Under 125 County Team

Shropshire Team Bow Out

Shropshire lost their final match of the Midlands County Chess Union with a 9.5 to 6.5 defeat against a very strong Warwickshire side. With every player required to be graded under 125, Warwickshire had six players graded 124 with only 2 players graded under 100. By contrast Shropshire's top player was graded 120, whilst eight players were graded under 100. Despite the odds, Shropshire had some good wins from John Westhead, Ieuan Fenton, John Tunks, Dele Ogundipe and Derek Powell. The further down the board order, the more pronounced the grading difference tended to be with Dele Ogundipe overcoming a 24 point grading defecit to beat his opponent and Derek Powell overcoming a 21 point defecit. Mark Billington, Glyn Randle and Paul Broderick all drew. Paul Broderick conceded a 35 point grading defecit, so his draw was very creditable.

This match completes the season for Shropshire who are now eliminated from the competition. Thanks must go to Windsor Peck for standing in to arrange the teams this year, though Windsor (who also organised the successful County open Team) has now decided to step down as Under 125 captain. If anyone would like to take over the team for next year, please come along to the AGM or contact Windsor or Colin Roberts.

The full results for the Warwickshire match were as follows:-

In their 2nd match of the season on the 15th December, Shropshire suffered a 10-6 defeat away to Worcestershire, who comfortably outgraded them. Wins for Shropshire came from Edward Whittingham, Glyn Randle and Dele Ogundipe, whilst Windsor Peck, John Liddell, Alex Taylor, Roger Brown, Richard Gillespie and Peter Mellor all gained very creditable draws. Peter Mellor again had an outstanding result in drawing against an opponent 30 graded points higher and has been the revelation of the Under 125 team this season.

The full result was as follows:-

Shropshire's under 125 team suffered a 9.5 - 6.5 defeat in their first match of the season away to Staffordshire. Wins for Shropshire came from Mark Billington, Joe Pym, Roger Brown, Derrick Powell and and Peter Mellor, with draws from Ian Davies, Neil Sampson and Andy Jones. Both teams were lower graded than usual, meaning that players who normally played lower down were higher up the board order. Staffordshire had a slight edge on most boards apart from the two middle boards. One of the outstanding Shropshire games came from junior Peter Mellor, who was two pawns down against his opponent but managed a clever mate combining two Knights, a rook and a pawn with his opponent's king in the middle of the board.

The full result against Staffordshire was as follows:-

Shropshire End Season on High

Shropshire won their final match of the 2006-07 season on the 31st March with a close 9-7 victory against champions Warwickshire. Warwickshire had won all their matches so far in the competition and therefore already had 8 points in the competition before the match. Wins for Shropshire came from Chris Lewis, Peter Crean, John Westhead, Andy Tunks and Ieuan Fenton, whilst Gary White won by default when his opponent failed to turn up. In addition, Warwickshire conceded the bottom two boards, hence handing the victory to Shropshire. Draws came from Peter Kitchen and John Whittaker. Andy Tunks played an interesting match, managing to win one of those king and pawn end games which are finely balanced and can go either way, if a player chooses the wrong move.

This win means that Shropshire have been unbeaten across the board all season, but they fail to qualify for the national finals due to a defaulted game against Leicestershire earlier in the season. Although they were equal second with Derbyshire on 7 points, the 16-0 default meant that Derbyshire went through on a tie break having won more games.

This game marks the final game of John Westhead's captaincy having led the team over the past 4 years. John says that having led the team has been a great privilege, especially winning the national competition in his first year as captain. Anyone who fancies taking over as captain should come along to the AGM in the summer or contact Colin Roberts, the League Secretary.

The summary for the 2006/07 season is as follows

Shropshire Win at Nottingham

Shropshire won yet another close match against Nottingham on the 24th March, despite defaulting 2 games and being outgraded on most boards. It was the under 18s who did the most damage with wins from Chris Lewis, Ieuan Fenton and Alex Taylor. They were supported by Andy Tunks, Roger Brown, Richard Gillespie and John Westhead, with draws from Gary White, Peter Crean and Ian Davies. Shropshire were trailing for most of the match, but towards the end they slowly hauled back their deficit and managed to pip Nottinghamshire by 8.5-7.5.

The full result is as follows:-

Shropshire won a close encounter against Worcestershire on the 24th February, coming out with a 9-7 advantage. The teams were very tightly matched on grading, though Worcestershire had the edge on the bottom few boards. Shropshire's win came courtesy of those bottom boards with Shropshire taking three and a half points from the bottom five boards. Wins came from Windsor Peck, David Hollands, Peter Crean, John Westhead, Andy Tunks and Roger Brown, whilst Peter Kitchen, Mark Billington, Ian Davies, David Williams, George Viszokai and Martin Patterson all drew. Martin's draw was particularly valuable as he was outgraded by 28 points and only stepped in to play a few hours beforehand. The results went as follows:

The season belatedly got under way for the Under 125 team on December 2nd with a thrilling dead heat between Shropshire and Derbyshire. Throughout the afternoon, neither team managed to get more than a one point advantage as the wins came in almost alternately. With one match to go Derbyshire led by 8-7 with only Gary White still playing for Shropshire. As the endgame approached Gary had 2 rooks and 2 pawns against his opponent's rook, knight and 3 pawns. Gary managed to win his opponents extra pawn and negotiated a long endgame trying to avoid his rooks being forked by the knight. Once he was sure of queening his passed pawn, Gary swapped of one his rooks for a knight and pawn, then forced his opponent to to sacrifice his rook once Gary queened his pawn. This left Gary about 2 minutes to mate his opponent's King with a rook against King which he managed with a minute to spare to the relief of the watching crowd.

Wins came from Windsor Peck, Gary White, Peter Crean, John Westhead, Alan Silver and David Williams, whilst John Whittaker, John Tunks, Ieuan Fenton and George Viszokai all drew. The full results are given below:-

The next game is due to be played on January 6th, but due to the clash with the Wrekin Congress we are hoping to rearrange this fixture.

The under 125 competition has reverted to the "all play all" format having used the zonal system of East and West Midlands format last year. This means that Shropshire will play five games this season. In the opening round Shropshire had a bye, and in the second round Staffordshire have defaulted because they are unable to get a captain, so the first match is on December 2nd at Shifnal. The Shropshire fixtures are as follows:-

The first named team normally play at home, though where counties do not have touching boundaries with their opponents, the away team can insist on a neutral venue.

The new grading lists are now published, which means that we now know who is eligible to play. From last year's team Shropshire have lost Glyn Randle and Richard Thompson who have now risen just above the grading limit, though they can welcome back Bob Simpson who has dipped just below the limit. Peter Kitchen has also indicated a willingness to join the team. Intriguingly the Open team captain, Windsor Peck is also eligible, though with two games clashing between the Open team and the Under 125 team, he is likely to favour the team that he captains. Funnily enough, Ian Davies, the Under 100 captain is also in the Under 125 bracket with a grade of 110, so we will await news of his availability for the Under 125 team. This means that all the Shropshire captains are theoretically available for the Under 125s! Chris Lewis has made a massive grading leap to 117, so although he is still available to the team he will be amongst the top boards, rather than the bottom boards as in previous years.

Speaking of captains, John Liddell has agreed to help out John Westhead this year as Under 125 captain, so if you get a call or e-mail from a different John, don't be surprised as we are aiming to do the job between us. If you are a regular player, we will be in contact with you, but if you have not previously played for us on a regular basis, please ring John Westhead on 01694 731223 to let us know. All players are welcome. You will hear from us soon, but in the meantime, please make a note of the above dates for your diary.

From the Archives - 2005-06 Summary

This season proved less successful than recent years, with Shropshire eliminated on the first round. The competition was organised in a zonal format (West and East Midlands), which leaves little room for error, and in the end the defeat by Staffordshire was the deciding factor. Nobody got a perfect score over the three games, but Richard Thompson, Alan Silver and John Liddell all scored two out of two. Both juniors, Chris Lewis and Ieuan Fenton were unbeaten as were Glyn Randle, Andy Tunks and Roger Brown. A number of players who only played one game also earned good wins and draws, often against higher graded opponents. The full scores are as follows:-

2004-05 Season Summary

Although Shropshire didn't scale the peaks of last year, they nevertheless finished 2nd in the Midlands championships, and reached the semi-final of the National Championships. As the table below shows, Peter Crean and John Whittaker were the top scorers, both with 4.5/6, whilst Graham Shepherd remained unbeaten over 5 games, playing boards 1 or 2. Graham's success means he is unavailable next year, because his grade is too high as is Bob Simpson's who scored some excellent wins last year in various competitions. Best of luck to Graham and Bob if they play for the Open County team this coming year.

How Shropshire Won the 2004 National Championship

Shropshire produced an outstanding performance at Hinkley against Middlesex with a remarkable 10-6 victory. During the 2004 season the county side have stormed into early leads, then got stuck on 8, with spectators surrounding the hapless players who were left to battle it out at the end. However, in the final Shropshire struggled in the early games, despite an early win from Eugene Raby. After 11 games, the score was balanced precariously at 6-5 to Middlesex, before Shropshire produced some outstanding wins to claim all the remaining games. Wins came from Gavyn Cooper, Richard Thompson, Graham Shepherd, Steve Tarr, Bob Simpson, Mark Billington, John Westhead, David Williams and Eugene Raby. Unusually, only two games were drawn, with Dave Storey and Roger Brown both drawing. The teams were closely matched in grade, with Shropshire having a slight edge in the top half and Middlesex having a slight edge in the bottom half.

The national win topped a remarkable 2003 - 2004 season for Shropshire, who were unbeaten over all their games and who collected the Midlands title on their way to the national championship. Shropshire had a deadly combination of strong players whose grade had dipped below 125 just for this year, up and coming juniors who were under 125 on their way to higher things, and a group of players on lower boards whose grade was lower than their results suggested. They were then aided by a group of substitutes, who stepped in at the last minute on the lower boards and had a tendency to win or draw against higher graded opponents.

Of the juniors, Gavyn Cooper had a 100% record on board 2 winning all his 6 games, whilst Louis Graham tormented most of his opponents taking four points from his 6 games. Graham Shepherd (6/7) and Richard Thompson (5/6) were both unbeaten, whilst Steve Tarr and John Westhead were the highest scoring players, both taking 6.5 out of 8. Although Shropshire had some very strong players on their top boards, their weakness appeared to be on the lower boards, but unfortunately for their opponents these players performed way above their grade. For instance, David Williams was outgraded in every game but one, but still won 5.5 out of 8.

Tribute must also go to the vast array of reserves used by the county, who used 29 players over the whole season. Of these, Steve Jones won both games he played, whilst Andy Jones was unbeaten with 1.5 out of 3. Paul Broderick, Vince Crean and Peter Binks all stepped in once at the last minute and won their games, whilst Ian Davies also took 1 win from 2. Out of the 29 players used, 22 won 50% or more of their games.

How they did it - Results breakdown