This week saw Stourbridge’s star player grandmaster Keith Arkell come equal first in the 24th world senior championships 50+ category.

He scored 8½ out of 11 and was awarded the silver medal based on count-back. This was a tremendous performance which also saw Keith gain 23 FIDE rating points.

Stourbridge struggled to juggle and assemble 4 teams this week only to see the opposite had not made so much effort with only opposition team being complete.

After a last minute panic to get a team of 5 players assembled for the visit of Stafford in Wolverhampton division 3, Stafford decided to arrive with only 4 players. This meant young Dan Arkell had no opponent and a wasted journey. Tony Shaw won on board 1 with draws for Sam Bradley, Colin Woodall and Steve Alcock to give us the match 3.5 – 1.5.

Our second team were very nearly at full strength for the Wolverhampton division 2 visit to Halesowen ‘A’. Unfortunately Halesowen ‘A’ were also very nearly full strength and their full strength first team is stronger than our full strength second team.

Stourbridge got off to a good start when Halesowen’s board 6 Jon Asbury had somehow managed to self-trap his own queen. Thank you very much and Tony Shaw had an early night. That was two wins in two nights for Tony, both with Black, which can’t be bad.

Next to finish was board one Steve Jukes who lost. This was followed by an excellent draw for John Foxall and losses for Julie Wilson and Eric Horwill so the match was gone. With less than 2 minutes each left on the clocks, Dave Scriven’s opponent finally accepted he wasn’t going to win and agreed a draw. 4-2 Halesowen ‘A’.

On Wednesday both the Birmingham division 1 team and the Worcester team were ready and waiting to host Lichfield and Kidderminster respectively. We expected 10 opponents. At 7:30 there were 3. I can understand Lichfield being a little late, but Kidderminster are virtual neighbours.

We gave them a few minutes and exchanged teams with the Lichfield captain. We started the Birmingham division 1 clocks. Then another Lichfield player did arrive who was not on the team card ! The Stourbridge board 5 gave him a game knowing it would not count as part of the match. The Lichfield board one also turned up.

And still there was no sign of Kidderminster.

Eric Horwill lost quickly after blundering in the opening and Jeremy Humphreys won by default, so 1-1.

Ron Evans on board 5 then drew.

There is now a dispute as to whether or not this game should count as part of the match ! With 3 boards left to play what would our guys need to score to win the match?

Jeremy Fallowfield and Greg Dyett got draws, but Nick Arkell, believing he had to win declined a draw offer but pushed too hard and eventually lost. So the result is either 3-3 draw or a 2.5-3.5 loss. It should be a draw as the rules clearly state that reserves can’t be used.

Kidderminster just did not show up so we win that match by default !

On Saturday, the Worcestershire County team drew with Greater Manchester 8-8 despite being outgraded on all boards. The sole Stourbridge representative Paul Sharrat played at short notice and drew his game.