U1450 Championship Semi-Finalists

Doris & Darren Pearce have been unable to agree dates for their outstanding matches and, as the competition has fallen so far behind, they have withdrawn and their remaining matches scored as defaults.

The upshot of this is that Paul Mayer has won Group A with a score of 7/7 and Jan Oldham is the runner-up with 6/7. There is still one outstanding game in Group A - Brian Wood v Ian Maskery - but the result of this game will have no bearing on the final standings.

Mick Brown has won Group B with a score of 6/6 and James Foster is runner-up with 4/6.

The Semi-Finals will be Paul Mayer v James Foster and Mick Brown v Jan Oldham. The first names player has the White pieces. In the event of either game being drawn, it will be replayed with colours reversed.

Thursday Night Double

It was good news all round for the Club last night with both Ashby 3 and Ashby 5 winning their matches.

Ashby 3 travelled to Anstey 3 in Division 3, without particularly high hopes as we were outrated on every board. However a fine team performance saw us run out 3.5 - 0.5 winners.

Ashby 5 were away against Kirby Muxloe 2 in Division 5 and another excellent team performance saw us taking the points in a 4-1 win.

Current Ashby Player Ratings

Please follow this link to view all of the current Ashby ECF player ratings as at the start of each month - https://bit.ly/ashbyratings.

The column headed Standard Rating is your rating on the ECF Rating Database as at the 1st of each month. So currently that would be 1st November. The column headed Live Rating is your rating on the ECF Rating Database at this point in time. So that would include any games played after the 1st of each month. However, this will not be totally accurate as the LRCA do not submit results for rating as often as we might like. However, internal Ashby games - the Club Championship and U1450 Championship - will be included in the Live Rating as I submit them to the ECF on the night they are played, or as soon as they are reported to me.

These ratings are not necessarily the same as the ratings used by the LRCA, as these are decided at the start of each Season and use your rating from the September List.

This Week's News Update

Ashby 2 travelled to Loughborough 2 on Wednesday evening and were roundly beaten 4.5 - 0.5 by a very strong Loughborough team. Only a draw from Steve on board 5 prevented the whitewash.

Ashby 4 entertained Loughborough 3 on Thursday evening and were held to a 2-2 draw.

Match score cards from both the above matches can be viewed, as usual, from the tab at the top of the page.

In the Club Championship, Patrick Buckley has established himself as the front runner. A win against Paul Gibson in last night's 4th round match puts him on 4/4 and he now only needs a draw in his last match to seal the title. 

In the U1450 Championship Neil Roberts was beaten by James Foster in the final Group B match, meaning James has booked his place in the Semi-Final as Group B Runner-Up.

David Reynolds Cup 2024/2025

The David Reynolds Cup is our annual trophy which is presented to whoever obtains the highest percentage of points, adjusted to take into account their opponents rating, in LRCA matches per season.

To qualify you have to have played at least 2 games in the first month (3 after the 2nd month and 8 after the 7th month). 

Click here for the standings of everybody who has scored over 50%  after the first full month. These standings will be updated on a monthly basis and can always be viewed from the tab at the top of the page. 

Ashby 1 Win Again But Ashby 3 And 5 Both Beaten

Ashby 1 continue to lead the way at the top of Division 2 with 3 straight wins. Wednesday evening saw them travel to Braunstone, where they ran out as 3.5 - 1.5 winners.

Thursday evening saw two matches at the Club, with Ashby 3 losing 3-1 against Wigston 4 in Division 3 and Ashby 5 losing by 3-1 against Latimer in Division 5.

Elsewhere, in the Club Championship, Steve and Dominic drew their 4th round match, a result that leaves them both on 2.5/4, and ends any hope that either of them might have had of winning it.

2 Wins And A Draw From This Week's League Matches

It has been a good week for the Club in our LRCA League matches.

Ashby 4 travelled to Syston 3 on Tuesday and came away with a 2.5 - 1.5 win, which was some consolation following their drubbing by Anstey in their previous match.

A very strong Ashby 1 continued their winning start to the season with a 3.5 - 1.5 win at Melton Mowbray on Wednesday.

Ashby 3 rounded off the week with a 2.5 - 2.5 draw at home against Thurnby.

Match score cards from all 3 matches can be viewed from the tab at the top of  the page.

In the Club U1450 Championship, James Foster managed to squeeze in 2 games, winning them both, against Graham Bird and Damian Oldham respectively. This has propelled him into 2nd place in Group B and a win or  draw in his final game will see him into the Semi-Finals.

There were also three games played in the Club Championship proper, with Jan Oldham beating Neil Roberts, Ian Maskery beating Ollie Fordham and Darren Pearce beating Damian Oldham.

Last Week's News

I have been away for the past few days so apologies for the late posting of last week's news.

Ashby 3 had a 2.5 - 1.5 win against Heathcote 1 in Division 3, making up for the disappointment of the previous week's loss against Kirby Muxloe. We were outrated on every single board so this was an exceptional result. 

Ashby 5 also reversed their previous week's fortunes with an emphatic 4.5 - 0.5 win at Melton Mowbray in Division 5. Neil had an exceptionally good result, with a draw on top board against an opponent rated 360 points higher. As Neil points out, the 5th team like to ensure that everybody who wants to play gets a reasonable number of games. Consequently they hardly ever field the strongest team available. Apart from board 1 where Neil was massively outrated, their opponents ratings were similar, but higher, on all boards, so to win all of them was a fabulous effort by all concerned.

In the 4th round of the Club Championship, Richard Vann beat Chris Tipper, Les Fancourt beat Tom Gerrard, Graham Bird beat Peter Anderton and Ric Dawson drew with Larry Hayden.

In the U1450 Championship, Jan Oldham has moved to the top of the Group A table after beating Ian Maskery. She leads Paul Mayer by one point but has now completed all of her games, whilst Paul still has two to play.

Steve played in the Intermediate Section in this weekend's Bury St Edmunds Congress, finishing joint 10th out of 24 entrants with a score of 2.5/5. Going into the final round, a win would have given him a share of 2nd place. Unfortunately, taking a pawn with his Queen, which he overlooked was protected by a Knight, put paid to that !!