Shrewsbury B’s worrying start to the season continued with a third consecutive defeat, this time at home to Newport B.
Deprived of Mark Smith for the second game, captain Matt Best opted to give Geoff Knox his first game for the club on board two.
The match got off to a fairly steady start, with Best agreeing a quick draw with Steve Cooper on board 5 after the Scandinavian petered out into a deadlocked, almost symmetrical position after just 18 moves.
The second game to finish ended in the same result. Norman O’Connor and Chris Paul played an interesting game on board three which ended up with level material, opposite Bishops and no other major pieces on the board. Unsurprising that it was drawn!
Dan Lockett was playing his final match for the B team this season before his A team duties render him ineligible, but he ensured a happy end for him personally with an excellent victory over Danny Griffiths on top board (coming shortly to our interesting games page!).
By this stage though, it was looking as though Knox’s début may not be going to end happily. He found himself two pawns down in an ending against the dangerous Chris Lewis after a typically exciting Benko and, although his Knight was more active than Lewis’ Bishop, was unable to swindle a a draw, leaving the scores level.
The pressure was on board 4 where Jonathan Newey was a pawn up against Ivor Salter. Salter had seen off Newey’s dangerous looking attack earlier on, but used up a considerable amount of time in doing so as well as missing the chance to win back the pawn, and ended up in a lost endgame after his position inevitably deteriorated under time pressure.
There was, however, better news emanating from the room next door. The C team were up against Telepost D and captain Ian Davies had the luxury of a full-strength team available.
Andrew Lewis recorded an impressively quick win over Shane Sweeney on board two to get proceedings underway thanks to an incredibly dangerous attack, and Tony Purser managed to make his pressure tell on board 4 against Brian Holford to put them 2 up.
The points were then made safe when the two remaining games finished within minutes of each other.
Ian Davies saw off Alan Cliff on top board in an entertaining encounter with his attack proving too strong, and Eric Inglis recorded a win on board 3 against Kate Walker to ensure a complete whitewash. Inglis found himself up the exchange for the second game running and eventually managed to break through Walker’s resistance after she sacrificed her piece to get two connected passed pawns through, but Inglis’ superlative endgame play enabled him to record the win.
Shrewsbury B 2-3 Newport B
- D. Lockett 1-0 D. Griffiths
- G. Knox 0-1 C. Lewis
- N. O’Connor 0.5-0.5 C. Paul
- I. Salter 0-1 J. Newey
- M. Best 0.5-0.5 S. Cooper
Shrewsbury C 4-0 Telepost D
- I. Davies 1-0 A. Cliff
- A. Lewis 1-0 S. Sweeney
- E. Inglis 1-0 K. Walker
- T. Purser 1-0 B. Holford