With just over a month to go before the end of the season the top and bottom places in Division 1 have already been decided.

BF Nidum faced White Knights A in their third encounter and although the Neath side secured 3 draws across the boards the Knights triumphed 3½-1½. With a 10 match point difference between them White Knights A can now be declared Champions and only need to turn up to their last two matches to avoid default penalty points.

At the other end of the table BF All Blacks managed to notch up their second win of the season 4-1 against White Knights B but it was not enough to save them from relegation. The reason was a sharing of points between White Knights C and Swansea University A when their Wednesday match resulted in a draw. The single match point for each team took the gap between White Knights C and the All Blacks up to 7 points and with only 6 points still on offer the All Blacks cannot catch them.

It was not quite the same situation in Division 2. At the top of the table third place Emperors were at home to leaders Morriston B and fielded their top five players. The Morriston team did not exactly follow suit with the result that they went home the losers by 3½ - 1½. The result moves the Emperors into second spot, above White Knights D, and throws open the race for the title as there is now only 2 points separating the top three teams and three matches each still to play. At the bottom of the table, however, Morriston D are now to be relegated. They lost by 3½-1½ away to Merlins and now have no way up. They are 5 points adrift of their C team and with only two matches to play cannot catch them. The one other match in this division was a middle of the table clash between BF Giants and De la Beche A. Across the boards there were three draws and a win apiece so they shared the spoils and their relative positions remain unchanged.

In the third division CN Tribunes notched up their seventh win in a row by defeating a short-handed De la Beche B 3½-1½. The default from the De la Beche side took them into the penalty zone so not only did they lose but they dropped a point from their total. Tribunes move into second place and are 8 points behind leaders BF Brunel but with a match in hand.

De la Beche C did better than their B team when they hosted Morriston F on the Thursday. In a hard fought match there were no draws with De la Beche scrapping through by the odd point. 3-2 to the home team and were it not for their massive accumulation of defaults they would now be sitting comfortably in the middle of the table. They are, however, no longer rock bottom. Upper Killay Hawks failed to raise a team for a second match in a row, this time against St Michael’s School. The 5-0 default in favour of St Michael’s brings the Hawks default total to 13 and included among them are 4 defaults on boards 1 & 2. It works out at 9 default points in total and means that they are now sitting bottom of the table on -3 match points. They have 5 fixtures still to play and with just over a month (including Easter) until the end of the season it is going to be a struggle for them to complete.

24/03/2018