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 !!

Birmingham Rapidplay Congress

Tom Gerrard finished joint 21st, out of 40 entrants, in the Intermediate (U1750) Section of today's Birmingham Rapidplay Congress, with 3 wins and 4 losses from his 7 games.

Thursday Night Results

There were 2 matches at the Club last night, with Ashby 1 playing Ashby 2 in Division 2, and Ashby 4 playing Anstey 4 in Division 4.

A strong Ashby 1, fairly predictably, took the points against Ashby 2 by 4-1, in a match where the rating difference was insurmountable. Steve and Nick managed to scavenge draws for Ashby 2 on boards 4 and 5 to avoid the whitewash.

Ashby 4 were beaten 4.5 - 1.5 by Anstey 4. Once again, the rating difference between the two teams was huge. However, there was an excellent win for Johh Howlett on board 1 and a draw for Ric Dawson on board 3, so well done to both of them.

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

In the U1450 Club Championship, Colin Marley lost on time against Darren Pearce, to give Darren his first win in the competition.

County Results

Les and Steve both played for Staffordshire against Warwickshire yesterday in the Midland Counties U1650 Championship. Steve drew on board 5 and Les won on board 6. Unfortunately, our contribution of 1.5 points was not enough to stop us losing the match by 6.5 - 5.5.

Not The Start We Were Hopng For !!

The Club did not get off to the best of starts in our opening LRCA league matches on Thursday evening. 

Ashby 3 were heavily outrated on boards 1 and 2 in their match against Kirby Muxlowe 1 in Division 3. A draw from Dom Lennon on board 4 was all they had to show for their efforts in a 3.5 - 0.5 defeat.

Ashby 5 fared litle better, also going down by 3.5 - 0.5 in a match where we were outrated by a massive 1300 points in total. One bright note though was a draw from James Foster on board 3, making his league debut, against a player rated 340 points higher than him.

Full results and match score cards can be viewed from tab at the top of the page.

In other news on the night, in the U1450 Championship, Ian Maskery beat Darren Pearce and Jan Oldham beat Colin Marley.