Our Juniors took on Stafford Library, Alsager Owls and the Potteries juniors on Saturday 17th January at The New Finney Gardens.
The event had an open section and a U1300 section
Chris Hankey had done an excellent job attracting a total of 10 teams of 5 players. 4 Teams supporting the potteries juniors, 3 teams from the Alsager Owls, 2 teams from Crewe and 1 from Staffordshire Libraries.
This was the maximum capacity of venue meaning the Open section had to play the first 3 rounds in another room.
We had 3 Crewe Payers in a 5 player Open challenge, Tommy, Oskar and James. Well Done James with a clean sweep and took the Annual trophy home.
In the U1300 section we had 3 new players supporting Crewe for the first time. A big thankyou to Memhet, Jasper and Oliver.
All of our 10 players did excellent but we were out playing by potteries junior A team.
Congratulation to the potteries juniors who won theU1300 team trophy
A big thankyou to all our players and Parents who supported Crewe
The first week of the year did not quite go to plan; bugs had weakened some of our number, and with snow and ice around Crewe, some matches were cancelled. The club did open though, and a few internal matches were played by the diehards.
We were lucky to dodge Storm Goretti (even so, our bin did not get collected, humph) and on Thursday 8 January our new year really got started. The Open Cup team started the attempt to win the trophy for the third year in a row. Their chances were considerably improved by the appointment of a new, stronger, and generally better, team captain. Thanks to Captain Carmel for the report below.
“A huge thank you to everyone for last night. Particularly to Richard for making the long journey.
It turns out that the Holmes Chapel team at full strength were no match for us.
The black on odds strategy worked perfectly.
David L on board 6 (a crucial board) played a brilliant game, soundly outplaying his lower rated opponent and securing the first point for the team. My game should have been a draw, but Mike very kindly let me mate him in a dead equal major piece endgame. Richard, despite his long journey, demonstrated his superb class and experience by holding the frustrated FM to a draw with no difficulties. A true MVP. I didn’t see much of Kamil’s game, but his opponent was looking very stressed and worried throughout most of it, so I assume Kamil made a comfortable draw on board 4. Simon secured us the match by forcing a draw with a position that was apparently very promising for him – a true team player! Last to finish was Harry, who very calmly navigated his way through a time scramble and found a neat tactic that saved his game. It may have been winning at some point for Harry, but he wisely forced a draw soon after.
Perhaps our biggest advantage was having our own spectator and supporter from Crewe. It was great to see Alex Brown there, who came along to support Richard and the rest of us!
Thanks again everyone, it was a real privilege to play alongside such a team.”
Dave Price of Crewe CC receives the WC Challenge trophy from opposing captain Alan Kelly, in exchange for the traditional toilet roll!
The fourth annual “WC Challenge” match between Wallasey and Crewe was played on Monday 21 July, to round out our 2024/25 season. This unique fixture sees the away team provide a teamsheet and the home team select players to match them.
Following Wallasey’s first victory in the series last year, Crewe’s captain Dave Price was determined to win the enormous trophy back and compiled the biggest team yet. Wallasey captain Alan Kelly and vice-captain Saul Marks managed to rustle up an excellent set of opponents and, after several days of players dropping out on both sides and others subbing in, the teams settled at 32 players apiece. Crewe outgraded Wallasey in the top third of the teamsheet, with the middle third very closely matched, while the bottom third saw Wallasey’s players hold the higher ratings. Incredibly, across 32 boards, the difference in ratings between the sides was just 63 ELO points in Crewe’s favour, with each side outgrading the other on 16 boards each.
A coach was hired and Crewe’s (motley?! – sorry, couldn’t resist!) crew made the journey to Wallasey to wrest back the trophy. On a warm night at the Conservative Club, fortified by an excellent supply of sandwiches and biscuits in the kitchen, as many players as there are squares on a chessboard sat down to do battle.
It was almost 9.00pm before the first results started coming in and, as expected, many of the lower boards were the first to finish. The less expected element is that Crewe won the bottom four boards, despite being outgraded, and raced into a 7-0 lead before Chris Clemenson on board 21 finally got Wallasey off the mark by beating Nathan Fourie.
After his game finished, young Seth Marks took charge of the results entry duties, which was somewhat less than straightforward, as the projector resolution issues have still yet to be resolved.
Wallasey staged something of a fightback, with Steve Simm (board 18), Saul Marks (24) and Tom Whitby (10) all winning, to pull the score back to 9-4. Graham Heath (26) and Phil Owen (5) joined the list of Wallasey winners, while Ken Jones (17), Paul Evans (2) and Phil Davies (3) all contributed draws, but the combined might of club champion Mike Coffey (4) and exciting juniors Joe Ledgerton (6), Thomas Moran (8) and Terrence Jiang (13) failed to register anything among them against very strong opponents. Even Chinenye Basil-Nwachuku (12), who joined Wallasey from Crewe shortly after last year’s fixture, couldn’t stop his former team’s juggernaut (I thought they came in a coach?!) from inching ever closer to victory.
Their excellent start and subsequent gradual accumulation of points had brought the score to 15½-7½. A rare defeat for draw specialist Ian Stent on board 23 against Keith Dudeney took Crewe over the line, securing their third win in four years.
But there was plenty more chess to be played and increasing numbers of spectators clustered around the remaining few boards. Additional wins for Alan Jackson (board 16) and Martin Cockerill (25) were balanced by defeat for Steve Pickles (1) who spent a long time analysing the game with his opponent, Richard Lee, as everyone tidied up around them. Paul Greenway’s game on board 27 was the last to finish, as he finally overcame Phil Wright, after spending much of the second half of the game in time trouble, with Katie Lamb notating for him.
The final score was a convincing 20-12 win for Crewe, which was celebrated. In a typically raucous ceremony, Wallasey captain Alan Kelly, who had presented his opposite number with a bottle of red wine and a large glass on a tray mid-evening, now handed over the trophy and, in keeping with the competition’s name, duly received the traditional toilet roll in return!
Thank you to all the organisers who spent weeks putting this fixture together, the supporters who came to enjoy the spectacle and the volunteers who lugged equipment and furniture, set up boards and tidied up afterwards. As always, it was a great occasion with many a laugh and a wonderful way to end the season. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait till we return in September!
Our players performed fantastically and could not be separated from the potteries juniors as we were joint team winners. To decide the winner of the team trophy, it was agreed both teams to have a play off with each player only having 5 minutes on the clock.
Freddie-Lee Cooper Scoring an impressive 3/5
Archie Broadhurst achieving a fantastic win with a king and Rook finishing 1.5/5
I was pleased to be able to field a strong team for this away fixture against Gables V.
The Team battled marvelously
Board 4 fought valiantly to defend his King -but trapped and boxed in on the back row, he was mated by a Knight/Queen combination. He will live-to-fight-another-day!
On board 3 Mal played white with a new opening that saw his opponent forked by an advancing e-pawn with a choice of sacrificing a knight or bishop. Moving his Knight out the way Mal went a piece up, followed by an exchange of Queens, he then promoted a pawn to a Queen and exchanged off his other Rook. A win on board 3 followed.
Tommy played a solid game on board 3 with black pieces, showing a calm maturity after making an illegal move while his King was in check. His opponent gained 2 extra minutes, yet Tommy proceeded to out play and beat his opponent with an ease that reflects his ability to play well under pressure.
That left Nathan on board 1 with the longest game of the evening. After a strong opening as white, his opponent was under pressure. Through a middle game of exchanges. The game was drawn out into a Rook ending with 1 Rook each and Nathan having a passed pawn advantage. It may have swung either way, however Nathans expertise and calm play with only half of his opponent time left on the clock, he managed a check followed by capture of the final Rook. Nathan’s win rounded off the evening.
With wins from Nathan, Tommy and myself Crewe U-Team won the battle and now sit comfortably top of the new U1300 division.
Well done Team – thank you for all your support and contribution to a fun outing.
