Club Championship

There were a couple of games played early in the Club Championship last night, with Steve and Dylan drawing their game in Round 1 and Ernie beating Stuart in a Round 5 game.

We also welcomed yet another two new Members - Beck Clewlow and Jay Holt.

Member Contact Details

You have probably noticed the Member Contact Details tab at the top of the page. This contains personal information such as telephone numbers and email addresses. As such it is password protected and can only be access by authorised Club Officers and Team Captains. If you fall into this category then please let me know and I will give you the password. 

There is a tab next to it - Fenton Membership List - which just displays a list of names of all of our Members, with no other information. This is accessible by anybody.

Both of these lists are updated whenever a new Member joins the Club and I get their contact details.

Club Championship 2022

The draw for the 2022 Club Championship has now been made and can be viewed here. 

'B' Team Extend Lead At Top Of Division 2

The 'B' team extended their lead at the top of Division 2 to 4 points with a 2.5 - 1.5 win at Meir last night. It looked touch an go for a while though. Chris Hankey and Sam Feibel put us into a 2-0 lead, leaving us needing only a draw to win the match. Chris Brian then played an England cricket Captain's innings on board 4 by throwing his Queen away in a won position. We were then relying on Dylan on board 3 to win the match for us. He was down by the exchange of a Rook for a Knight and looked to be losing. At this point I couldn't take any more and had to leave the room !! However, I then received a message from Chris Hankey to say that he had turned his losing position into a winning position, but then managed to turn that into a draw, which was all we needed to win the match. Click here to view the match score card. 

Glyn Takes Rapidplay Title

Congratulations to Glyn on winning the 2021 Rapidplay Championship. Wins in his belated final gcouple of games earlier this evening saw him take the title with a score of 6.5/7. There are still a couple of outstanding games but they cannot have any effect on the final outcome, so it is up to the players concerned whether they play them or not. Ray and Petru can still finish as Runners-Up so they may want to play them.

New Venue

Following last night's meeting, it was agreed that the Club would now be meeting at the Gables pub as from next Monday. The address is 450 Trentham Road, Blurton, ST3 3DS. Start time will be 7:30 as usual. The venue is going to be free to us to use, although we should support them at the bar by pouring as many pints down our throats as we can manage !! There is also a good menu and the kitchen is open until 7:30 for anybody who wants to get there early for a meal.

First Defeat Of The Season For The 'B' Team

The 'B' team incurred a surprise loss at one of the Division 2 stragglers, Cheddleton 'E', on Friday evening. Steve, Mycle and Chris were all held to draws on boards 2, 3 and 4. Glyn was the last to finish and was unfortunately beaten in what looked very much like another drawn game, giving the hosts a 2.5 - 1.5 victory. Click here for the match score card.

Homeless Again

The Blurton Club have decided that is not economic to stay open until late in the evenings and have changed their opening hours on Monday to Thursday to 5:00 until 9:00. This means that we will be unable to play any matches there and forces us to look for a new venue yet again. As a result of this, and with immediate effect, we will be leaving the Club. We will be collecting our set, boards and clocks tomorrow evening.

We will be holding a meeting of the Chess Club at the Gables pub - 450 Trentham Rd, Stoke-on-Trent ST3 3DS, on Monday 17thg January, starting at 8:00, to discuss our options. I hope to see as many of you there as possible.

Glyn Takes Lead In Rapidplay Championship

There were only 2 games played in the Rapidplay Championship last night, with Glyn beating both Steve and Ernie. Glyn now leads the competition with 4.5/5. We are now down to a handful of games to complete. Hopefully a couple of them will get played next Monday, but Mycle will be working late so won't play his last game until the following Monday. Also, Ray has just tested positive for Covid-19 and is self isolating for the next 7 days, so he wont be able to play his outstanding games until the following Monday either.