Wigston 1 bite the dust

Well we have at least got one result in our favour against Wigston (for the moment !)
Although your erstwhile captain attempted to scupper this , choosing the losing option as opposed to a draw against Phil Harlow . Draws followed for Sean & Dave which left young Brandon having to beat Martin Burrows (59 ! grading points to the good) . But we don't know how much potential the boy possesses ! He was a pawn to the good and came and asked me the score and the match position . I duly informed him what was req'd , only a win would see us through. I think a draw was on his mind , but he smiled sat down again, won another pawn and then another !! Martin wouldn't give in but ............. So well done Brandon a very notable scalp !

Thanks to everyone who played in what could have potentially been awkward

A very pleased captain !

Wylie Cup Victory

An extremely close, well contested match with Braunstone, in which neither side led by more than a point ended in victory for Littlethorpe when Steve Wylie won the final game of the match. It was 2-2 at half time after

Sharpe, Graham 1-0 Colburn, Paul
Hewitt, Sean 0-1 Bingham, Jim
Wylie, Steve 0-1 Hogan, Pat
Harrison, Peter 1-0 Sandrovitch, David

And the second half finished

Sharpe, Graham 0-1 Colburn, Paul
Hewitt, Sean 1-0 Bingham, Jim
Wylie, Steve 1-0 Hogan, Pat
Harrison, Peter Draw Sandrovitch, David

Littlethorpe 2 Through to 2nd Round of Chapman Cup

Last night Littlethorpe 2 travelled to Hinckley for their first round match in the Chapman Cup. Overall, the two teams were approximately equal on gradings.

The results were:

D Moore (105) 0-1 Howard Phillips (119)

G Compton (101) 0-1 George Sim (100)
T Clay (83) 0-1 Colin Ross (70)
B Bailey (UG) 1-0 Ray Beach (68)

Score Hinckley 1 Littlethorpe 3

Terry Clay claimed to have lost through boredom.

After the match, Howard Phillips said 'Oh no. Now we are going to have to play a proper team'.

So, Wigston 1, bring it on!

Club Quickplay

Last night saw the return of the popular club quickplay - 5 rounds where players had 15 minutes for all of their moves. The event was limited to club members, plus the odd invited guest which gave us a turn out of 24 players. New landlords Jim and Tina kindly provided some snacks to see the players through the evening. When the dust had settled, Walter Dehnen emerged victorious with 4½/5, with Littlethorpe players Brandon Clarke and Sean Hewitt tieing for 2nd place on 4/5. Full details, including grading performance, can be found here.

Board Order Drama

There was drama last night at The Plough when, in an important relegation deciding match Braunstone had the audacity to list their players in order of strength!! After we had recovered from the shock and horror of such blatant tactics a close match ensued. In keeping with the fact that this was effectively winner takes all, there were no draws:-

board 1 Hewitt, Sean 1-0 Robinson, John
board 2 Clarke, Brandon 1-0 Salisbury, Mike
board 3 Bray, Dave 1-0 Bingham, Jim
board 4 Cowley, Mike 0-1 Colburn, Paul J
board 5 Harrison, Peter 0-1 Sandrovitch, David

League Title Up For Grabs

After dropping points against Braunstone and Loughborough recently, the match against Wigston became a must win one for us. So out came the big guns, and all fingers were crossed. Early on, things looked iffy. Graham Sharpe drew quickly with Martin Burrows and Mark Hebden looked to be in trouble when two pawns down having played the Marshall against Alan Byron. Somehow though he got back into it and managed to get a winning position, only to blunder and fortunately escape with a draw. Then Chris Jones drew with Walter Dehnen to leave the match evenly poised. Time scrambles ensued on the remaining two boards which saw Chris Gibson a pawn up against Andy Morley and Dave Bray have two pieces for a rook against Phil Horspool. Chris eventually won on time in a better position but Dave looked to be going backwards until fortunately (for us) Phil allowed his rook to be skewered and it was all over. So a comfortable victory in the end (NOT!). The rematch at the end of April should be interesting indeed!!

board 1 Hebden, Mark Drawn Byron, Alan
board 2 Sharpe, Graham Drawn Burrows, Martin
board 3 Jones, Chris Drawn Dehnen, Walter
board 4 Gibson, Chris 1-0 Morley, Andy
board 5 Bray, Dave 1-0 Horspool, Philboard

Harrod Cup Triumph 11/09/07

The first team faced Melton Mowbray on Tuesday, knowing that losing no worse than 2-6 would secure the Harrod Cup for the club for a fifth consecutive year. In the event, a 5.5-2.5 victory meant that the cup was won, with the team unbeaten during the five round campaign! Congratulations to all involved: Sean Hewitt, Andy Johnson, Howard Phillips, myself, and Richard Smith (who stood in for a couple of matches). Roll on next year!