League Competition

White Knights A played their last match of the season this week and for the only time this year walked away the losers. A less than full strength Knights team faced Morriston A and although it was close the 3-2 score line favoured the Morriston team. The only marginal difference it has made to the final table is that, due to a 4-1 win by Nidum over White Knights C on the Tuesday, the Knights win the Dr Hanson Trophy by six points rather than eight.

The fixtures in this division were all completed when Morriston A were visited by BF All Blacks on the 30th April, the last day of the season. Even though they were at home Morriston fielded an unusually weak team and defaulted the bottom board. Not too surprising, therefore, that they did not reproduce their fine win of the previous week but ended up the losers by 1½-3½ and bottom of the table All Blacks ended their season on a high.

In Division 2 the season ended badly for University B when their matches clashed with the Varsity event between Swansea and Cardiff. They were due to play two matches against Morriston D and CN Emperors but with no time left to rearrange they had to default both.

Previous to this Morriston C played De la Beche A on the Monday. With only three wins to their name Morriston C were the obvious underdogs and so it proved. The 3½-1½ victory for De la Beche moved them temporarily above Giants into fifth place; until that is Giants hosted White Knights D. The Knights fielded the stronger team but this was one of these matches where, except for board 3, the lower graded players all did well. The match ended with two wins and a draw apiece and allowed Giants to regain their 5th place spot above De la Beche A. Albeit they are only separated by game points. White Knights D remained in 3rd place while Swansea University B dropped down into 8th place thanks to the default penalties. Morriston C moved up into 7th.

In this division the final match of the season also took place on the 30th April. Second placed Emperors were away to bottom of the table Morriston D and, as was expected, totally overwhelmed the Morriston team with 5 wins to 0.

This last week also saw all the remaining matches in Division 3 being played. On Wednesday there was a 5-0 whitewash of Upper Killay Harriers at home to De la Beche C, while on Friday Morriston E had a narrow 3-2 win over Tribunes while St Michael’s School, at home but defaulting 2 boards, lost to De la Beche B by 4-1.

This division has seen an unenviable 60 defaults this season (including a couple of “double defaults”) a fact that together with the unusually high number of rearranged matches will no doubt be of concern to the Executive Committee.

Knockout Competitions

In the KO Competition for the A.D. Nicholson Shield (competitors graded 1400 or under) Brunel travelled the short distance to Tonna to play Tribunes in their semi final. Tribunes had already defeated De la Beche C by 3½-½ in the quarter finals so it was something of a surprise when Brunel overwhelmed them and emerged the winners 4-0. Brunel now go forward into the final where they will play the winners of the De la Beche B v Harriers match scheduled for the 3rd May.

Overall there is only one other semi-final match still to be played and that is in the Richard E Jones section (for players graded 1800 or under); it is between University B and Morriston B and is also scheduled for the 3rd May.

01/05/2018