Weekend 3
Weekend 3 was another split weekend with Ashfield 1 playing at Coventry and the two lower teams at Daventry. It was very much a weekend of two halves to use a football analogy. On the Saturday all three teams won. Ashfield 1 trounced Celtic Tigers by 5-1- the Welsh team were more the paper variety than the ferocious. Ashfield 2 were easy winners over Watford whilst Ashfield 3 won by the odd board of six over the War and Piece third string. Sunday was a different matter entirely. Ashfield 1 took an early lead over Warrington Mates with a win for Sebastian. Unfortunately that was the high spot of the match as the remaining games all finished with losses; we were desperately unlucky in a couple of the games but all the progress from Saturday was dissipated with a reversed scoreline. Meanwhile elsewhere Ashfield 2 lost to Kingston by 3½-2½; our sole success was for Ashfield 3 who beat Woodpushers by 5-0 after the northern team had to take a penalty deduction for a defaulted board; the team thus moving onto 6/12.
Weekend 4
If Weekend 3 held mixed fortunes, Weekend 4 was an unmitigated disaster for Ashfield. Some 36 boards were played over the weekend with just 4 wins recorded. For Ashfield 1 two defeats against Surbiton by 3½-2½ on Saturday and then 4-2 to Sussex Martlets on Sunday means that we are now in a relegation position. Other results did not go in our favour and we now have the unenviable task of needing points in the last weekend to maintain our team in Division Three. In the fourth division Ashfield 2 might have been in with a promotion challenge but as it is lost both games and were overtaken by Ashfield 3. The pairings with upfloats have not been kind to our second team. The main factor was our matches against the Philippine team FCPL-UK. Their team trounced Ashfield 3 by 6-0 on Saturday and went on to beat Ashfield 2 by 5-1 on Sunday. On Saturday the Worcestershire Windmills took the winds out of our sails grinding out a 4½-1½ win over Ashfield 2. The sole success of the weekend was for Ashfield 3 who in a closely contested match on Sunday beat Barnet “D” by 3½- 2½.