Author: David Hulme

Another fantastic night at The Mals Club on Wednesday (24th) saw a club record attendance with 32 of our own members joined by 8 visitors from Wallasey. Thanks to Alan Kelly for arranging to bring a team of 8 to take part in the inaugural Wallasey-Crewe Challenge for the “WC Trophy”. The two teams were evenly matched with less than 60 rating points between the sides. As Wallasey were delayed by local road works and diversions the time control was reduced from the normal 75 mins down to 60 mins plus increments. 10 year old Oskar Jarzynski was in a rush, and had a superb early win against an experienced Wallasey congresser. After the first score, it was tit for tat, as George Jellis and Lukasz Micahlek chalked up wins for the hosts, while Adam Miller and Rick Purcell did the same for the visitors. The remaining games all shared the points to conclude the match with a narrow 4.5-3.5 success for Crewe.

Alongside the main event, there were the other two quarter-finals played in our Summer knock-out. Dave Lambton managed to gain end game superiority over Jules Hawthorne, and Simon Layhe put an end to Rick Renegade’s run, after Rick had beaten the number one seed in the previous round. So the semi-final line up is Karl Lockett vs Harry Gardiner and David Lambton vs Simon Layhe. One graded game saw Matthew Dean beat Vicky Kelsall playing her first ever “long-play” graded game.

The night was a great success for the club, and was made more enjoyable thanks to the sportsmanship of our friends from Wallasey, and the provision of a special buffet to mark this event (WC Challenge).

Just a reminder to all our members that Wednesday 31st is our AGM, where the highlight should be the Trophies Presentation section (see News item 3rd August).

A surprisingly good turnout saw 25 members at the Mals on Wednesday (17th). While most were playing social games, Jakub Grabowski was keen to get some serious match time and won one of our rare graded summer games. Meanwhile the first two knockout quarter-finals were played with both favourites gaining success. Harry Gardiner escaped from a losing position having initially been outplayed by underdog James Marshall, before James overlooked the loss of a piece. In the other QF Karl Lockett always held the upper hand over secretary David Hulme, with superior early development holding control over the game. These two winners play each other in one of the semi-finals, while the other QFs should be played next week.

Next Wednesday sees our club hosting an 8 board challenge against Wallasey from the Wirral and Merseyside Leagues. Thanks to Alan Kelly (Wallasey cc) for initiating this challenge as a result of friendships fostered at many congresses with our club colleagues, notably chairman Dave.

Looking ahead we hold our AGM on 31st August, and September will see the conclusion of our Summer knockout, the 8th Annual time and point handicap, a pre-season challenge with Newcastle, and the start of our internal winter long-play competitions. The NSDCA league commences on 3rd October, where we have two teams in each of the three divisions.

This is to let all members know we will be holding our Annual General Meeting on the above date, 7.30pm at The Mals.

All members are welcome to attend.

Details will be circulated by the secretary in due course, and the trophies below will be presented.

With our teams having completed their Summer League fixtures, attention has turned back to our inaugural knock-out competition.

The last remaining game from the 1st round was completed with Dave Lambton moving in to the 2nd Round (of 16). There were several games played in Round 2, where Karl Lockett, James Marshall and David Hulme all progressed to the quarter-finals.  There are two more games to be played in this Round of 16, which are scheduled for next Wednesday, with the plan to carry out the quarter-final draw as soon as the last 8 is known.

The atmosphere in the club on Wednesday was a joy to behold, with some vibrant and cracklin scenes. With a newcomer cycling all the way from Market Drayton to see what we could offer, he left the club well after 10.30 having been entertained by all of our top players mixing in, and expressing how he was made to feel most welcome. Despite being in the traditional quiet part of the year for club chess, we still managed to have 27 in attendance as our membership numbers increased to 44.

Another fantastic night at The Mals on Wednesday, saw our two Summer league teams in action as over 30 members attended together with another 8 visiting players from Fenton and Stafford.

The “A” team have been captained by Harry Gardiner who has led from the front and selected a team based on youth. Wednesday’s match against Fenton saw the opposition field a team with very little league experience as they took the opportunity to get newcomers used to league chess. The result was much as expected with our team running out 3-1 winners. Harry completed the campaign with a perfect 4/4 and has been on a tremendous run of form collecting 13 points from his last 15 games since 1st March. The “A” team finish the SCS with 6 pts from 5 matches, currently in 2nd place.

The “B” team have been captained by another of our younger members – Dave Lambton, who like Harry has had 100% success in the competition, also missed one of the matches to score 4/4. This final match against Stafford was expected to be closely fought and so it turned out. Mike Keenan got an early win for Crewe before the match was levelled by Stafford’s David Barker. Captain Dave had a very fortunate win in a cast-iron drawn endgame, opposite colour Bishops with R & P, before David Hulme added the final point for a 3-1 win. The team is currently top of the league with 7pts, and has to wait for Alsager (on 4pts) to play their two postponed games before knowing who will be 2022 champions.

With so many new members at the club, the match room only had 18 or 20 in there, with all of the other members moving to the lounge where they could continue to chat while receiving coaching led by Dave Price and other experienced members.

A surprisingly busy week saw nearly 30 members attending the club on Wednesday at a time when many clubs are closed for a summer break. It is testament to the club’s success that we have had 10 new visitors to the club over the last 3 weeks and we hope to see you (and many others) again soon.

Our Summer knock-out has had its first major shock as No 1 seed Martin Burns has been beaten by No 5 seed Rick Renegade in Round 2. Martin has had the toughest draw with a 1st round clash that went to an Armageddon play-off against Neville Layhe before proceeding to Round 2 where he was held to a draw before falling to Rick’s Blitz prowess in another play-off. New favourite Harry Gardiner took the scalp of chairman Dave Price in Round 1 to move to the last 16.

We still have two outstanding games from Round 1, while Rick is joined by Julian Hawthorne and Simon Layhe in the quarter-finals with a further five 2nd round games to be completed.

The week ahead will be our final games in the Summer League – The South Cheshire Shield. So far we have used 17 players and hope to allow one or two more to play in the final round of matches this week.

The North Staffs League had a preliminary meeting on 11th July, and will be proposing all teams are 4 boards for the new season starting in October. The number of teams in the league will be known after the league’s AGM on 8th August, but we are hoping to run at least 6 teams, with a couple of teams in each of the three divisions suggested. It is hoped there will be a further division to encourage new players and lower graded players to compete against each other.

Our own club AGM will be held on the last Wednesday in August (as the last two years) on 31st August. The agenda and reports will be sent by email in due course.

It’s been a busy 7 days for the club, starting with a promotional display at Nantwich’s town centre last Saturday with several new potential members attending the Mals on Wednesday 6th July.

Tuesday night saw us involved in a Triangular Rapidplay match with Wallasey and Chester, taking part at the Town Crier Hotel in Chester. There were 8 boards per team, with each player having one game against each of the other teams and having one game with white and black. It could not have been closer at the end of the 1st round as all three clubs had scored 4 out of 8. However our Rapidplay experience was probably the deciding factor as we managed to dominate the 2nd round scoring 7 pts out of 8, and emerge as the clear winners with a score of 11/16, with Chester scoring 7pts and Wallasey 6pts. Below is a link to the score for the 3 matches involved.

Match results

Wednesday night saw our two teams go head to head in the Summer League – the South Cheshire Shield (SCS). Both captains generously dropped themselves to allow others to play, and the match ended in a 2-2 draw with wins for Karl Lockett and Nigel Gardner for the “A” team, with Pawel Stanny and Matthew Dean being successful for the “B” team. The B team currently sit top of the SCS, but with only one game to go look likely to be overtaken by favourites Alsager who have a game in hand trailing by just one point.

 

 

Last week saw the club start it’s first ever Summer Knockout. 28 members including two more brand new ones decided to enter the competition. Full details of the 1st round draw are shown by following the Internal Competitions tab. The heavyweight contest  of the 1st round draw saw top seed Martin Burns drawn against another of our leading players – Neville Layhe. After a hard fought draw, the players agreed to wait 7 days before playing the Armageddon play-off, which should be played this week in front of a large audience. Three other 1st round games were completed with Doug Barnett, James Marshall and Kobus Nienaber all making it safely through to Round 2 (the last 16).

This week sees the 3rd round of fixtures in the South Cheshire Summer Shield as our B team make the short trip to table-topping Alsager on Tuesday, and the A team welcome Stafford to The Mals for the first time since the Covid outbreak in March 2020.

Both of the Shield teams have a 50% record so far, having won one and lost one each and have a further 3 matches remaining in the campaign.

Things quieten down during the summer months, although the club remains open. Many established clubs have summer breaks and get back together in September for the start of the “traditional” season.

So what is happening at Crewe during this summer.

1. We have two teams playing in the South Cheshire League.
2. The club is open every Wednesday, and members can play some friendly games or choose to have a more serious game (counting towards ECF Grading) if they wish – from a choice of long play or rapid play options.
3. We are starting a new event shortly – a Summer knockout which is open to all members and is run on an FA Cup style basis.
4. We look to see if other clubs wish to play some form of match and we have come up with a new venture – a Triangular Rapidplay Match – between Chester, Crewe and Wallasey to be played on 5th July at Chester.
5. We will be holding our Annual General Meeting (with its prize giving) after the South Cheshire League has finished.

For details on any of the above please contact our chairman – Dave Price, or Events officer – David Hulme.

Last week saw the end of the club’s internal winter competitions, where members were allocated to divisions 1,2 and 3 to compete in all-play-all sections. We had started back in September with 14 players in division 1, 10 players in division 2 and an unknown number in division 3 to accommodate new members as they arrived through the season.

Division 1, seen as the “club championship” was extremely competitive with players expected to play twice against everyone else in the section. It became obvious partway through the season it was too much to expect everyone to fulfill an obligation to play 28 games, especially with 5 teams playing in the North Staffs League. Accordingly numbers were reduced to 10 with those remaining facing a maximum of 18 games. The tournament was eventually won by Harry Gardiner with a superb score of 11.5/14 to become club champion. Harry was pushed all the way by Martin Burns, who finished as runner-up with 10/14. Neville Layhe steadily moved up the table to finish 3rd with 8.5/15. It was great to see the level of commitment as 8 players managed to play 11 or more games.

Division 2 did not have the same impact on those involved, and saw the level of competition fade dramatically after christmas. This is reflected in the final scores with Nigel Gardner winning the section on a score of 6/7 having not played a game since January, and Lee Tilton finishing 2nd with a score of 5/7 likewise being unable to play since January.

Division 3 saw some new faces join in the competition with a total of 9 members participating. The stand out performers here were Mike Keenan with 5/5 and Oskar Jarzynski 5/6 sharing the 1st prize.

Congratulations to all the winners:

Div 1- Harry Gardiner; Div 2 – Nigel Gardiner and Div 3’s joint winners – Mike Keenan and Oskar Jarzynski