Round Nine
Ashfield 1 2½ – 3½ Surbiton
Ashfield 2 2½ – 3½ Warrington Mates
Ashfield 3 2 – 4 Wessex B
Round Ten
Ashfield 1 2 – 4 Rhyfelwyr Essyllwg
Sussex Martlets 3 2½ – 3½ Ashfield 2
Epsom 2 – 3½ Ashfield 3
Round Eleven
Chessable White Rose 3 3-3 Ashfield 1
Ashfield 2 1½ – 4½ Golden Cockerels
Castell Nedd 3½ – 2½ Ashfield 3
Weekend Five was played over three days at Coventry. Ashfield 2 & 3 each won one and lost two of their final matches. Ashfield 2 had avoided the top teams but the Swiss system caught up with the side and they faced Warrington Mates and Golden Cockerels both of which finished in the promotion positions. The team did well against these teams but not enough to cause an upset. Between these matches a victory against Sussex Martlets 3 was recorded by the smallest margin with the southern team’s juniors performing well. There were debuts over the weekend for Sebastian Griffin-Young & Furkan Bartiyar in the second team and we hope to see more of them next season.
Ashfield 3 had a weaker selection of opponents and mirroring the second team lost on Saturday and Monday with a win on Sunday. Epsom defaulted a board which meant they were already down before the match started. Nevertheless Ashfield 3 did spectacularly well on the upper boards with Bob Taylor winning despite a 320 point rating disadvantage. A last minute withdrawal on Monday meant that Chris Cumbers stood in as a “Wild Card” and he scored an excellent win.
Both teams improved on their 2023-24 results with Ashfield 2 finishing 7th= with 12/22 (9th on tiebreak) and Ashfield 3 on 11/22 in 12th = spot and the best team on tiebreak on that score.