Shropshire County Under 100 Chess Results 2004/2005

Dear All,
As you may be aware Ian Davies has now taken over the Captains role for the County Under 100 Team. I would like to thank Ian for taking on this task and hope that his enthusiasm will give us the spirit to do well in this years chess campaign.

If any chess player graded below 100 would like to play for this County team and lives in Shropshire or plays for a Shropshire club please contact Ian Davies on 01743-356923.

Our First game of the season (Shropshire vs Nottinghamshire) was won by default as Nottinghamshire failed to field a team.
Our Second game was played against Leicester A on Saturday 16th October. On paper Shropshire seemed to have the advantage but the end result was a worthy draw. The match card is shown below.

Our Third game was played AWAY against Leicester B on Saturday 6th November - (Leicester's second team was made up solely of juniors.) We all arrived over an hour early so we found a lovely little pub to quench our thirst. At 2.00 o'clock the games began and all were ready for a battle. By the halfway stage almost all the Shropshire team had at least a piece advantage and were coasting to a well deserved victory. The end result being 11 wins to Shropshire and 1 win to Leicester B (Andy Jones lost to a young lad that claimed he had only learnt to play chess 3 weeks previously ! - The match card is shown below.

Our Fourth game was played against Warwickshire on the 27th Nov 2004. The match was drawn at 6-6. Warwickshire defaulted 2 boards so all credit to them on a good fight back, although Shropshire weren't quite fielding their strongest team. It was a very tense finish with Warwickshire taking the lead at (5 1/2 - 4 1/2) with 2 boards still playing.
Young Iuean Fenton from Oswestry scoring a fine win when a piece down to queen a pawn. (5 1/2 - 5 1/2) Only Roger Brown, our board one left playing and rapidly running out of time! With Roger on about 2 mins left a draw offer was accepted by his opponent. A minute earlier Roger had declined his player's offer of a draw !!!

So here were the scores.
Wins: D Powell, I Fenton
Draws: R Brown, A Lewis, N Sampson, S Cooper. + 2 Defaults.

Our Fifth game was played against Worcestershire on 15th January 2005.
This match got off to the worst of possible starts when 2 of the players went sick on the day of the match, leaving no time to get any replacements. We again arrived a bit early for the game so had time for a nice pub lunch before the game. I like to think this fosters a good team spirit, or maybe we just start off to early!

The match started and things went from bad to worse as we quickly went 5-1 down. We gradually clawed it back to 5-4 and then went 6-4 down.

The best we could now hope for was a draw with the top 2 boards still playing. A fine end game win by Roger Brown saw it go to 6-5 with Andrew Lewis left. Fortunately, Andrew had 2 passed pawns, and with his opponent having to give her rook to stop them she resigned. A great draw for us in the end, which keeps us 2 points clear of Worcs. who are our main rivals for a place in the next phase.

Wins from: R Brown, A Lewis, C Bayliss, I Davies, J Carless
Draws from: D Powell, N Sampson

Vitally important to play a full team in these matches.
I’m sure everyone who is picked will do their best and carry us forward.
Ian Davies

Our Sixth game was played against Staffordshire on 12th February 2005.
This was our last game in the Midland Zone and to stand any chance of progressing further we had to win it. So the pressure was really on.
Fortunately, we had a full team which was very important as things turned out. As the match progressed it was clear it was going to be very close indeed. Staffs, who were already through weren't going to lose their unbeaten record lightly.
Praise must go to the lower 6 boards who managed 4.5 points out of 6. The match reached 6-5 in our favour with one board still playing. A draw and we would win. Vincent Crean held his nerve with everyone watching to clinch the draw. Final Score 6.5-5.5 to Shropshire !!

This puts us in a very strong position and only Worcs. can catch us if they win their final game against Leics A on March 5th. If they win, were both on 7 points. Have been unable to contact the controller to find out what happens in this event so we'll just have to wait and see.

Wins for R. Brown, S Davies, A Pickles, J Carless.
Draws for V Crean, N Sampson, A Jones, P Broderick, I Fenton

Here is the latest info on our position. - Staffs are Midland Champions and will play runners up of East Anglia Zone.
We have 7 points. If Worcs win their final game against Leics A on March 5th they will have 7 points as well.
It then goes on number of boards won. Our total is 35.5. If Worcs win 7.5-4.5 they will have 35.5 as well. Then it goes to our game against Worcs, which ended 6-6 but because we de-faulted some boards the rules say they go through. So if they win 7-5 we go through.
Lets just hope Leics put out a strong team and play to win. It's out of our hands now, but I remain confident as Worcs only beat Leics B 7-5.

I will send the report of what's happened when I get it.
If we do go through we play the winners of the Southern Section !! So we'd better get our cars serviced !!
Regards Ian.

8th March - Update:
Unfortunely for us Worcs beat Leics A 8-4. What a surprise !! They tie with us for second place on 7 points each. Because they scored a total of 36 points for and we scored 35.5 they go through to the next stage - How cruel.

In fact we were the only unbeaten team in the whole competition and the only ones who beat the eventual winners Staffordshire, so it seems a bit unfair that we get knocked out on that system.
How clearly those 2 defaulted boards cost us in the end.

I feel we can all be very proud of our achievement this season. I still look upon it as coming second anyway! Many thanks to everyone who played, to Roger Brown for seeing to the venue, to everyone who used their cars for the away games and a big thank you to Vincent Crean for putting everything onto the website for me.

Cheers Ian.

Third Game
Match Result U100 Shropshire v Leicester B Sat 6th November 2004

Second Game
Match Result U100 Shropshire v Leicester A Sat 16th October 2004