the ascendancy with an early exchange gain. Slowly but surely his opponent wriggled and turned the tables picking up a minor piece, and had two strong bishops in an open position with a rook, against Steve’s two rooks. Unfortunately Steve’s rooks got cramped for space as one exchange fell, before the last rook was pinned against his King by the other bishop. Faced with all this, resignation was the only choice as Steve kicked himself around the bar, with the match now 2-1. On board 1, Andrew Crosby was enjoying an attacking game but allowed his opponent to set up a strong two pawn centre. Andrew went on a queen rampage picking up a couple of pawns, while his opponent calmly advanced the central pawns to create an unstoppable monster, as the King walked down the board to join the pawns and queen. Andrew could not stop the advancing monsters as a 2nd queen arrived and forced the win. A final score of 2-2, was a fair reflection in a match of high quality.

Wed 29 Mar – our E team hosted Cheddleton C in the 3rd division with ambitions of closing the gap on top of the table Alsager B. Doug Barnett had a comfortable win on board 3, before Phil Grocott agreed a draw on board 4. As usual James Marshall was down to below 5 minutes on the clock and was grateful to agree a draw on board 2, which guaranteed the team could not lose. Dave Price on board 1, was a pawn up when offered the draw, but decided to play on looking for a full point. His decision was ultimately vindicated, as he slowly pushed his connected pass pawns to success and give a final score of 3-1. This result takes the Es to 15 pts from 10 matches, just one point behind the league leaders with a game in hand. Next up is the potential decider when the E team travel to Alsager on 11th April.

Fri 31 Mar – Nigel Gardner’s much changed D team went to play Cheddleton B in division 2, with the Ds looking to close the gap from 3rd place to the leaders. A look at the team sheets showed the match would be nip and tuck, with team ratings within 70 pts of each other and both teams deploying regular Division 1 players on their top boards. The results did not go in our favour as Chedd chalked up their first win of the season by the narrow score of 2.5-1.5. Losses on the top two boards were too much despite the best efforts of captain Nigel who drew on board 3, and George Bulbeck winning on board 4 to take his unbeaten run to 11 league and cup games. With just two matches remaining for the D team it is unlikely they can now catch the leaders Newcastle who are 3 pts ahead.

Club Championships were eagerly contested on Wednesday (29th) with 9 games taking place plus a further rated game with two members in separate divisions.

In division 1, Carmel Barwick extended her 100% record to make it 4/4 as she demolished the Tournament Officer (David Hulme) to leave him in a relegation battle on 2/6. David Lambton’s win against trophy chasing Julian Hawthorne (4.5/6), put him also on 2/6. Lukasz Michalek’s win took him to 4/6, to leave Karl Lockett on 4.5/9. Richard Fish’s hard earned draw against leader Harry Gardiner (5.5/9) means he is the 3rd player on 2/6. The chase for the trophy looks wide open with Martin Burns slight favourite now on 5/7, with his game against Carmel probably being pivotal. With just 9 weeks to go to the 31st May deadline, the key will be whether all games can be completed alongside league and cup fixtures.

In division 2, Andrew Crosby won the top of the table clash with George Bulbeck to conclude his campaign with 7pts from 12 games, while Goerge is on 5pts with 5 games still to play if he can fit them in. There were wins for Kobus Nienaber (4/7), Oskar Jarzynski (3.5/7) and Julian Bulbeck (3/7) to ease relegation fears.

In division 3 Vicky Kelsall added a half point to her tally to move into joint second place on 2.5/7, while Mark Randell moved to 2/4. Leader Phil Grocott has quite a cushion with 5.5/6.

Wed 15th March: Another busy night at The Mals Club witnessed two matches, Club Championship Drama, and even more potential new members.

Starting with the NSDCA Cup competition, our U1825 team hosted local team Alsager over 5 boards, and were firm favourites when the team sheets revealed an advantage of over rating 600 pts which sounds much grander than it really is. First past the winning post was Neville Layhe on board 5 as he carved open his opponent’s defences using his vast experience against a relative newcomer.

The match swung decisively in our favour when David Lambton found the way to win a tricky endgame, by picking up an isolated “a” pawn with an active King and having enough time to stop a passed “E” pawn. David’s own “A” pawn set up a diversion for white’s King. This allowed David to break the support for the E pawn to stay one pawn ahead and ultimately chaperone home one of the remaining pawns. At 2-0, skipper David Hulme became aware that a draw on board 2 would be more than enough to secure the match on board count, so was happy to agree a draw by 3-fold repitition after being on the back foot for much of the game. Next to finish was Crewe’s form player Carmel Barwick who was held to a draw by opposing captain Andrew Barker on board 3, with this ending Carmel’s 100% winning streak after 9 wins in a row in league and club tournament games. The last game to finish saw Martin Frisher playing just his 4th game of the season. Earlier viewing witnessed Martin with an exchange advantage, but by the time other games had finished the table had been turned so that he was the exchange down in an endgame with a Bishop and 3 pawns against a Rook and two. Martin then snared another pawn with his active King and was pushing for victory until Lukas Hancock recovered one pawn with his own King and then had to sacrifice his Rook to stop the sole pawn on the 7th from queening. All in all, a very satisfying result to progress to the Major Cup Final as the club made sure we have a team in all four NSDCA Cup Finals.

Alongside the cup match, our F team had a division 3 encounter with Kidsgrove with teams within one point of each other in 3rd and 4th position respectively. The visitors delivered an early blow with Mo Farah winning on board 3 after accepting an early pawn gambit, and then adding another and playing solidly to convert to a comfortable win. Tom Smith on board 2 levelled matters for us, and George Jelliss agreed a draw on board 4 to leave the match in the balance. On board 1 for us, George Bulbeck seems to thrive when his clock is near to the virtual flag and enjoying the sense of drama found his way to overcome what appeared to be a difficult defensive position and edge his way to victory for both himself and the team, securing a narrow 2.5-1.5 win. George boasts a 5/5 record for the F team and is now unbeaten in 15 games since his last reverse on 5th October. This result takes the F team to the dizzy heights of 2nd in the table – far ahead of our wildest dreams for a team that’s main function is to provide opportunities and so far has used 16 different members !

Turning now to the Club Championship, there was a shock in Div 1 as Julian Hawthorne beat the defending club champion and number 2 seed, to take his score to a perfect 4/4 in pursuit of the trophy. Jules is now just one point behind the joint leaders with 3 or 4 games in hand, and has the destiny of the event in his own hands. Meanwhile Karl Lockett consolidated his 3rd position with a win to move onto 4.5/8.

In division 2 of the Club Championship, Andrew Crosby put a dent in Doug Barnett’s title aspirations with a win that takes Andrew into the joint lead on 5pts. However Andrew has now played 10 games, compared to Doug’s 8, while favourite George Bulbeck has played 6 of the maximum 12 possible.

On top of all this drama, there was plenty of social and friendly chess taking place as another couple of newbies arrived and seemed to enjoy the club atmosphere, as a hand full of members moved down to the bar to discuss games so not to disturb the matches in progress.

Next week sees a full schedule with five (A to E) of our league teams all playing and in possible contention for league trophies, although all must be underdogs with other teams in the driving seat in all three divisions. As Alex Ferguson was fond of saying, it’s getting close to “squeaky bum time” !

Wed 8th March: The NSDCA’s top two teams (from Crewe) hosted the division one’s bottom two teams, as leaders Crewe A played Alsager and Crewe B faced Macclesfield. The playing room was packed yet again with over 40 players involved in a mix of league matches, club championship and friendly games, not to mention several parents and a visiting (non-playing) captain.

Crewe “A” went into the match as slight favourites, but Alsager were not fazed by the challenge ahead. With Jonathan Blackburn rated nearly 2300 and having the white pieces, it was expected he would ensure Alsager a full point on top board and he did not disappoint. This effectively meant our “A” team needed to collect 2.5pts from the remaining 3 boards to extend their lead at the top of the league table. Our A team’s record is built on strength in depth as there is little difference between all four players in terms of ratings. As usual our big-hitters Harry Gardiner and Karl Lockett provided the wins, but we did not get anything from the board 2 game as John Booth won for the visitors to leave the match drawn at 2-2.

Meanwhile Crewe B have been performing above expectations as the lowest rated team in division one by some way. Starting the match in second place just one point behind our brothers, the Bees were dealt a cruel blow as top board Simon Layhe succummed to a cold/flu leading to a last minute change of line up. On board 4 Jarek Czyz was playing only his 2nd match of the season and after gaining an early pawn held onto the advantage ultimately queening a pawn and putting us in the lead. Visitors Macclesfield have recovered after a shaky start and are currently the form team in the division, and took the lead following wins on board 3 by Phil Cattermole, and on board 1 for John Ewens who got the better of a Ruy-Lopez to strangle the life out of David Hulme’s position. On board 2, Rick Renegade produced the necessary magic to pressurise his opponent into a mistake late on, with a match-saving knight fork of King & Queen as the score levelled out to 2-2 with all games being won by the white pieces.

These results still leave Crewe “A” at the top of the table with 11 pts from 9 matches, and Crewe “B” in second place with 10 pts. However the chasing pack will all believe they can win the title now, as Cheddleton “A” have 9 pts from 8 matches, Fenton “A” have 8 from 7 and Holmes Chapel have 8 from 8. With all contenders likely to drop points from here, any one of these five teams could easily win the league trophy.

In club news, we continue to grow as our membership increased to 52, with many of our recent additions being much younger than the average player. Alongside the two league matches, there was one game played in the Division 1 Club Championship, with Carmel Barwick continuing her excellent run with her 13th win from 14 games since October, and maintaining her 100% record in the Club championship as she joined Julian Hawthorne on 3/3 in pursuit of joint leaders Harry Gardiner and Martin Burns (each on 5/7).

In division 2 of the Club championship, there were wins for Tom Smith and Doug Barnett, with draws between Andrew Crosby and Jakub Grabowski as well as James Marshall and George Jelliss. Doug’s win takes him into the joint lead with 5/7, while George Bulbeck has 5/6. James is the nearest contender with 4/6 while Andrew has the same score having played 3 more games than James.

The matches scheduled for D & E teams at Cheddleton tomorrow (Friday 10th) have been postponed due to the weather.

Next week we have two more matches at home, with our U1825 cup team in action against Alsager and our F team playing Kidsgrove.

Wed 1st March: The club reached a milestone of achieving its’ 50th current member at the Annual Swiss Rapidplay rounds 5 & 6, as four players were added to the competition and all under age 21 – boding well for the future.

Club chairman Dave Price was extremely proud as he encouraged the latest newcomers to join in the Rapidplay, as Events officer (David Hulme) tussled with the complications of adding the new players while dealing with a late bye request and a last minute non-appearance of one of the members. The Rapidplay now has 44 competitiors, even with a number of others who are unable to commit to the event or simply prefer to avoid Rapidplay.

As usual it was a chaotic start to the night, waiting for all players to arrive before play could commence, and then having to revise some pairings. As everyone sat down for Round 5, we had a new record attendance of 38 members, as our stock of chess clocks was pushed to the limit, with the playing room full of the buzz of excited anticipation in a set up superbly provided by our committed young steward Harry Gardiner. (I don’t think many appreciate what a job Harry does in setting up the club each week ready for everyone to come along and simply start playing with tables, chairs, boards, sets and clocks all in position).

As we commenced round 5 a few minutes later than planned, we had one player on 4/4 – first team captain and 2nd seed Martin Burns, with a one point lead over a gaggle of 6 players including No.1 seed Bart Fajfer, defending champion Jarek Czyz seeded 4th, Doug Barnett, Karl Lockett, Rick (the grenade) Renegade and Carmel Barwick. From this batch of players half were succesful in round 5 with wins for Martin, Jarek, Carmel and Rick, meaning Martin was now 5/5 with these three a single point behind. A further four players moved onto 3.5 pts being Dave Price, Harry, David Lambton and Adam Fields seeded at No. 32 punching well above his weight. Of the newcomers there were wins for Kruspin Kapusta and Antrea Bileros, with all of the newcomers given four half-point byes to join in the competition on the mid-score.

Round 6 saw the defending champion Jarek paired with leader Martin, and he stopped the leader in his tracks finding a mating attack after Martin missed a chance to secure a draw, and throw the competition wide open to share the lead on 5pts. Also moving into the joint lead is Carmel Barwick who managed to detonate Rick (the grenade) safely to also move onto 5 pts. David Lambton and Harry Gardiner hauled themselves into joint second place as they both finished the night on 4.5pts after back to back wins. We have five players still in contention for the trophy on 4pts – these are the previously mentioned Bart, Karl, Doug and Rick now joined by our outstanding 10 year old – Oskar Jarzynski – seeded at No 31.

With all 44 players on the scoreboard, it is hoped the final night will be another resounding success for the club, when it can be arranged. This is likely to be in May before we have a Wednesday night free of matches.

Finally I would like to say thank you to all of our members for participating in this event in such a sporting and friendly manner, as we apply some of our own club rules; and also to Marek Jarzynski for keeping track of all the scores to allow me to play and for taking pictures of the event. (to be added shortly)

Full scores can be seen using the link below

Internal Comps

Written by David Hulme – Events officer

Monday 27th Feb: Crewe travelled to Fenton to play in the semi-final of the Open knockout, for the right to play Alsager in the final.

The match was contested over 6 boards, with Crewe having an approx 300 pts advanatge in total ratings, which in reality is a very small difference of about 7 pts per board based on the old 3 digit system, mainly due to the absence of Fenton’s 2nd highest rated player – so all things considered – a pretty even contest.

Fenton struck the first blow against the grain, with a win on board 5 from their acting captain Ray Hyde in the absence of the ubiquitous Steve Emmerton. In John Motson commentary it was 1-0 to the home team. Fortunately it did not take too long to hit the equaliser as Karl Lockett proved too strong on board 6 enjoying the biggest rating advantage of 230 pts. Visiting captain Martin Burns deployed on board 4 found a sweet skewer to emerge victorious and put Crewe 2-1 in the lead. Then around 9pm a little pandemonium broke out as Fenton’s Petru Floresc (on board 2) had his mobile phone loudly ringing out of his pocket. When he eventually located the phone a discussion took place between captains to agree that a warning was the rule in place, but before returning to the board his phone was set off for a second occasion meaning automatic loss under the rules. However Simon Layhe did not want to claim a default and sportingly agreed with all parties that the game could continue, adding to the tension of a close match.

As the match moved towards 10pm, Crewe had gained the upper hands on boards 2 and 3, while Fenton appeared to be in better shape on the top board. Simon by this time was two pawns ahead but faced with very active opposition pieces, found his way to sac one exchange before swapping all the remaining pieces to leave himself with an unstoppable choice of pass-pawn (either a or g), while his King arrived just in time to stop Petru’s central connected pass-pawns and give Crewe a 3-1 lead.

As we moved past 10pm, Lee Farrington had gained massive control with a Bishop on h6, with Queen and Rook controlling the open e-file, while Fenton’s castled King (on the kingside) was looking very vulnerable to mating attacks on g7 and e8. There was no counter play available as Lee assumed dominance and forced resignation to make it 4-1. The writer was now thinking about the late John Motson and his commentary of Germany 1 England 5, and thinking “this is getting better and better and better” and so it transpired with Bart Fajfer turning the tables on board 1 to make it an unexpected and resounding 5-1 to the visitors, just like England all those years ago coming back from 1-0 down !!

Crewe have been drawn at home in the final against Alsager, and will play in their first ever Open KO final. The winners will be breaking the domination of Cheddleton and Stafford who have held the trophy between them over the last decade !

It’s been a very busy week for Crewe Chess Club with 5 teams in action playing on four different nights.

Mon 20th Feb: Our A team travelled to Macclesfield in high spirts, sitting at the top of the League Table to face a home team who had not won a match in 7 attempts and occupied bottom spot in the table. Well the tables were well and truly turned as Macclesfield upset the form books with a stunning win, as the league leaders left almost empty handed, only spared a whitewash by Harry Gardiner’s draw on board 2. The smiles could be felt coming from all the challengers as Fenton and Cheddleton had title aspirations put back in their own hands.

Wed 22nd Feb: Two matches at The Mals as Crewe C hosted Cheddleton B in division 2 and our U1375 played in the semi-final of the Perry Cup against Fenton. Looking first at the Div 2 match, the visitors got off to a flying start as their captain Caroline Mountford had early success on board 3. Fortunately the rest of the C team were all on form as David Lambton (board 1), Neville Layhe (board 4) and Carmel Barwick completed the fight back with a 3-1 win, with Carmel currently in a hot streak of form with 10 wins and a draw since her last loss over 4 months ago (at the Crewe Congress). The C team remain on the tails of league leaders Newcastle.

The Perry Cup had a strange feeling to it, as Fenton only arrived with 3 players with a default on board 2 which would cost them dearly. The visitors won on boards 3 and 4 to take a 2-1 lead, but George Jelliss on board 1 ensured Crewe got to the final as he held his nerve to avoid any tricks and traps and gain the crucial win that levelled the score at 2-2. Thanks to the tie break rule of “board count” Crewe progress to the final, but had Fenton chosen to default on board 4, the same results would have seen Fenton go through to the final on “bottom board elimination” as the board count tie-break would have been equal.

Besides these two matches, there was a full program of Club Championship games in Division 2 as 10 of our members slogged it out, and another 4 members played in Div 1.

In division 2, George Bulbeck went to the top of the chart after winning the clash between the top two players, while Doug Barnett, Andrew Crosby and Oskar Jarzynski added a full point to their tally, and Mike Keenan drew with Jakub Grabowski. It is noted that George B is now unbeaten in 14 games since the Crewe Congress.

In div 1, Karl Lockett put a dent in defending champion Harry Gardiner’s record with a win that leaves Harry on an identical score to Martin Burns with 5/7, as both players have 3 games remaining. In the only other game Richard Fish overcame chairman Dave Price to move onto 1.5 pts and leave Dave routed in the relegation slot with just half a point so far – although both still have 6 games to play.

Thurs 23rd Feb: The B team went to Holmes Chapel in similar spirit to the “A” team, sitting in 2nd place in the league table. However it was evident on arrival that the Bees would be in for a tough time as Holmes Chapel fielded their strongest team of the season with all 3 of their top players involved for the first time. It was no surprise when all top 3 boards went their way, with only Carmel on the scorecard for the battered Bees with another comfortable win to extend her current run.

Fri 24th Feb: The E team travelled to Chedd on Friday evening for a division 3 match against their C team. Wins from Andrew Crosby (board 2) and Phil Grocott (board 4) were enough to get a share of the spoils. This draw leaves the E team in 2nd spot in the table, 2 pts behind Alsager B.

Looking ahead to next week, on Monday our Open Cup KO team travel to highly rated Fenton, and on Wednesday we have Rounds 5 and 6 of our Swiss Rapidplay Event.

Matthew Dean has been taking part in this prestigious event which started on 15th Feb and concludes today. Seeded at No. 121, he clearly likes a challenge as the field hosted 9 GMs and 6 IMs in the nine round Swiss. As the lowest rated player in the event he has done extremely well to pick up two wins.

Matthew is so quiet at the club, we did not know he was there until Martin Burns was looking through this weekend’s congress action and spotted Matthew’s name among the stunning field of the chess stars.

Use the links below to follow

Matthew Dean

Game 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9

Monday 13th Feb: The F team travelled to Meir for a division 3 match, played over 5 boards. Thanks to Steve Ballantyne for providing an insight into this match where he reported that Pawel Stanny was first to finish on board 4, after winning a minor piece early, he held on to convert us in to a 1-0 lead. Steve with the white pieces on board 3 employed his favourite London System and had a strong attack that was too much for his opponent to add to our lead. Meir’s wily fox Bob Perry pulled one back on board 5, to leave the Bulbecks in play on the top two boards. George playing board 1 was under familiar time pressure and down to seconds on his clock in a complicated gamed where he had a Queen vs 2 Rooks, but was able to utilise his Q more effectively to win the game and secure the match points. Meanwhile dad Julian had surrendered two bishops to gain an unstoppable attack and finish the match with a flourish for the Fs, with a final score of 4-1.

Wed 15th Feb: The E team hosted Fenton C in another division 3 match with teams’ total ratings within a negligible 67 pts difference. James Marshall led the team from top board and continued his fine form with a well controlled win against a rapidly improving youngster from Fenton. Kobus Nienaber fresh from a tough congress at Blackpool was pushed up the batting order to board 2 and had another fine win. The E team had the luxury of Doug Barnett’s experience on board 3 and there was no shock as Doug made it 3 wins from the top 3 boards. Fenton’s board 4 Philip Smith had recently won the Stockport Rapidplay, so is clearly quite a handful for anyone on bottom board, as he picked up the visitor’s solitary point.

These results leave the E & F teams still 3 pts adrift and in pursuit of league leaders and red hot favourite’s Alsager B for the league division 3 title.

Also on Wednesday our D team had the stiffest of challenges as Stafford came to The Mals with a team rated over 6900 points, giving them an advantage of 650 points over the four boards in this division 2 match. However the D team just love being the underdogs and with captain Nigel Gardner using his knowledge to split his team within the 100 points limits, gave three of his team fighting chances at the expense of our board 2 who bore 50% of the team rating differential. Martin Frisher enjoying one of his occasional match appearances held on for a solid draw on board 1 with the black pieces. Likewise the rapidly improving George Bulbeck gained a further draw (with black on board 3) against a player rated nearly 200 points higher. Thus it was all down to captain Nigel to go “all guns blazing” for a win and salvage an unexpected draw for the Defiant & Dogged Dees, and he didn’t disappoint. This result leaves the D team on 6pts from 6 matches, sitting in 3rd position in the league table, behind leaders Newcastle on 10pts and our own C team on 7pts.

This weekend has seen an evacuation from Crewe, with many of our members making the 80 mile trek to the Seaside, to play in the annual Blackpool Conference. There were well over 300 players involved in the five sections.

We had two entries in the Open section, with Bart Fajfer seeded 32 and Dave Lambton at No 36 out of 44. After a brilliant start from Bart with two wins, he failed to add to his tally, but still ended up with a performance rating (PR) of just under 2100, a long way above his current rating, having played two of the top four players in the Congress. Dave didn’t do so well but was brave to enter the Open section.

In the Major section (U2050) our only entry was Simon Layhe seeded 38th out of 60. After a 1st round win, he added one more to end up in 32nd place with a performance rating matching his current level.

In the Intermediate Section (U1850) we had another single player with Lukasz Michalek testing himself in a higher section than his rating permitted, and was therefore seeded 64th out of 70. After sucess in the 1st round, he added two draws to his score to finish in a very creditable 44th position and a PR over 1700 which is in excess of his current 1630.

We had 3 members in the Minor Section (U1700), with Julian Hawthorne seeded 9th, Dave Price at No 14, and Kobus Nienaber playing in this section at No. 88 testing himself against stronger players. Julian was our best scorer here with 3pts to finish 19th, while Dave’s 2.5pts saw him in 35th with 20 players having scored 3. Kobus did very well to pick up two draws from just 3 games to get a PR of 1486, approx 80 above his entry point.

In the Standard section (U1550) we had 3 more playing, with Andrew Crosby seeded 22nd, Chris Marais 57th and George Jellis 58th out of a field of 89 – the largest section. Chris and George stuck together to finish 72nd and 73rd respectively with a score of 1.5 pts. However our highest scoring player of the weekend was Andrew with a super effort to finish on 4pts, and narrowly miss out on prize money in a shared 5th position, with the outright winner scoring the perfect 5 and three others with 4.5 pts.