Shrewsbury B took on Priorslee Lions B at the Lion on February 5th. On paper this looked like a good contest and the opening stages were certainly not without interest.  Board 5 saw Tony Purser going back to his usual 1.Nf3 and a King’s Indian Attack set up against Ian Jamieson.  I have to admit that I wasn’t sorry to see this as this system seems to suit Tony’s style very well and he’s had some excellent results with it. Ian Davies played one of his favourites, a French Winawer against George Vizokai.  George sensibly avoided the hair-raising Qg4 lines but the position still looked fairly sharp and both sides…

Shrewsbury B teams most recent match saw them up against Newport Juniors.  This was theoretically a home game but, as it was against the juniors, it took place in Newport.  I feel we’ve been slightly unfortunate in the matter of away travel this season.  It’s worked out that, of our 15 matches, only 6 will have been at our own venue, with 4 trips to Newport, our longest journey. For once, we arrived at our venue armed to the teeth, or at least with a full complement of players. I suppose it’s not too surprising that Newport were unable to do the same; in fact they only had 3 available! …

There was high drama in Shrewsbury B team’s recent clash with Telepost B.  Once again, we were hamstrung by having to default a board with several players unavailable.  1-0 down before we started.  I consoled myself with the thought that, so far this season, we had done rather well from this position. Board 1 saw me take the Black pieces against Peter Crean.  I had won my last two games against him but they were a couple of years ago and I had the White pieces both times.  Peter played 1.e4 and in response to my Sicilian played 2.f4, which can lead to the Grand Prix Attack, but in this…

Shrewsbury B team faced a tough challenge in the form of league leaders, Newport B on Friday 15th December.  Newport fielded a strong side and we were not helped by having to default bottom board.  We really have struggled to put out a full team this season, though, at least, we haven’t defaulted any match points.  So 1-0 down at the outset and Chris Paul had a relaxing evening, at least at first. Board 1 saw a welcome return for Matt Best, taking on Chris Lewis with Black; an exchange French defence was the opening.  On board 2, I had White against Tony Holdford and a Philidor occurred.  An interesting…

Shrewsbury B picked up their second win of the season away at Church Stretton. Unfortunately, we were one down at the outset, as we were only able to field four players with a couple of our regulars unavailable.  Fielding a full side for away games has proved to be problematic so far this season; nobody’s fault, just the way things are. As if to balance the books, Church Stretton were also missing key players Trevor Brotherton, David Hodge and Karl Wakefield. This meant that, instead of my traditional loss to Trevor, I was playing Steve Chadaway, who is relatively new to the area and is playing his first season for…

Newport sometimes complain that Shrewsbury are their bogey opponents.  However, on Friday 24th November, they must have had a degree of confidence, especially as they didn’t turn up with GM Arkell plus bro!  Even with this “under-strength” team, Newport still significantly out-graded us on all but the bottom board. Nevertheless, we had some cause for optimism, having the services of both Jamie Hopkins on board one and Matthew Best on board 5, and felt that we could at least give Newport a serious run for their money.  The first game to finish was Matt against Danny Griffiths on board 5.  Matt played the French and Danny chose the exchange variation. …

Well, sort of… What I really mean is that I am catching up, having neglected the web write-ups for the A Team recently.  Perhaps one of the reasons for my neglect was the 0-5 drubbing we received at the Ludlow fixture on 10th October.  Things started badly when Norman had to pull out of the match with a bad back.  One advantage of that, however, was that the limited table space now only had to accommodate four boards; a serious plus!  Sadly, that was the extent of the good news for the evening, although the one-sided scoreline probably didn’t reflect the battles involved, as is often the case. Things were…

Shrewsbury B team’s tough start to the season continued against Newport B.  It looked finely balanced on paper.  On board 1, Ile was Black against Chris Lewis which started with a Modern opening but, as usual with Ile’s games, quickly found its own path.  My own game on board 2, with White against Danny Griffiths, saw another Modern but this quickly settled on the path of a more conventional Pirc.  Board 3 saw Ian with the Black pieces playing his favourite French defence against Stuart Ross and the game looked complex and sharp.  Norman, on board 4, had White against Chris Paul.  Norman opened with 1.c4 followed by an early…

Shrewsbury B faced a tough challenge in their opening game of the season vs Church Stretton A.  Church Stretton reformed as a club in the close season and I’m sure we all wish them well.  We were somewhat weakened by a change of rota which made Ile unavailable; indeed we started the evening unsure if we might have to default a board as I’d had an issue with my email and was unsure whether to expect Heath or not.  We started with just four boards with Tony on board 4.  Fifteen minutes later, Ivor arrived whom I had thought unavailable.  After some discussion, during which I offered to default the…

This season there don’t seem to be any easy looking matches on offer in the first division.  Our first two matches held the potential to offer us something, but both Priorslee Lions A and Wellington A can pack a punch on their night. Indeed, Wellington had already won their first match against Telford A by the margin of 4½ – ½. Priorslee Lions David Everington had the toughest task, playing on our board 1 for both matches.  David said after the Priorslee match that Adrian Zdanowski deserved to win, having won the last couple of encounters previously himself. On the bottom two boards, Matt Best and Mark Smith both seemed to…