Friday 24 February 2012

Safety in numbers for A team

A resounding win away at Wellington A means that it is just about certain that the A team will remain in division 1.

After losing two match on the trot at Priorslee Lions A and Newport A, the team bounced back with a 4.5-0.5 win at Wellington. Karl Wakefield started off with an early win when his opponent blundered and this was followed by a win for Trevor Brotherton on top board. On board 4, recent recuit Tiago Faustino had started the match with an unbeaten record in both A and B team games, but made life difficult for himself with a tangle of doubled pawns and misplaced pieces. But he has an eye for outplaying his opponents in what look like unpromising endgames and managed to pull off another win, sealing the mach for the away team. A win for Graham Shepherd on board five and a draw for Steve Rooney on two, finished the evening off in style.

With three tough matches left against three of the top four clubs, it was vital that we got some points at Wellington who were one of the teams that could have caught us up. Coming away with a win was a perfect result for us.

The previous match against Newport saw us without top board Trevor who was unwell, leaving Steve Rooney to take on county number one Nick Rutter who had a grading advantage of around 40 points. A long gruelling game resulted in what looked like a fairly level final position but the clock intervened and Nick won on time. Gavin Cooper on board two also proved too strong for Karl Wakefield but the other three boards saw welcome draws for Stretton players Tiago Faustino, Gerald Link and Graham Shepherd.

Priorslee Lions A 3-2 Church Stretton A
G Pugh 0.5-0.5 T Brotherton
 W Bates 1-0 S Rooney
J O'Neil 1-0 K Wakefield
J Tunks 0-1 G Link
M Carbin 0.5-0.5 G Shepherd

Church Stretton A 1.5-3.5 Newport A 
S Rooney 0-1 N Rutter
K Wakefield 0-1 G Cooper
T Faustino 0.5-0.5 N Paul
G Link 0.5-0.5 C Lewis
G Shepherd 0.5-0.5 D Griffiths

Wellington A 0.5-4.5 Church Stretton A 
C Roberts 0-1 T Brotherton
T Neal 0.5-0.5 S Rooney
J Lenton 0-1 K Wakefield
D Powell 0-1 T Faustino
D Ogundipe 0-1 G Shepherd

Friday 17 February 2012

B team still in the running

Church Stretton B still has an outside chance of promotion from division 3 after a 3-1 away win at Oswestry.

Since the new year the team has also beaten Telepost D 3-1 but went down by the margin to division 3 leaders Shifnal & Telford C. The team have three matches left in the season, including fixtures against two of the teams above them Newport b and Shrewsbury C.

  Telepost D 1-3 Church Stretton B 
S Sweeney 0-1 T Faustino
B Holford 0-1 F Rooney
G Lyon 0-1 A Thorpe
A Cliff 1-0 C Pimm-Jones

Church Stretton B 1-3 Shifnal & Telford C 
T Faustino 0.5-0.5 S Maydew
E Elwell 0.5-0.5 R Brown
F Rooney 0-1 R Szwajkun
T Williamson 0-1 S Szwajkun

Oswestry B 1-3 Church Stretton B 
R Thomson 0-1 T Faustino
J Davies 1-0 F Rooney
B Evans 0-1 T Williamson
A Evans 0-1 J Carless