Third defeat in four leaves A team in trouble
Another valiant effort went unrewarded as Shrewsbury A slipped to a 3.5-1.5 defeat at Oswestry A – leaving them bottom of the table and still seeking their first win of the campaign.
After the first three boards to finish ended as draws, Charles Lowick Higgie and Shane Greenwood lost their games after long struggles.
It means Dan Lockett’s side are danger of being marooned in the bottom two of Shropshire Chess League division one, with a gap starting to develop between Shrewsbury and Darwinian Knights A in the drop zone and the midfield pack, writes Peter Kitchen.
Oswestry has traditionally not been one of Shrewsbury A’s favourite hunting grounds in recent years – two years ago the team lost 5-0 and last season the club defaulted the fixture through being unable to raise a team.
Against that foreboding backdrop, Lockett will have been conforted to welcome back Jamie Hopkins on top board as one of two changes to the side that drew with Darwinian Knights A in their least league fixture.
Shane Greenwood also made his first A team appearance since the opening round of fixtures on bottom board, with Olusegun Ilesanmi and Mark Smith dropping out and Peter Kitchen again unavailable.
The hosts, meanwhile, were unchanged from their previous match, which also happened to have been against Darwinian Knights A – a 3-2 won back on October 8.
As has become somewhat typical of the A team’s matches this season, this was a tense affair with little to choose on many of the boards.
Just as happened against Darwinian Knights last time out, the first three matches to finish were all draws. Hopkins and Rudy van Kemenade drew on top board, Stephen Priestley saw his winning run come to an end but shared the spoils with Adrian bailey on board three, and Lockett and Peter Fisher agreed to a ceasefire on board four.
The remining two games were closely fought, but gradually turned against the visitors. Charles Lowick Higgie was making his first return to the club he left in the summer – but it turned into a unhappy night for him on board two as he was beaten by the wily Richard Bryant.
Greenwood then lost the final game to finish against Julie van Kemenade on bottom board as Shrewsbury slipped to a third defeat in four league matches.
Full scores (Shrewsbury colours in brackets):
Oswestry A 3.5-1.5 Shrewsbury A
1. Rudy van Kemenade 0.5-0.5 Jamie Hopkins (w)
2. Richard Bryant 1-0 Charles Lowick Higgie (b)
3. Adrian Bailey 0.5-0.5 Stephen Priestley (w)
4. Peter Fisher 0.5-0.5 Dan Lockett (b)
5. Julie van Kemenade 1-0 Shane Greenwood (w)
The A team will next be in action away to Telford A on November 20 – their final league fixture before the Christmas break.