West Wales Closed Championship (E.J. Clarke Trophy)

The 1st round of the West Wales Closed Championship was played at the Upper Killay Chess Club on Wednesday 25th October. This is 5 round Swiss Tournament with each round held at a separate venue. As in other years the number of entrants from the Morriston club by far exceeded all others. The competition is being organised by June Evans and controlled by Ian Eustis.

Results

Ian Jones 1 v 0 John Davies

Daniel Chung 0 v 1 Peter Bevan

Moss McCarthy 1 v 0 Steve Lockley

Greg Goold 0 v 1 Mike Cleaves

Andrew Smith 1 v 0 Joel Chung

Paul Bevan 1 v 0 David Toner

Sean Denton 0 v 1 Dennis Thomas

June Evans 0 v 1 Albert Easton

Tony Goodchild 1 v 0 Janet Evans

Still to be played

Joe Spooner v Bill Flew (both away)

The second round is scheduled to take place on the 21st November at the Castell-Nedd Chess Club.

League

With the championship starting this week there were less than the usual number of fixtures played in the League.

In Division 1 Nidum took on White Knights C and notched up their second win of the season with a comprehensive 4-1 victory, thanks to three wins and two draws over the boards. It keeps them in third place a point behind Morriston A but trailing White Knights A by five.

Two matches in Division 2 with the home teams showing no mercy to their visitors. Morriston B defeated UK Merlins 4-1 helped in part by Merlins default. Alan Bean, on board 4, stopped the whitewash. The result improves Morriston's standing and they are now 2 points clear of second place Emperors.

De la Beche A got back to winning ways and showed what they are capable of by thrashing Morriston D 5-0. The imminent forthcoming tussle with Morriston B should be interesting.

The final match of the week according to the yearbook should have been between St Michael's School and second placed Morriston E. However, at the request of the Morriston club this fixture was swapped with the St Michael's School v Morriston F match scheduled for March. With both teams sitting on 2 points it was likely to be a close run affair and so it proved. In the end the Morriston club just edged it with a 3-2 win with the result bumping them up into fourth place.

Finally another reminder that the 50th Anniversary of the West Wales Week-end Congress takes place this year. There is one round on Friday evening 17th November, two on the Saturday and two on the Sunday. Entrants can claim a ½ point bye in any round except the last. Les Philpin is waiting on your entry!

28/10/2017