Friday 26 September 2008

Annual Award Presentation and Charity Quickplay

We are all at the Spinney Hill Working Mens Club last night, to see the cups for the summer tournaments and winter leagues be presented - our Andy Morley received, as Captain of the first team, the cup for the Divison 1 League Champions.

Afterwards, there was a four round, 15 minutes each, team quickplay competition, in the aid of the LOROS charity. Here is the Wigston second team in action:


Right to left: Iain, Ed, Stephen and Peter. The team won 3-1 against the 'Others' team.

Winners on the night where none other than the Wigston first team - who proudly received a trophy board as a reward:


Left to right this time: Andy, Phil, Walter and Martin.

Wednesday 24 September 2008

Chess Puzzle

Welcome to the first chess puzzle of the season. Time to dust off your chess muscle after the summer break and get it exercising again. Played last night in the excellent County Championships (u125 section) in my game (as White) against Howard Philips (Black):


White to play.
It's my move, and I have a good attack on the go on the queenside against the Black king. I was looking closely at 19. Nc6 with a decisive fork on King and Queen, but this is prevented by the black Knight on e5. So... I thought, I would play 19. f4, kicking the knight away and then play 20. Nc6+ - I could see his reply 20 ... bxc6 could be met by 21. Qxc6! and mate is unavoidable on either a8 or b7.

Great! But then I realized there was a major flaw in my analysis... What is the flaw and what would you play instead?

Answer next week!

See you at the Annual Bash at Spinney Hill Working Mens Club on Thursday night - always a good night out.

Phil.

Friday 19 September 2008

EARLY LEAGUE FIXTURES

Details of Early League Fixtures:
 
Tuesday 30 Sept -     W2 v. Braunstone 1 (Away)
 
Thursday 2 Oct -        W1 v. Loughborough 1 (Home)
                                W4 v. Spinney Hill  2 (Away)
 
Thursday 9 Oct -        W3 v. Spinney Hill 1 (Home)
                                W5 v. Spinney Hill 3 (Away)
 
Thursday 16 Oct -       W2 v. W1 at Club
                                 W4 v. Loughborough 3 (Away)
 
Tuesday 21 Oct -        W3 v. Littlethorpe 3 (Away)
 
Thursday 23 Oct -        W1 v. Scraptoft Valley 1 (Home)
                                  W4 v. Hinckley (Away)
 
Thursday 30 Oct -        W1 v. Shepshed (Away)
                                  W3 v. Loughborough 2 (Home)
                                  W5 v. Ashby 3 (Away)

Wednesday 17 September 2008

Wylie Cup: Braunstone v Wigston match result

Hi,

Played last night at the Civic Centre, Braunstone:

                     W-B B-W
-----------------------------------------------
Mike Salisbury 148 0-1 0-1 Walter Dehnen 167
Paul Colburn 145 1-0 0-1 Phil Watkinson 123
Pat Hogan 121 1-0 1-0 Ed Galyov 125
David Sandovitch 124 1-0 1-0 Peter Turland 113
-----------------------------------------------
5 - 3
This was the last round match in the summer rapid play competition and the decider between the first and second placed teams. A win or a draw would give us the cup, while a loss would give Braunstone victory.

Our team suffered due to the dropping out of our Board 3 player, Phil Harlow; Peter Turland bravely stepped in at short notice to fill the vacancy. The result shows how both Ed and Peter were struggling against much stronger opposition.

Congratulations to Baunstone.

Walter is a very good rapid game player and did the business on board 1; I think I did well to come out evens with Paul Colburn, although Paul helped me in the second game with a uber-sharp line in the Benko Gambit which lost a bishop within 10 moves... Ed did better in his first game than his second but it was always going to be an uphill battle against an ex-County Champion. Peter had a close game in the first round, a piece up but later allowed a pawn to queen.

On the journey home, Walter summed up the mood in the car: If it is good to allow other teams to win trophies occasionally, then the Wylie Cup is a suitable candidate...

Regards,
Phil.

Tuesday 16 September 2008

BIRSTALL CUP FINAL RESULT

Wigston 1st team lost to Spinney Hill on the Handicapping system in last night's Birstall Cup Final.
 
Congratulations to the Spinney Hill club.
 
BCF 15-Sep-08 1 v. Spinney Hill
1. M. Burrows 1 P. Deacon 0
2. P. Gibbs 1 K. Potter 0
3. I. Dodds 0.5 J. Marlow 0.5
4. B. Cooper 0 D. Robinson 1
5. Bonus 0 Bonus 1.5
2.5 3.0
 
Neil

Saturday 13 September 2008

CLUB OPENING - WEDNESDAYS

The Club room has been booked on some Wednesdays to enable members to play games other than League matches (Our Home League match night is still Thursday)
 
The dates available in 2008 are:
 
October 8th & 22nd
November 5th & 19th
December 3rd
 
If this experiment is a success, and members make use of the facilities, then further Wednesdays will be booked for 2009.
 
Neil

Friday 12 September 2008

CLUB QUICK-PLAY CHAMPIONSHIP - 11 SEPT 2008

An entry of 15 members took part in the Annual Quick-Play Championship
 
The games are a total of 10 minutes each with the time per player handicapped by Grade.
 
The two sections resulted in Martin Burrows, Walter Dehnen, Phil Horspool & Andy Morley competing in the Final Section.
 
This resulted in a win for Walter Dehnen who holds the Bilsdon Queen for one year.
 
Neil Beasley