All the teams in Division 1 were in action once again, in the week just gone. First up was the match between Morriston B (at home) and White Knights A with the Morriston team still smiling from their victory over their own A team. No such result this time, however, with the Knights taking 3 of the boards and drawing the other 2. A 4-1 result in favour of the Knights.

Next up it was the turn of White Knights B to face newly promoted De la Beche A and the 4½-½ victory to the Knights suggests it was all one way traffic. However, Chris Daniel reports that it wasn’t as emphatic as the score line suggests.

On board 5 a Ben Rowlands’ attack won Tony Crossman’s Queen for two pieces before Tony won a rook back when Ben spurned a draw offer with Tony finally winning on time; Keith Downey won a double edged position on time in a level position against Peter Smith; Donovan Sipho misplayed a winning Bishop Rook and Pawn endgame missing a tactic and allowing Dave Buttell to queen a pawn; Tomasz Miga ground down Ken Huntley and in the last game to finish David Guy survived what looked like a winning attack from his opponent, Francisco Javier, before a draw was agreed when the position petered out.

The good results for the Knights continued when their C team welcomed Morriston A to Llanelli. It was presumably a close run battle but with the Knights winning 3-2 it means that Morriston A have still to get off the mark while White Knights C now have 2 wins from 2 matches.

The last match in Division 1 was the local derby between Nidum and Emperors. The 4-1 victory for Nidum keeps them in very close contact with White Knights A and with Morriston A’s dismal start looks as if the battle for the Dr Hanson Trophy is already just a 2 horse race.

Two matches in Division 2. On the Wednesday UK Merlins were visited by De la Beche C who were unfortunately 1 player short. Over the boards the result went 2½-1½ to the Merlins and with the extra default point a final score of 3½-1½. The other match was on the Friday between Morriston D and BF Giants and it was more of a tense affair. Draws on the top two boards followed by a win for Daniel Chung on board 3 meant that boards 4 and 5 were critical for the Giants. When board 4 petered out to a draw it all came down to board 5 which evolved into an evenly balanced endgame. Time ran out for Morriston, however, and a relieved Giants team went away thankful that the match was drawn.

Three matches in Division 3 with the first taking place between Tribunes and De la Beche E at Bryncoch. It was an impressive 3½-1½ win for the Tribunes against an largely experienced De la Beche team and it was enough to take them to the top of the table alongside Brunel.

On the Thursday UK Harriers made the short trip down to Sketty where they faced De la Beche D. Over the boards the Sketty team had a comfortable 4-1 win but in the process became the first team this season to fall foul of the rules. An out of sequence board order (rule 3.7) meant that the match was awarded 5-0 to the Harriers although the De la Beche players are individually not penalised.

The final match took place in Glais where Morriston F were at home to St Michael’s school. With St Michael’s fielding four young newcomers to the League it is not surprising that they succumbed to a slightly more experienced team, but not by much. A 3-2 victory for the Morriston side.

29/09/2019