Report
Weekend One was a split weekend which is always difficult to organise. Team 1 was at Dudley & Teams 2 & 3 at Bedford. I was not hopeful that we would pick up any points at the former venue but my pessimism was misplaced as we ended the week in a strong position on 3 pts from our two games. Saturday opponents were 3Cs who had trounced all the opposition in Division Four in 2025/26 finishing with 21 points from a possible 22. The match ended in a 3-3 draw with four halved games and Senith beating Candidate Master Alan Walton on Board Two. We were conceding almost 80 rating points a board in this match. On Sunday we faced White Rose 2 and again the rating advantage was 90 points per board in favour of the Yorkshire team. After the score was tied at 2½-2½ top board Paul Cumbers brought the side home to win 3½-2½ after a game lasting over 60 moves; earlier Senith had scored his second win of the weekend with Mike Naylor-Eade, captaining the side, completing a whitewash on the top three boards. This will be a tough Division with the teams closely matched.
On now to events at Bedford. I won’t dwell on some of the mishaps along the way even before the matches started so in Round One Ashfield 2 faced Hammersmith whilst Ashfield 3 opponents were CSC Kingston 3. This Division is seeded so it looks as though we are at opposite ends of the draw. In the first match Hammersmith had a strong top board but the remainder tailed off to a weak lower order. Consequently we lost Board One, drew in the middle and won the bottom two boards to finish 3½-2½ victors. Ashfield 3 lost 6-0 to their opponents though the result flattered the Kingston team who were lucky on at least one board. Sunday saw Ashfield 2 face Celtic Sharks who were relegated from Division Three last season after an epic scrap involving multiple teams. Ashfield were again conceding 200 rating points a board and despite a heroic 116 move losing defence from Oliver Graham, the team eventually conceded by 5-1 with draws on the lower boards from the two players who had won the previous day. Ashfield 3 lost by 4½-1½ to Wotton Hall 2 in a fixture where the ratings were about equal. I will be e-mailing everyone with some points about the League Rules before the next Weekend. I can remember in a previous season our third team made a poor start – but this enabled them to face weaker opponents in later weeks and actually overtake Team 2.
Can I thank everyone for playing and also those who kindly provided transport. All our teams reconvene at Peterborough in January 2027. Full results and games on 4NCL website.