Squad strengthened by returning players

Two of the club's former stalwarts were welcomed back into the team for the away match at Oswestry. Karl Wakefield and David Williams played their first matches for some time, but clearly haven't got too rusty in the meantime as both chalked up wins in a 5-0 whitewash.

The return of Karl and David has reinforced our "squad" approach to this season - we have played eight matches and haven't fielded the same line-up more than once.

Tom Williams looked like he was heading to the bar very early on after winning a queen for a knight in a dozen moves but his opponent Alf Evans created a solid defensive phalanx around his king. Tom decided to play the long game and take his time in breaking through, which he eventually did after Graham Shepherd and then Karl Wakefield won their games. David Williams made it 4-0 when he became the third player in the team to win an exchange of rook for minor piece, and then a fifth win was had on board one by Steve Rooney.

Looks like we are definitely in the promotion race now!

Newport doubled

We managed to secure the double against Newport B in a 3-2 home win in the latest league match.

Newport have had a tough season and are yet to get any points, but they ran us pretty close in a hard fought match.

Eric Elwell and Adrian Thorpe snatched early wins but Newport levelled the match by winning on boards 4 and 5, leaving Steve Rooney to grind out a win in the face of some stubborn resistance by Steve Cooper.