Ian Davies, B Team Captain, reports:
“The natural order of things is beginning to unravel in Division 2 as the B team suffered its first loss of the campaign to the very strong and clear favourites for the title, Church Stretton A. We went crashing to a 5-0 defeat to the South Shropshire giants but not without putting up a fair bit of resistance on the way. I was the first one to lose, but it could have been so different after my opponent, Karl Wakefield, played a very passive Caro Cann, then blundered a pawn and gave me every opportunity to start a strong attack. However, lack of conviction and fear of my adversary somehow psychologically prevented me from doing so. He took full advantage of my poor play, the inevitable blunder came and I was checkmated. I think he would have been happy with a draw at one stage.
“Andrew then went down to defeat on board 3, losing on time in what was admittedly a completely lost position, similarly followed by Tony on board 5 after losing a piece in the middle game. The match was lost then, but still two boards playing. Norman on board 2 against Steve Rooney had an excellent position and looked favourite but as is so often the case when playing higher graded opponents, things somehow start to go awry and he lost a couple of pawns and was ground down. Mark, on board 1, was also playing an exemplary game against the Michael Adams of division 2, Trevor Brotherton, and took him all the way to the wire in a frantic time scramble, thereby losing his undefeated record (along with me).
We slip to third place as a result and next up are second placed Telford B, a match we must win to keep within touching distance of the Holy Grail of promotion!”