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:
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
(Andy Raeburn looking confident before the start of play)
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
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
With the league season completed at the start of this month, recent attention has focused on the four divisions of the Club Championship competitions.
Harry Gardiner (aka the GM crusher) has wrapped up the title of Club Champion by winning division 1 for the 3rd time in 4 years. A brilliant score out of 10/11 to date means Harry remains unbeaten for two years in the top flight, and with one game left cannot be caught. Richard Lee has finished in 2nd place unbeaten with 9.5/12, while Andy Raeburn has finished 3rd with 8.5 pts.
Division 2 remains firecely contested with a 3 way fight to win the division and promotion to the top flight. Jamie Roberts has completed the schedule scoring 6.5/9, with Oskar Jarzynski currently in second place with 6/7 and two games to play, so has it in his control. George Bulbeck is third with 5.5/7 and has the same two games to play (vs Julian Bulbeck and Lukasz Michalek). As Lukasz has only played 3 games so far, he needs to play the two contenders otherwise will have his results cancelled which would mean Jamie faces the deduction of one point through no fault of his own.
Division 3 saw the title decided recently as Nathan Fourie clinched the trophy after wins against closest rival Keith Dudeney and Mike Keenan over the last two club nights. Mal Green is currently second with 6/9, but can still be caught. Just two games remain in this event as nearly everyone has already completed their fixtures.
Division 4 has seen Tommy Cooke win it like a runaway train scoring 11/12 so far with just one game to play. Gerald Parton and David Taylor sit joint second with 8 pts each, but David has one game to play while Gerald has played all 13 games.
This week (Tuesday 27th May) should be a very busy night at the club with 54 entries so far for the annual Swiss Rapidplay. If you have not yet entered please contact David Hulme before Tuesday as the Round 1 pairings are prepared in advance. Entry lists can be seen on the LMS – Open = 18 players, U1600 = 15; U1300 = 21.
Congratulations to Harry, Nathan and Tommy who are all now included on the Club’s Honours List (separate tab on Website) who will be awarded their trophies at the forthcoming AGM.
Harry Gardiner has recorded a win against GM Keith Arkell in Round 1 of the Rhyl Congress earlier this evening. Hopefully more details to follow shortly….
See the full transcript posted under the Games Database on our “Useful Links” tab.
See Martin Burns’s report on the Rhyl Congress above.
Rumour has it that GM Keith Arkell may be playing in our Annual “Les Hall Memorial Handicap” in September thanks to the exploits of Harry and chairman Price over the weekend at Rhyl.
The 2024/25 Club Championship is nearing completion with the cut-off date approaching. This was set for 31st May, but as some key games still need to be played this has been extended two weeks to Tuesday 10th June.
Division 1 has seen Harry Gardiner lead the pack from the outset, and he is on the verge of winning his 3rd club title in 4 years since the Covid pandemic. With a phenomenal unbeaten record of 9/10 he needs one point from his two remaining games to clinch the trophy. Harry won last year too without losing a single game and it is now over two years since anyone beat Harry in the club championship. Richard Lee is also unbeaten this year but has drawn 5 of his 11 games, so trails by half a point with just one game left to play. Andy Raeburn has put in a stellar performance to complete the campaign with 8.5/12 for a tourney rating of 2000. At the foot of the table Pawel Stanny has just scored one draw so far but with numerous games to play will be hoping to avoid the dreaded drop to Div 2.
Division 2 is headed by our younger members. 13 year old Jamie Roberts sits top of the table with 6.5 pts having played all 9 games, and is just ahead of 12 year old Oskar Jarzynski who is on 6/7 with two games to play. In 3rd place is George Bulbeck with 5.5/7 and has the same two opponents to play as Oskar, so it’s all to play for. The winner will be promoted to division 1. There is a real dog fight to avoid relegation with Doug Barnett and Kumar Saravanan just above the drop zone for now with 2 pts each, while we have 3 members on just one point each and all of these have games to play, while Doug has played all his games.
Division 3 is too close to call at top and bottom ! Mal Green is currently in the lead on 6pts but has completed all his games, with Mario Scarpa also completed on 5.5pts. The battle is between 17 year old Nathan Fourie and newcomer Keith Dudeney to potentially win the division and secure promotion with both players on 5/7 who have to play each other and Mike Keenan to complete the section. Mike is involved in a 3-way scrap at the foot of the table sitting on 2.5 pts with the two title chasers to play, while George Jelliss and Peter Kanalos both share the same score of 2.5 pts and have to play each other in their final game. So with just 4 games remaining everything is still up for grabs in div 3.
In division 4, 13 year old Tommy Cooke has blazed away to score 10/11 and is 3 points clear of the field and so cannot be caught. Tommy will be promoted and may even jump to division 2 if his rating justifies this choice at the start of next season. Gerald Parton and David Taylor have both performed well and are currently joint 2nd on 7pts each but only have a game or two left so cannot catch Tommy.
Overall the club championship divisions have proved a resounding success this season and while some members are no longer able to participate, there was a total of 50 members involved.
Looking ahead the annual Swiss Rapidplay is to start on 27th May with Rounds 1 and 2, followed by two more rounds each on June 17th and 24th. Please let David Hulme know if you wish to play in this event which has increased to 3 sections from 2 last year due to the increased membership.
Last night saw our E team travel to Stafford to play our final league match of the 2024/25 season. This is in division 2 which happens to be the only division where the club failed to win the league ! Facing a much higher rated Stafford squad, the team put up a gallant fight to lose narrowly 1.5-2.5 as Dave Price gained a valuable draw on board 1, and newcomer Kumar Saravanan was our sole winner. The E team have finished 4th in the table, just behind our D team, with Macclesfield and Stafford taking the top two places with the strongest teams.
Tuesday (29th) saw the last of the NSDCA Cup Finals as the Perry Cup (U1375) decider between our own two teams was played out. This was too close to call with ratings evenly matched, with the B team fractionally higher on current ratings and the “A” team similarly slightly higher on the earlier season eligibility ratings. First blood went to the Bees on board 2 as Tim Weston continued his fine season picking up an early major piece on his way to the win. Steve Knott levelled the scores with success on board 4 for the A team. Board 1 saw the much anticipated clash between two of our vastly improving juniors whose current ratings have flown well above the 1375 barrier and in a skilful encounter saw Nathan Fourie emerge with the win for the “A” team. Steve Ballantyne as the “A” team captain held all the aces in the board 3 clash gaining a piece out of the opening. With the match undecided at 2-1 Steve used his experience and offered Mike Keenan a draw in the knowledge this would secure his team the trophy and faced with practically no chance of winning Mike sensibly agreed giving Steve’s team the match.
Well done to Steve and the Perry “A” team who have notched up the club’s 7th trophy out of a possible 9 this season.
In contrast our Major Cup team (U1825) fell in the final against a very strong Stafford outfit on Friday 25th April. The match started badly with an early loss on board 3, but the optimist in me still thought we had a fair chance of victory. In an end game of opposite colour bishops I was forced to take the draw on board 4, and then a sudden mate was delivered against us on board 2 and with that the cup was lost. Meanwhile Julian Hawthorne notched up our only win on board 5, as Andy Raeburn played to the end and succumbed to a draw when he was left with a piece advantage but no pawn to assist. Final score 3-2 to Stafford who deserved to win. And a special mention to Ken McNulty and the hosting team from Stafford for providing such friendly and hospitable playing conditions. Congratulations to them on their Major Cup success, which prevented Crewe from a clean sweep of NSDCA Cups.
To conclude the season with 4 league titles and 3 Cups is quite an achievement for the club and underlines the strength in depth we have with 59 members having played their part and without defaulting a single board !
