Firstly a correction to the report on the West Wales Closed Championship. It was stated that all the current leaders were members of the Morriston Club and this is most definitely not the case. Last year's winner Ian Jones is actually a member of the Briton Ferry / Nidum Club so apologies go to him for getting that one wrong !

With the Championship taking precedence there were only three matches played last week. There should have been four but the match between De la Beche D v St Michael’s School has been postponed.

Each of the three matches that played were, however, of significance. In Division 1 there was the top of the table clash between Nidum at home to White Knights A. Before the meeting neither team had lost this season and they were only separated by the fact that Nidum had drawn with Morriston A and White Knights C while White Knights A had drawn only with Morriston A. As it happened this match did nothing to separate them and the status quo has been maintained. They cancelled each other out thanks to one drawn game and two wins apiece. White Knights A go into the Christmas break one match point ahead with all to play for in the New Year.

In Division 2 there was also a top of the table clash. In this case it was between leaders De la Beche B and third placed Giants. Neither team was at full strength and it proved to be fairly tight right up until the last couple of minutes. Two draws and a win apiece meant that it was all down to the last to finish game on board 1 between Peter George and Sipho Donovan. With Sipho a pawn ahead but with each player having only a couple of minutes on their clocks it was looking like Peter might hold out for a draw. Unfortunately he then proceeded to blunder a Rook and the win went to Sipho. The 3-2 win for De la Beche B will see them sitting at the top of the table as they go into the Christmas break while next week’s matches will determine their nearest challengers.

In Division 3 Tribunes were at home to Morriston F. Early in the season Tribunes got off to the best possible start by winning their first 4 matches. After this, however, they dropped off the pace and are now accumulating a losing streak. This time it was their third loss in a row going down to Morriston F 1½-3½.

Next week is the last before the Christmas break and marks the halfway point in the season when every team should have played 7 matches.

08/12/2019