Shrewsbury’s A Team endured a torrid night as they were thrashed by Condover and Church Stretton A on the same night as their C Team moved into the promotion places in the third division with a win over Oswestry B.
Francis Best’s side had secured a 4-1 victory over their opponents earlier in the very first game of the season, but the visitors got their revenge with an emphatic win that proved a significant blow to Shrewsbury’s title chances. With Telepost A and Newport A both winning earlier in the season, Shrewsbury needed a win to return to the top spot which they had occupied over Christmas. However, despite missing Michael Bukojemski, the visitors had different ideas.
The first of the 5 games to finish was the clash between Norman O’Connor and Eric Elwell on board 4. A slow-moving game, Norman looked to have the advantage earlier on and capitalised on it by winning a pawn with both players having a Queen and Rook as well as a handful of Pawns still on the board. However, Eric had enough resources to make life tricky and threatened to regain his Pawn. Having already rejected 2 draw offers, Norman finally gave in with the position looking more or less level.
After that, however, it was all downhill. Peter Kitchen’s game against the in-form Graham Shepherd on board 3 started off potentially explosively, with a range of intriguing sacrifices available. However, after a lengthy think, Peter opted against the risky approach and played it safe. The position appeared to be winding down to a drawn ending with blocked-up pawns and mass exchanges, albeit with Peter significantly down on the clock. However, a slight positional error from Peter gave Graham his chance which he grabbed with both hands; winning a Pawn and establishing a superior position to go with his sizable time advantage, at which point Peter resigned.
Shortly after on board 5, Mark Smith’s over-extension in search of a non-existent mating attack proved costly against Francis Rooney. With a slight positional edge, patient consolidation would have been prudent, but the tactic (which nearly worked) cost Mark 2 pawns and, ultimately, the game.
The final two games fell shortly after. David Everington was facing Steve Rooney on board 2, and was on the back foot in the middlegame with material level but Steve possessing a menacing passed Pawn. In attempting to prevent Steve’s Pawn upgrading its status from menacing to monstrous, David had to concede another Pawn which ultimately led to his position becoming untenable.
The other game was the top-board clash between Francis Best and Trevor Brotherton. After Francis took the opportunity to take Trevor out of theory as Black in a Trompowsky, the position entered near-uncharted territory. Trevor grabbed a couple of pawns with Francis not possessing much in the way of compensation, and despite valiant defence from Francis he was unable to hang on.
There was, however, better news for the C Team. After Andrew Lewis and Eric Inglis both let better positions slip to draw and lose respectively, Ian Davies levelled the score with a victory over Keith Bacon after winning the exchange early on. That meant that the result was depended on Tony Purser’s game against John Molyneux on board 4. Tony was up by two Pawns, but John possessed a passed Pawn on the seventh rank which definitely deserved the tag of “monstrous”! However, John needlessly sacrificed the exchange when he could have defended the Pawn with his Bishop, likely leading to a drawn opposite-coloured Bishop ending. On the other hand, the sacrifice put the pressure on Tony to defend, which he did before blundering his Rook. John had a drawn position at that stage, with a perpetual available to him. However, a combination of a lack of time and the material advantage meaning he may have felt a need to push for a win meant he overlooked the checks and lost on time, sealing the win for Shrewsbury and moving them joint top, with all tie-break systems also level, with Newport C at the top of the division.
Shrewsbury A ½-4½ Condover and Church Stretton A
- F. Best 0-1 T. Brotherton
- D. Everington 0-1 S. Rooney
- P. Kitchen 0-1 G. Shepherd
- N. O’Connor ½-½ E. Elwell
- M. Smith 0-1 F. Rooney
Shrewsbury C 2½-1½ Oswestry B
- I. Davies 1-0 K. Bacon
- A. Lewis ½-½ E. Stevenson
- E. Inglis 0-1 A. Evans
- A. Purser 1-0 J. Molyneux