The final week before the Christmas break saw 3 matches being played in Division 1. Morriston A were at home to CN Emperors and managed their second win of the season (3½-1½) thanks to wins on boards 2 and 4 and draws on the other 3. For 24 hours it boosted them into third place but by the end of the week they were back down to fifth thanks to the results from the other two matches featuring teams from the White Knights club. White Knights B had a visit from Morriston B on the Tuesday and scraped through 3-2 to boost them into third and Morriston A down to fourth. Finally on the Thursday White Knights C took on De la Beche A at Llanelli. In spite of it being a home match the Knights defaulted their bottom board and with the top 3 boards all drawn only a win by Malcolm Probert for the Knights on board 4 salvaged the draw. The result, however, took them above Morriston A into fourth and the Morriston team back down to fifth. The draw also took De la Beche A up a place and they now sit above Emperors at the bottom of the table. At the halfway mark of the season all the teams in this Division have now played 7 matches with no postponements. The battle for the title is still looking like a 2 horse race between White Knights A and Nidum while the contest to see who finishes third is between White Knights B, White Knights C and Morriston A. The fight to avoid relegation is probably going to be between Emperors and De la Beche A although Morriston B are not having such a good season either.

Division 2 also saw 3 matches being played to bring each team’s total up to 7. Bottom of the table Morriston E were at home on Monday to fellow strugglers De la Beche C but were faced by a team that was boosted by two B team regulars. The inevitable result ensued with the Sketty team winning by 4-1 and leapfrogging the Morriston team. On the same night reluctant title challengers White Knights D were away to Morriston’s C team and were probably slightly surprised to go away the winners 3½-1½ courtesy of 3 draws and 2 wins over the boards. It took them up to second spot just two points behind De la Beche B. They only stayed there until the Wednesday when Morriston D visited Upper Killay to play the Merlins and almost whitewashed them. For the third time this season a draw from Steve Edwards once again saved the Upper Killay team from total annihilation. The result moved Morriston D into second place just 1 point behind De la Beche B and the title race going into the Christmas break is still wide open.

In Division 3 the only match was between top of the table BF Brunel and bottom placed De la Beche E. No real surprise that Brunel had a comfortable 4-1 win although there was a surprise defeat for Kelvin Haines against Paul Bevan on board 1. Knowing Paul he will no doubt remind him of it every time he sees him! This is the only division where there has been a single postponed match so the League goes into the New Year with only a 1 match backlog.

Statistically there have been 124 players taking part so far this season with 25 games not played due to defaults – 2 of them double defaults where neither team fielded a player. The League now takes a break and returns on the 6th January 2020. Until then a Merry Christmas and all the best for the New Year.

13/12/2019