Stourbridge Chess Club

Stourbridge’s Worcester and District Division 2 team were supposed to play Mercia, but Mercia never arrived, having forgotten about the match so Stourbridge won by default.

Unfortunately Stourbridge’s winning run in the WDCL Humphreys Cup came to an end after having won it for 3 years in a row. The semi-final against Walsall Kipping was very evenly balanced on paper. Martin Berridge and Jeremy Humphries both got draws but SCC lost 3-1 on the night.

In Dudley division 1 SCC had a decent team assembled, but South Birmingham brought a strong team with them and outgraded Stourbridge on 3 of the 4 boards. SCC lost the match 3-1 with draws for Nic Fallowfield and John Foxall.

Wednesday night there were another two matches, one at home and one away. South Birmingham were again Stourbridge’s visitors, this time in Dudley division 2. Ron Evans got a draw and Richard Wilkinson won, but SCC lost the match 2½ - 1½.

Stourbridge’s WDCL Division 2 ‘A’ team continued their push for promotion away at Boldmere. This was always going to be tricky, especially when Boldmere fielded their strongest team this season. SCC were very evenly matched. All six Stourbridge players pressed hard for a win but none were able to succeed and the match ended as a 3-3 draw with all six games being drawn.

Was this a point dropped or a good draw against a good team? Only time will tell. Boldmere are more than capable of taking something off Stourbridge’s promotion rivals. As an aside, Kidderminster ‘A’ should be one of Stourbridge’s main challengers, but on Wednesday they too dropped a point at home against Rushall. Stourbridge are now second in the table having won 2, drawn 1 and are one point behind leaders Halesowen ‘B’.

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