Weymouth Chess Club Season Round Up

CLUB TOURNAMENTS.

Championship.
      This turned out to be a two horse race, with the final match being played between Chris Johns and Frank Pittman, with Chris on 8 pts. and Frank on 7.5 pts., the 3rd. placed player being Steve Blake, last season’s winner, on 5.5 pts. Chris obtained the draw required from a strong, possibly won, position.
   

Joe Anderson Knock Out.
     Ronnie Burton beat John Kelly, and Allan Pleasants Chris Johns, in the semi-finals to set up an interesting final, which Allan won. Ronnie must also be congratulated on appearing in 4 out of the last 5 finals.
    

DORSET LEAGUE TEAMS.

Div. 1 “A” Team.
  Weymouth “A” finished 3rd. with 2 wins and 3 defeats in the 6 matches played in this tight division of 4 strong teams. The Captain, Allan Pleasants, was an ever present with a better than 50% score, but a noteworthy contribution was made by Frank Pittman, who featured in 4 matches and remained unbeaten.

Div. 2 “B” Team.
   A satisfactory, if dogged, season finished with Weymouth “B” achieving 2 wins, 2 draws and 2 defeats in this division. It was perhaps unfortunate that the Captain, John Kelly, was away in New Zealand for a time and only able to play in 3 matches, in which he achieved a 66% score. His presence on the bottom board more often might have afforded us the luxury of going for won matches, rather than stoutly holding tight scorelines. This dourness is perhaps epitomised by the fact that 3 players, viz. Messrs. Pittman, Brackner and Leeson, returned 50% aggregates, with Paul Brackner and Chris Leeson undefeated in 5 and 4 encounters respectively. These players produced no less than 13 drawn games between them, and were pivotal in maintaining a competitive team spirit throughout the season.
                   

Div. 3 “C” Team.
   Michael Fielding led from the front in his first year as captain, being ever- present with better than 50% overall in the 12 fixtures completed out of 14, with the team finishing creditably with 7 wins and 6 defeats ( a 4-0 win in a fixture defaulted by Poole was cancelled out by a 0-4 loss on defaults away to Wimborne ). No less than 12 players were used in this squad, which is perhaps the way it should be in the bottom division. Noteworthy performances were achieved by Chris Leeson, who played in 11 matches and only lost thrice, and Frank Kingdon, who played in 9 and only lost twice.  

DORSET KNOCK-OUT.

    Our excursion into this event proved disappointing, with a strong 6-board line-up, which outgraded its Wimborne opposition, being eliminated without the need for any handicap calculation being brought into play in favour of Wimborne. This was in the first round (quarter-final).
   
NEW MEMBERS.

   Andrej Furjel has been our only new member this season, but has proved to be one of our strongest new members for many years.
 

NEXT SEASON.

   The formalities of next season will begin with a welcome evening on Tuesday 7th. September, with friendly play only that evening. The A.G.M will then be held on Tuesday 14th. September, commencing at 7-30 p.m. in the Redlands Suite of the Weymouth Sports Centre.