Stourbridge Chess Club

Monday saw Stourbridge travel to Droitwich in Worcestershire County Division 2 to play the reverse fixture from the previous Monday. Just like the previous week Droitwich again defaulted a board. This time Stourbridge were able to take full advantage after having drawn the previous week. Tony Shaw won with Jeremy Humphries and Colin Woodall getting draws so the defaulted board gave SCC a 3-2 win.

A last minute emergency on Tuesday meant Stourbridge had to travel to Mutual Circle with only 3 players for a 4 board Dudley Division 2 match. Julie Wilson and Jeremy Humphries got draws and while team captain Chris Cox won, resulting in a drawn match.

For the first time this season Stourbridge’s Wolverhampton Division 1 team were at full strength for a trip to Bushbury, but unfortunately Bushbury were also effectively at full strength. Stourbridge were outgraded on the top two boards but the other boards appeared pretty level, with Stourbridge even having an advantage on bottom board. SCC had a chance to get something from this match.

Everything looked even on most of the boards during the first hour of play except for Nic Fallowfield on board 2 who gained an early advantage. Nic was able to capitalise on this to win his match. This was added to by draws for Greg Dyett, Dave Scriven, Paul Sharratt and Eric Horwill. Unfortunately on board 4 Julie Wilson blundered during a time scramble and was forced to resign. So the final match score was 3-3.

This point is probably too little too late in Stourbridge’s relegation battle as their closest relegation opponents Telford won against title chasing Stafford who previously had a 100% record.

Anyone who is interested in joining Stourbridge chess club, should contact Dave Scriven on 01384 423642 or visit www.stourbridgechess.f9.co.uk for more information about the club.