Shrewsbury B turned in an excellent performance as they postponed Wellington A’s confirmation of promotion with a 3-2 victory at the Sir John Bailey club.
The hosts – two points clear at the top of the second division with a game in hand on second-placed Newport B – had won ten and drawn one of their eleven preceding fixtures this season, although Matt Best’s side would have drawn confidence from running them close in the return fixture, as well as the absence of a few regulars from the Wellington side (although they were still able to field the two highest graded players in the division on boards one and two!).
Things got off to a flying start when captain Matt, facing Dele Ogundipe on board 4, took control of his game after a mistake by Dele allowed Matt to win a piece and line up a formidable attack against his unprotected King. Although Dele did manage to stave off the immediate threat of Checkmate, it came at the cost of increasing his deficit to a whole rook as well as swapping off a host of pieces. Shortly after, Matt was able to trap Dele’s Bishop in the corner, at which point he resigned.
On board five, Ian Davies was up against Martin Walsh. Ian threw a host of pawns forward in the opening in an attempt to cramp Martin’s position whilst opening up his own. After staving off the threat of a Queen dismantling his pawn structure, Ian opened up the lines against Martin’s King and was able to force a neat Checkmate in the corner to put the visitors firmly in the driving seat.
Although things got a little nervy after Mark Smith was unable to repeat his excellent victory over Colin Roberts on top board, the win was guaranteed when Norman O’Connor was eventually able to beat Colin Mace on board three. After Colin had sacrificed a Rook in order to open up Norman’s King and threaten a host of nasty-looking tactics, things looked potentially dangerous. However, Norman had other ideas. He defended calmly, beating off the threats before commencing with an attack of his own, eventually leading to the win.
That meant that the win was safe irrespective of the result of the game on board two between Ivor Salter and Toby Neal. In a tight endgame, Toby’s pawns on opposite sides of the board and Bishop against Knight were enough to seal the win for him, but it was no more than a consolation on the night.
Shrewsbury B 3-2 Wellington A
- M. Smith 0-1 C. Roberts
- I. Salter 0-1 T. Neal
- N. O’Connor 1-0 C. Mace
- M. Best 1-0 D. Ogundipe
- I. Davies 1-0 M. Walsh