Dan Lockett secure his first win of the season for Shrewsbury A to help the team record a second consecutive win and move to within 3 points of table-topping Telepost A to set the stage for a critical clash away to second-placed Newport on December 6th.
Lockett, who was promoted to the A team on a regular basis this summer, had been unfortunate so far this season, losing his opening 4 games despite some impressive results whilst standing in for the B team. He found himself up against Dean Pinnington this time out – a player whom he had beaten in the Shrewsbury Town Championship this summer.
Indeed, the visitors (Telepost B) were slightly under-strength, with regular top board Noel Kiffin unavailable. It meant that Shrewsbury skipper Jamie Hopkins faced Matthew Clark on top board, and Jamie played his favoured Sicilian to set up a solid position in the opening.
On board two, Francis Best faced John Westhead and met his opponent’s French with the Tarrasch, and was able to build a strong central pawn structure with pawns on d4, e5 and f4 looking menacing as well as allowing plenty of space for manoeuvre for his pieces.
Board three saw David Everington up against Charles Micallef, and David found himself a pawn down in a slightly tricky position, but with plenty of opportunities and counterplay available.
Peter Kitchen on board 4 was up against Shane Sweeney, and found himself a piece up after 6 moves when Shane overlooked a threat in the opening. Peter was then able to win another piece and a couple of pawns, leaving things looking pretty ominous for Shane.
However, it was not the first game to finish. David managed to engineer a pawn thrust on the h-file, completely opening it up and allowing to double up his queen and rook on the flank, leaving Charles with an impossible mate threat to defend.
Dan was a pawn up on board 5, although the position was still in its infancy when plenty of pieces, pawns and play left on the board, meaning a small material advantage was, well, immaterial.
Jamie also found himself a pawn up, with a menacing couple of bishops leaving Matthew’s position looking slightly awkward.
By this stage, Peter had secured the win to put Shrewsbury 2-0 up, and the points were made secure by Francis’ win on board two. He had put his Rooks and Queen to good use with a long-distance pin securing him a Knight advantage, and the same combination won a second Knight before forcing the mass swap-off of pieces, at which point John resigned, leaving the match won.
Both Jamie (who was, for once, not down on time throughout the entire game!) and Dan were able to secure victories to put the icing well and truly upon the cake – a first 5-0 win of the season for the A-Team along with Dan off the mark will mean that the forthcoming clash with Newport isn’t quite as daunting as it may have been beforehand.
There was one further match being played. Shifnal and Telford D were the visitors to face Shrewsbury C, but were only able to field two players. Ian Davies agreed a quick draw with Tim Skidmore, meaning that the victory was safe despite Roger Brown ending Andrew Lewis’ impressive unbeaten run. However, the visitors are likely to fold before the season finishes, meaning the two points could well be wiped from the board.
Shrewsbury A 5-0 Telepost A
- J. Hopkins 1-0 M. Clark
- F. Best 1-0 J. Westhead
- D. Everington 1-0 C. Micallef
- P. Kitchen 1-0 S. Sweeney
- D. Lockett 1-0 D. Pinnington
Shrewsbury C 2.5-1.5 Shifnal and Telford D
- A. Lewis 0-1 R. Brown
- I. Davies 0.5-0.5 T. Skidmore
- E. Inglis 1-0 Default
- T. Purser 1-0 Default
Excellent report on the games and matches in quick time. Well done Matt.