Our first defeat

We played Newport C away on 5 Nov. and after a close fought game went down 2.5-1,5.Charles  Micallef was the first to finish with a draw against Dave Lovegrove,and I followed with a loss on board 4 against ungraded Micheal Moore.I felt happy with my game until near the end when his knight and Queen found all the good squares.Francis put up a brave fight,but finally fell to Steve Cooper,while Tom Williamson played out a long game,his opponents flag finally falling.Tom had a queen,knight and bishop against both rooks and bishop.

Solid draw against league leaders

The A team finished all-square with Wellington who have taken an early lead in the division  table.

Steve Rooney drew quickly on board two followed by Eric on five and then a smart combination saw Karl take a point on his first match for a couple of seasons. Trevor was in some difficulty from ealry in his game. He took a long think trying to avoid going into a lost ending but then couldn't find a better continuation and his position gradually got worse and then resignable. Ironically in the post-mortem, Trevor discovered that his opponent may not have gone into the ending in the way he envisaged! Graham then finished with a draw to give a level match.


Condover & Church Stretton A 2.5-2.5 Wellington A
T Brotherton 0 T Neal 1
S Rooney 0.5 C Roberts 0.5
G Shepherd 0.5 J Kucyznski 0.5
K Wakefield 1 S Tennant 0
E elwell 0.5 J Lenton 0.5

Another fine win

The B team played Priorslee Lions C at home and came away with a 2.5 to 1.5 victory.An important victory against our closest rivals in division 3.
Francis was the first to finish in quick time against Alan Shaw.Then on board 4 Shane Sweeney produced a smothered mate against newcomer Alan Brannen.A draw was then agreed on board 3 between Chris Pimm-Jones and Mike Reynolds a George Viszokai  overcame Charles Micallef after the latter had appeared to have winning chances.

A solid performance

We produced a solid performance against a young Newport Juniors side to return to the top of the table with a 4-0 win.Shane Sweeney on his debut was first to win followed by myself against a youngster playing his second league game.Francis Rooney ground out a win on top board followed by Tom Williamson completing a good nights work.

Trevor pulls off the win

A good win for Trevor on top board against the county's top player Nick Rutter was enough to get us our first points of the season as the A team travelled to Newport this week for our third tough clash in as many matches.

Newport were without one of their normal line-up Gavin, but still fielded a pretty good team. The first match to finish was Graham on board four against Simon Maydew, where the position had simplified into a level ending and was agreed drawn. Eric's battle against Danny Griffiths on board five was much more complicated and looked as if it could explode into a tough tactical battle but was also agreed drawn.

This left the top three boards slugging it out till the bitter end. Michael looked better throughout his board three game against Chris Lewis with the latter's exposed king and queen side vulnerable to a twin knight attack. But was it enough to find a win?

Looking across to board one, Nick gave up an exchange, at least I think he gave it up but the position was a bit beyond my understanding, and Trevor looked in a strong position but again was it enough?

Meanwhile I was fighting a rearguard action against Nathanael Paul and had to sac an exchange to try and get free. I'm not sure it was sound, but I managed to surprise him and ended up getting the exchange back at the cost of some dangerous passed pawns.

At this point all six players were running perilously short of time; great fun for spectators but nerve-wracking for the participants. The end was so frantic I am not sure who ended first, but Trevor proved he was right to turn down a draw offer and won, Michael's opponents clock went but with king and two nights against bare king agreed drawn, and Nathanael's flag went after he had promoted to a queen but not enough time to mate against the lone king, so also declared drawn.

Four draws and a win saw us take the tie 3-2.

Newport A 2-3 Condover & Church Stretton A
Nick Rutter 0-1 Trevor Brotherton
Nathanael Paul 0.5-0.5 Steve Rooney
Chris Lewis 0.5-0.5 Michael Bukokemski
Simon Maydew 0.5-0.5 Graham Shepherd
Danny Griffiths 0.5-0.5 Eric Elwell

A hard earned draw

For our second match our B team played the team I used to captain and with new blood at Telepost a draw was the result.
On board 1 Charles Micallef agreed a draw with Alan Cliff early on in the evening.I then fell to Alisdair Benjamin playing on his league debut.I was white and played the english which he demolished in 27 moves.Tom Williamson agreed a draw against the much improved Dean Pinnington and Chris Pimm-Jones ground out a win to secure a drawn match against Brian Holford.

One that got away

The A team narrowly missed getting some points against Telepost A going down to a 3-2 defeat, having looked like taking the spoils earlier in the evening.

The hosts were without many of their first team players which was partly evened up by Condover & Church Stretton missing top board Trevor Brotherton. This meant that captain Steve Rooney took on Nigel Ferrington, although it was a short contest as a half-baked plan to swap an exchange for a semi-trapped queen ended in a rout of the queenside and a lost position. Fortunately, the other Rooney played a lot better as Francis' king's gambit tore into Vinny Crean's position, first winning an exchange and then a whole rook putting the score on 1-1.

The other three boards were fairly balanced although we looked ahead on at least two of them, but it was not to be. Graham Shepherd's promision position suddenly turned into disaster as a mating net by Peter Crean slowly strangled him. This was followed by Eric Elwell losing out to Keith Tabner. Eric was an exchange up early on but lost a piece to even the scores and then, once the queens were swapped, found Keith's minor pieces more than a match for his rook.

So the match was now lost but Michael Bukojemski, undeterred by a fraught journey to the match, used his extra pawn advantage against Matthew Clark and proved that opposite bishop endings are far from a certain draw. The opposite bishops ending followed a sharp tactical battle along the central files with both kings exposed to back-rank tricks. With only around ten minutes each left on the clock, Michael engineered a swap of all the major pieces resulting in an ending where a superior king position and pawns on both sides gave him a decisive advantage which he coolly converted into a win.

Telepost A 3-2 Condover & Church Stretton A

1. N Ferrington 1, S Rooney 0
2. M Clark 0, M Bukojemski 1
3. P Crean 1, G Shepherd 0
4. K Tabner 1, E Elwell 0
5. V Crean 0, F Rooney 1