Last night saw the B team narrowly beaten (1.5 vs 2.5) by Division 3 leaders Cheddleton C, to put an end to any realistic hope of retaining the title. With just 4 pts from 7 matches the team languish in 7th place with the wooden spoon much closer than the silverware. It was a bit unfortunate as the match could have been drawn if our Board 4 had accepted a draw offer shortly before losing on time, with a position that was unclear holding an exchange advantage for two extra pawns. On top board Karl Lockett won a fine game, with skipper Martin Gill agreeing to a draw.
Author: David Hulme
First point of season for Wirral Team
Our team managed a 3-2 win against Chester’s junior team in division 1 of the Wirral League. Wins for Ola Titiloye and Chris Rhodes on boards 4 & 5 allowed draws to be taken by Neville Layhe and David Hulme on boards 3 & 1 respectively. The team remain bottom of the first division and favourites to return to division 2, but at least have an outside chance of survival.
C Team win at Meir
Last night the C team were victorious at Meir B winning the 4th division match by score of 3-1. There were wins for Doug Barnett on board 1 and James Marshall on board 4, with draws from skipper Dave Price and Steve Ballantyne. This result takes the C team to 2nd in the table trailing leaders Cheddleton E by 2 pts with 2 games in hand, but there will be stiff opposition to join in the title race from all teams down to 6th place where Cheddleton F have games in hand, with Fenton B, Stafford B and Newcastle E sandwiched in between.
See the latest tables at http://www.northstaffschess.com/p/league-tables_30.html