16 January 2019
Three of our teams had cause for celebration tonight.
Team D had 3 ‘Firsts’ to be happy about. For a start, they chalked up their first win of the season, beating Rose Forgrove E by 3½ to 1½. Second it was Paul Smith’s first win for the club. He’s been racking up a succession of draws against higher-graded opponents and this time he won decisively despite being outgraded by 41 points. Thirdly it was Richard Jefferies’s first game for the club and he won it very calmly and competently. The other boards gave a draw and a win, for Rodney Mitchinson and Sri Sriharan respectively.
Team C produced a clean sweep – another ‘First’ – against Rose Forgrove F. Paul Masiak. John Light and Barry Fulthorpe all won their games and the remaining two games were won by default.
Team B too had reason for satisfaction as they achieved a drawn match in Division 2 against West Leeds despite having to default a board. There were 2 ‘Firsts’ here as well. John Grasham recorded his first victory for the club with a fine win over West Leeds supremo Ian Strickland and Matt Harris produced his first score for us with a draw in only his second game. There were draws too from Chris Tatham and Howard Brears.
Up in Division 1 Team A were facing high-flying and likely League Champions Moortown A. Even with the regular Team A members it would have been a tough assignment but sickness and other reasons meant that only one of the usual squad was available. Heavily outgraded on all boards, the largely stand-in team tried hard – Peter Shaw and Bob Maltby in particular gave their opponents something to think about – but in the end it was Moortown who took home all the points.