Author: David Hulme

A great effort from our D team ended in disappointment last night as we were beaten 1.5-2.5 by Meir C, who clinched the Division 5 title with this result. A win for Martin Gill on top board, and another superb result for junior Amy Lovatt with a draw was not enough to stop Meir. With one more match to play this season the D team (currently 4th) could finish 3rd in the division which would be a creditable end to the team’s second season in the NSDCA.

The D team went to Cheddleton last night to face the host’s I team in a division 5 encounter. The team was well below the opposition’s grade total but pulled out all the stops to come home with a 3-1 win. A top board win for Martin Gill was levelled out by a reverse on board 2. The match was won thanks to outstanding results from our two gardners (Nigel and Harry, who has a little “i” in the middle of his surname) who both managed wins against higher grade players.

This result takes the D team to 4th in the table with 14 pts from 12 matches. Fenton C have already finished their fixtures with 18 pts, while 2nd place Meir C have 17 pts from 13 matches.

The D team face Meir C on Monday and must win again to keep title hopes alive. A loss would mean Meir are champions and a draw would leave Meir and Fenton as joint champions.

Tonight saw the C team relinquish their fading hopes of winning the Division 4 title. After two recent defeats nothing less than a 4-0 win would end their outside chance. Visitors Alsager B provided stiff opposition as the match ended up in a 2-2 draw.  Simon Layhe returned to winning ways on bd 4, with Doug Barnett and Dave Price getting draws on boards 1 & 2 respectively. The C team have just one match left but trail leaders Cheddleton E by 3 pts.

The A team went to the top of the NSDCA Division 2 for the first time in the club’s short history following a win at Newcastle B tonight. First over the winning line was Chris Rhodes on board 5, with a draw soon following for David Hulme on bd 1. Success was assured as Neville Layhe forced home his advantage on board 4 just as Ola Titiloye did likewise on bd 3 to wrap up a good team performance.

The A team face Cheddleton B next month in what is likely to be the title decider with Chedd B currently two points behind us. They have a game in hand against Newcastle C which will be pivotal in determining which team will be leading the table before the decider.

The B team came home with tails between their legs on Monday night, where a whitewash was just avoided against Meir’s A team. A draw on bd 1 by Karl Lockett was all we had to show for our efforts. Even Simon Layhe’s 100% record came to an end as he suffered his first loss of the season. This leaves the B team in 6th place with a 50% record of 12 pts from 12 matches in Division 3 of the NSDCA.

Last night saw our D team play Cheddleton G, alongside the E team against Chedd H. The D team emerged with a 3.5-0.5 win as Chris Rhodes, Les Hall and Dylan Sayers all got a full point to add to Martin Gill’s draw. The win takes the D team up to 4th in the Division 5 table and the outside possibility of a late title challenge.

In the other match the E team put up a great fight against Chedd H but lost 1.5-2.5. There was a first win for newcomer Amy Lovatt on board 3, and a great individual effort from Richard Hind to get a draw against an opponent 79 grading points higher, which I can only assume is Richard’s best ever result !

In other news the club had one of its most successful nights with over 20 members attending including several juniors in coaching sessions and others playing in the club’s winter tournament where Karl Lockett beat David Hulme and Steve Ballantyne had a win.

Tuesday night saw our team travel up to Chester to take on the host’s C team for a 1st division relegation encounter. Chester C were one of three teams just 1/2 point ahead of us at the foot of the table. Early signs were positive as Olawale Titiloye smashed through an opponents weak castled King-side to give us an early lead and at this stage all Crewe players were in the ascendancy. The tide slowly turned as Chester’s higher grades started to shine through and one by one put our team to the sword to runaway with a 4-1 win. We have one match remaining against Hoylake 1 who confirmed their league winning status on Wednesday night after a draw with previous champions Penyffordd. We need a win to have any possibility of avoiding the drop and even that may not be enough as Wallasey 1 and Chester D still have games to play.

The C team suffered their worst defeat of the season last night playing against Fenton B. Going into the match the NSDCA Division 4 title was within their control, but following the big loss of 0.5 -3.5 now need a miracle to share top spot as leaders Cheddleton E have completed their season with 18 match pts and 33 game points, meaning the C team need to win both of their remaining matches by score of 4-0 as we trail Chedd E by 4 match pts and 8 game pts. To make it that much harder The C team face 3rd place Chedd F in their final match who will overtake our team if they get any pts from their game in hand. The only saving grace from last night was the whitewash was avoided when Dave Price salvaged a draw on board 2. Their next match is against Alsager B on 5th April.

The club had 4 players at this weekend’s Newcastle Mini Congress with Karl Lockett scoring 4 pts to win the U 160 section. Congratulations to Karl.

In the U130 section we had Dave Price and Doug Barnett, where Dave finished 3rd with 2.5 pts and details of Doug’s exploits are not yet known.

In the U100 section Les Hall finished 2nd with 3 pts.

Full details of the Congress will be published on Newcastle’s website in due course as well as the League’s NSDCA website.

Last night the C team hosted Cheddleton F in a NSDCA Division 4 match with both teams in pursuit of the title. Before the match the C team were 2 points behind leaders Cheddleton E with 3 games in hand and Cheddleton F trailed our C team by 2 points. Captain Dave Price on board 2 escaped with a draw when under pressure from Sandra Blackburn and top board Doug Barnett could not escape from an excellent mate set up by Roger Edwards after a piece sacrifice. Mike Williams lost on time when a pawn down against Caroline Mountford on board 3 and James Marshall fought on to win in a late finish on board 4.

Final Result Crewe C 1.5-2.5 Cheddleton F.

This result leaves both teams on 14 pts from 11 matches, behind Cheddleton E on 16pts from 13 matches. The champions should emerge from these 3 teams as we have to play Cheddleton F again in our last match of the season.