Author: dih1962

Three of our members headed off to play in the Lancaster Congress this weekend, with Simon Layhe pitting himself against the strongest players in the Open Section seeded 23rd out of 28, Carmel Barwick played in the U1900 seeded 20th out of 24, while Dave Price played in the Inter U1750 seeded 17th out of 26.

Simon and Dave finished much in line with their seeded positions, but Carmel excelled to end in a 5-way pile up for 2nd place on 3.5pts . She was the only player in this pack to have played the outright winner who scored a perfect 5/5, and so could have finished higher had the pairings been similar to the others in this pack. This rounds off a superb week for Carmel and should see her rating fly over the 1800 level, making her the greatest improver from our club over the last 12 months !

Fenton were the visitors last night in the crunch top of the table match in the South Cheshire Shield, against our unbeaten “A” team, where the winners were likely to become champions.

Unfortunately for us, it was not to be, and captain Steve Ballantyne’s brief report sums up the match – Crewe A lost last night to Fenton 1-3. We were 0-2 down and Pav was even on pieces but low on time and could not find a way to break through so a draw was agreed. With the match lost Jules agreed to a draw so everyone could travel home earlier.

In our Summer knockouts, Carmel Barwick beat the top seed Bart Fajfer to head into the quarter-finals where she faces the No 2 seed – Martin Burns.

In the U1600 knockout, Pete Kanalos won his first round game to progress to the last eight.

Tuesday night (25th July) saw Crewe’s mayor visit our club in it’s new premises at The St Mary’s Caritas Centre. This was to see how the club was developing after we had secured a grant from the Town Council. The grant has already been used to purchase over 20 Digital clocks, and we have orders in place for more new boards and sets as well as a new storage cupboard.

As he arrived at around 7pm, the club was buzzing with activity as approx 25 existing members were boosted by an influx of more than a dozen potential new members comprising mainly of juniors from the local community.

Shortly afterwards the Mayor awarded the Club’s Player of the Year trophy to Carmel Barwick after a stunning season as she claimed the Club championship and the Swiss Rapidplay competitions.

The visit was expected to last no more than 30 minutes, but he was so impressed with way the club embraced the local community he stayed for about one and a half hours and even expressed a hope to pop in on another club night.

Carmel being presented player of the year trophy

Crewe Chairman Dave Price thanking the Mayor for his support towards the grant application.

He was invited to play our 11 year-old star, Oskar Jarzynski and was delighted to accept the challenge as he recalled playing the game at a similar age, but could not hide his disappointment at coming off 2nd best.

Last week (18th July) the club held it’s AGM at The St Mary’s Caritas Centre.

The main items to note were

It had been a very successful year for the club with membership growing (from 41 to 59 members) to become the largest club in the NSDCA. We had won the NSDCA’s 1st division for the first time, as well as the Major and Minor Knockout.

After 9 years residence at The Mals Club, the growth of the club forced us to seek out larger premises resulting in our recent move to The Caritas Centre.

1. The committee was extended to recognise the significant growth of the club in the last 12 months, to comprise chair, secretary, treasurer, Events officer, Website officer and Club Steward – with some cabinet shuffleing taking place.
2. Annual subscriptions were increased following our recent move with Adult fees now being £30 p.a and juniors (under 18 years of age) at £20 p.a
3. Provisional plans were made to run 6 teams in the league for the 2023/24 season, with deadline of 31st August to submit details.
4. Trophies were awarded to: Lukasz Michalek for the Les Hall Memorial Trophy/Time & Point Handicap, Division 3 champion Phil Grocott, Div 2 champion Pawel Stanny and Junior player of the year Oskar Jarzynski. Other trophy winners were unable to attend (Simon Layhe and Carmel Barwick)

This is just a reminder to all members that we will be holding our AGM this Tuesday, starting at 7.30pm.

It’s your chance to have a say in how we run the club, and to see the numerous Tropies awarded to the winners (over the last 12 months).

Everyone should have received an Agenda and Reports pack, but if any member has not got them please contact the secretary or any other committee member.

We would like as many as possible to attend, and expect to have a bit of fun with some chess games as soon as the meeting is over.

Last night (13th July) saw the 2nd episode of the WC Trophy – the comically named challenge between Wallasey and Crewe. The first match took place in August 2022 over 8 boards, but last night involved far more players as Crewe hired a mini-bus and driver to take the team to Wallasey. Thanks to the organisers Alan Kelly (Wallasey) and Dave Price (Crewe) the match was played over 14 boards, with teams evenly matched. After Wallasey had raced into an early 3-0 lead it looked they would gain revenge, but from this position Crewe overhauled the hosts with a dominant performance with 7 wins and 3 draws from the top 10 boards, and ultimately were runaway winners by 9.5-4.5.

As a beaming Dave Price was awarded the Cup on Crewe’s behalf, he generously donated a consolation prize to the runners-up from Wallasey ….. half a toilet roll …

And then Alan Kelly threw down the gauntlet for the 2024 challenge to take place in Crewe, aiming to increase the teams to 20 boards per side.

Thanks to Alan and the hosting team at Wallasey who also provided a very pleasant buffet, which kept the travelling army from Crewe well satisfied as they returned home in the early hours.

The full result can be seen from the LMS link, with pictures below

https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node

Crewe win the Trophy and Wallasey Win the Toilet Roll

Use link below to read Wallasey’s report https://www.wallaseychessclub.uk/news/49

Thanks to Steve Ballantyne for the brief report on last night’s South Cheshire Shield match

A very hard fought win for Crewe “A” last night.  After going one nil down things were not looking good on boards 3 and 4, both of the young lads were playing very well. Phil lost a central pawn early on and was under pressure, eventually he won the pawn back and got his Rook onto the 7th row which caused problems for his opponent. Much later his opponent resigned and Phil maintained his 100% record. Next to finish was Pav, after a shaky start his pressure proved too much and we were 1-2 to the good. Jules immediately offered his opponent the draw which was accepted, giving Crewe A the win.

I just thought i would give Nev a mention. Nev is well known in the club for his Stonewall but his defensive play as black and his pawn positioning is superb. The new members and other members of the club could learn a lot from Nev, me included.

Cheers, Steve.

The Open Knockout has 21 entries, so there are 5 games in round 1 to be played by 4th July. The 2nd Round has been drawn with games to be played by 25th July.

In the U1600 knockout, there were 17 entries but 1 player has had to withdraw. Therefore there will be two revised pairings in round 2 to accommodate the amended number of entries to 16, which will be drawn at the club tonight (20th June).

The draws are shown on the LMS (Fixtures + Results Tab) – see 2023 Summer Season of our Internal Comps.

There were three games played last night in the Div 2 club championship. All three games were won by the underdogs as firstly George Jelliss secured his div 2 status with a win, to finish the tournament in mid-table on 4/10. Then Mike Keenan played a superb game, with a brilliant finish that forced a mate with Rook and Knight after a Queen sacrifice. Mike has finished with 3/10, that leaves him joint 10th avoiding relegation to division 3.

The Match of the Day cameras were focused on title chasing Pawel Stanny. In a complicated position and short on time, he declined a draw offer with a Queen and Bishop and some pawns facing a Rook, Bishop, Knight and some pawns where the opposition pieces seemed to be holding. In the knowledge that a draw would only allow him to possibly share the title, his Queen ran rampant picking up a minor piece and a couple of pawns before shepherding one of his own pawns to an unstoppable position on the 7th rank to gain an unlikely win.

So the Div 2 title boils down to the last game between Pawel and Kobus Nienaber, with George Bulbeck sitting on the top of the table with 7pts. If Pawel can draw, the title will be shared, and a win gives Pawel the trophy outright. Will Kobus be able to stop him next Tuesday in the decider ?

Here is captain Steve Ballantyne’s summary of last night’s match vs Alsager in the South Cheshire Shield – our first ever match at our new venue.

A good team performance last night from Crewe A.   First to finish was Phil, he gained a Knight early on and won quite easily in the end. Next to finish was Jules who played a solid game and was 2 pawns up in an end game which proved too strong for his opponent. Oskar took us over the line with a draw. In an end game with 4 pawns and a Rook against 4 Pawns a Rook and a Bishop he played his Pawns so strong forcing his opponent to offer a draw. Well done Oskar. With the match already won Andrew and Neville agreed a draw. To be honest if we had needed the win i think Andrew would have won, he had a Bishop and a Knight against a Rook. Well done Crewe A for a strong performance all round. 

A big thank you to Nigel for once again being the perfect host. He even supplied the Teams with water.

All Crewe’s results in the SCS can be seen from our “fixtures + tables” tab on our website.