Fenton Narrowly Beaten In Major Cup Final

Fenton put on a great performance in our Major Cup Final match against Crewe last night. Ray, who would have been playing on board 1, dropped out late on the morning of the match, leaving us struggling to find a team. However, find a team we did and, despite being outrated on every single board, and overall by almost 1200 points, we only lost by 3-2, and should actually have won the match. 

We went into a 2-1 lead, following a terrific draw by Phil Smith on board 5 against an opponent rated almost 400 points higher and a draw by Steve on board 2 against an opponent rated over 170 points higher. This was followed by a great win for Glyn on board 1, once again, against a higher rated opponent. All eyes were then on boards 3 and 4. Derek, playing on board 4 was up against an old Fenton player, Julian Hawthorne, and looked to have great drawing chances until he blundered a Knight away and, ultimately, the game. Mycle, playing on board 3, was up against an opponent rated over 320 points higher and, after winning a Pawn, he exchanged a Rook for 2 Knights, followed by winning another Pawn. This left him in a totally won position, at which point he began to go badly wrong and had to give up material, leaving him in a lost endgame. A great shame because he had played incredibly well and a draw would have won us the match on board count. 

Not a winning end to the season, but a match in which we performed far better than we could have expected, given the circumstances.

Click here for the match score card - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/140737. 

We now look forward to the South Cheshire Shield - the Summer League organised by Alsager Chess Cub. Our opening match is next Thursday, when we are away against Kidsgrove.

'A' Team Finish With A Whimper

The 'A' team's season petered out with a whimper as they were beaten 3.5 - 0.5 on Tuesday evening by Crewe 'A', the new Division 1 Champions. A draw for Alex on board 1 was all we were able to muster. Click here - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/117658 - to view the full match score card.

The loss of Gerald for the last few matches cost us dear and we were unable to sustain our push for the title. In the event, we finished joint 3rd with Holmes Chapel, with 4 wins, 4 draws and 4 losses.

Too Little Too Late

It was a great result for the 'A' team in our first match at the Longton Snooker Club on Tuesday evening, beating Holmes Chapel by 2.5 - 1.5. However, it was a caae of too little, too late, as we are still unable to catch Crewe 'A' at the top of the table.

We raced into an early 2-0 lead, with wins for Alex and Petru on boards 1 and 2, but were pegged back when Glyn lost on board 4. All eyes were then on Kas on board 3, who was 3 pawns down and looked to be heading for a loss. But in a wild and wonderful endgame, in which his opponent actually had a pawn on the 7th rank, Kas won a Knight and one of his opponent's Kingside pawns. With both players down to less than a minute on their clocks, and the pawn on the 7th unlikely to survive, a draw was agreed, giving us the match. Click here for the match score card - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/117625.

'A' Team Title Hopes Evaporate

The 'A' team's lingering Division 1 title hopes evaporated last night when we were beaten 3-1 by Cheddleton 'A'. We are now unable to catch Crewe 'A', who become Division 1 Champions for the first time. Many congratulations to them. The best we can now hope for is the runner-up spot, and we would need to win both of our remaining matches to achieve that. There were early draws for Petru and Glyn on boards 2 and 3, but losses on boards 1 and 4 for Alex and Lea sent us home with our tails between our legs. Click here - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/ 117652- for the full match score card.

Our penultimate match is on Tuesday, when we entertain Holmes Chapel.

'C' Team Beaten By The Champions

The 'C' team ended their season with a 3-1 defeat last night at top of the table, and Champions elect, Alsager 'B'. However, it was not all doom and gloom as, despite losses on boards 2, 3 and 4 by Phil, Matt and Gennady, Mycle produced a Captain's performance on board 1 by beating an opponent rated over 250 points higher. A great result and very well done to him. Click here - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/117664 - to view the match score card.

With the 'B' team also having completed all of their fixtures, the Club now only have 4 matches remaining this season. The 'A' team are away against Cheddleton 'A' on Friday, followed by home matches against Holmes Chapel and Crewe 'A' on the 16th and 23rd May. Our season then culminates with the NSDCA Major Cup Final against Crewe on the 30th May.

Following the completion of all of these matches, we will be looking at organising this year's Rapidplay Championship. It is hoped that we will be able to run this on a Sunday and get the whole event completed in a single day. Following on from this, we will also be organising a Blitz Championship, something we have never done before. The Blitz will be held on a Tuesday evening. Please let Steve know if you would like to enter either, or both, of these events. They will both be Swiss competitions, with the number of rounds depending upon the number of entrants. Dates for both of these events still to be decided.

We will also be playing in the South Cheshire Shield over the Summer and you can view our fixtures here - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/140001/tfixtures.

Other dates for your diary are the 19th September, when we will be playing Meir in the annual pre-season South Potteries Challenge Cup, and the Club AGM on the 26th September. It is our turn to host the match against Meir and it is likely to be played over 5 or 6 boards, and there will be rating restrictions to ensure an evenly balanced match.

South Cheshire Shield

Fenton will be playing in the South Cheshire Shield again over the Summer. This is a 6 team competition, over 4 boards, with a maximum overall team rating of 6000. This will give some of our lower rated players the chance to play some more competitive matches. The 6 teams that have entered are Alsager, Crewe 'A', Crewe 'B', Fenton, Meir and Newcastle. We only play each other once, so it is only 5 matches, spread over June/July/August. All games will be sent for rating. You can view the Fenton fixture list here - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/140001/tfixtures.