Delight for Ds on derby day with historic opening triumph
An “ecstatic” Nick Nuthall has praised his Shrewsbury D side for an historic victory in their first ever Shropshire Chess League division three match – and hopes it will give his side “confidence and momentum” going forward.
Nuthall’s D team upset clubmates Shrewsbury C with an eye-catching 3-1 victory in the first league match the club has played at Cromwell’s Tap House on a Monday night, writes Peter Kitchen.
Victories for Tom Osenton and Richard Beard on the bottom two boards made the difference in a closely-fought match. Encouragingly, all eight players involved have joined the club in the past two years.
It’s given Nuthall hope for the D team’s next challenge against something of an unknown quantity in Maddocks Junior, while C team captain Ben Howells was quick to point to the positives ahead of their next match against Newport B.
The two sides had the honour of playing the first match of the new season – and as Shrewsbury B and D are playing home matches on Mondays this season, it meant the occasion was also the first Monday night chess at the club’s venue.
The two captains played out a tense draw on top board before the Ds took charge. Osenton defeated Kate Beard with the black pieces on board three, while Kate’s husband Richard – playing on the opposing team – beat Lee Holyoake on bottom board to ensure the points went the way of the B team.
The board two encounter between the D team’s Chris Warrilow and the C team’s Tom Maiden went on deep into the night, with the spoils eventually being shared.
“I’m really happy for the D team to get off to a great start with our first win of the season,” said Nuthall. “We had some good wins from Richard beard and Tom Osenton on the bottom boards as well as some hard-fought draws on the top boards.
“The matches were predicted to go either way, so I’m ecstatic to get the result.”
It’s a step into the unknown for the Ds next as fellow newly-founded side Maddocks Junior were the only one of the nine division three teams to sit out the opening round of fixtures. But Nuthall said he hoped his side could use their derby day triumph to help inspire them over the next few matches.
“Hopefully this will give us some confidence and momentum going into the next match with Maddocks Junior,” he added. “We don’t have much intel on them currently, but we are fielding a strong team with a combination of new players and experience.
“Hopefully this will give us a good chance of getting a positive result on the road and push us up the table.”
Meanwhile, Howells refused to be too downbeat, stating on the club’s WhatsApp chat straight after the match that he was “proud” of his players. Speaking to www.shrewsburychessclub.org, he said: “It was unfortunate about our loss, but some positives is that we have a game point on the board so far as opposed to a clean sweep loss this time last season.
“Additionally, we have had some new players come in and hit the ground running straight away. I’m hopeful ahead of our home match against Newport B.
Full scores (Shrewsbury D colours in brackets):
Shrewsbury D 3-1 Shrewsbury C
1.Nick Nuthall (b) 0.5-0.5 Dafydd Howells
2.Chris Warrilow (w) 0.5-0.5 Tom Maiden
3.Tom Osenton (b) 1-0 Kate Beard
4.Richard Beard (w) 1-0 Lee Holyoake
Shrewsbury C will host Newport Rooks on October 7, while Shrewsbury D will travel to Maddocks Junior the following night.