Shrewsbury A’s perfect start to the season was ended as they suffered a first league defeat of the season against town rivals Telepost A away on Monday night.
Skipper Francis Best was boosted by the availability of Jamie Hopkins on top board, with Norman O’Connor filling in on board 5 alongside the regulars to complete the line-up as Shrewsbury looked to avenge last season’s double defeat against Telepost.
Indeed, things started very well indeed (once everyone’s pen problems were sorted – David had inadvertently stolen Matthew Clark’s pen and many others were running dry!) for the visitors. Francis was facing Richard Bryant on board two – the match-up in which Shrewsbury were outgraded by the larger amount, with Shrewsbury having the numerical edge on boards one, four and five – and, having weathered Richard’s dangerous-looking attack after opting for a hyper-accelerated dragon, won a piece, at which point Richard resigned. 1-0 up from theoretically the toughest board and everything was looking promising. However, things began to go downhill from there.
Firstly, Jamie fell to Nigel Ferrington on top board. Having come out the opening defending a weak, isolated d-pawn, Jamie was unable to defend it sufficiently, and fell into a lost rook and pawn endgame. The next game to finish was a hectic encounter on board three between David Everington and Phil Zabrocki. David sacrificed a pawn to seize the initiative, with combinations on the Queenside looking threatening. Then, with no clear way through Phil’s solid defence, he gave up two further pawns to try and turn the screw – in his own words, “if you don’t know what you’re doing in the opening, just go for it!” – and tried his best to sacrifice the exchange (at which point the darts players next door fittingly broke into applause), but Phil declined. Ultimately, David got back one pawn, but hadn’t been able to win back a piece he delayed recapturing, leading to a difficult-looking endgame. Although he ensured that the fight went on a little longer by holding up the march of Phil’s central pawns and by clawing back an exchange, it wasn’t quite enough.
That meant that the pressure was on Peter Kitchen and Norman to win in order to win the match and maintain the 100% record. Peter, as Black in the French, had established an early initiative against Matthew Clark, with Matthew reshuffling his kingside pieces to try and ward off a potentially nasty-looking attack. However, his Knight on f1 did its job tremendously, and he held on before establishing counterplay and pushing Peter back with a strong attack of his own. Unfortunately for him, his attack proved similarly frustrating with lots of lines that almost worked, but were a move or two short with Peter always finding the right defensive moves. In the end, with both players running short on time, a draw was agreed.
That put all the pressure on Norman. Unfortunately, his position was looking increasingly unsustainable, with John Westhead having engineered an archetypal good Bishop vs. bad Bishop endgame, with an extra pawn to boot. Norman had pulled off a few tricks and almost saved the game, but wasn’t quite able to find the final move in the line to rescue his winning chances under severe time pressure, so John was able to seal the win. It was perhaps fair, given his excellent sportsmanship earlier when he neglected to insist upon playing the touch-move rule after Norman almost played a move which would have cost him his Queen.
However, there was good news emanating from the Telepost club for Shrewsbury. It came on the form of their C Team, who were facing Telepost D away from home. Although, in a club-role reversal of the A Team match next door, the eventual winners started by losing the first game as Eric Inglis fell in the middlegame on board three. Tony Purser levelled the scores with an excellent victory, as he calmly converted his material advantage. Andrew Lewis followed that up with a hard-fought win over Kate Walker on board two, after having to defend tenaciously for some time, and Ian Davies accepted Alan Cliff’s draw offer on top board to ensure the win.
Shrewsbury A 1½-3½ Telepost A
- J. Hopkins 0-1 N. Ferrington
- F. Best 1-0 R. Bryant
- D. Everington 0-1 P. Zabrocki
- P. Kitchen ½-½ M. Clark
- N. O’Connor 0-1 J.Westhead
Shrewsbury B 2½-2½ Telepost D
- I. Davies ½-½ A. Cliff
- A. Lewis 1-0 K. Walker
- E. Inglis 0-1 N. Holmes
- A. Purser 1-0 I. Durrant