Bd Grade Essex Staffordshire Grade
1 157 Peter Doye ½ ½ Richard Parker 159
2 157 Ken Clow ½ ½ Steve Wilcox 157
3 159 Peter Laundy ½ ½ Ben Zitha 156
4 151 David Pearse 0 1 Max Wootton 154
5 155 Matthew Shaw ½ ½ Martin May 154
6 150 David Payne 0 1 Peter Leary 153
7 149 David Brock ½ ½ William Armstrong 153
8 147 Rod Johnson 1 0 Steve Hill 152
9 148 Ian P Morgan ½ ½ Derek Perks 152
10 149 Jeff Macwain 1 0 Phil F Staley 147
11 148 David Smith ½ ½ Alan Thomason 142
12 147 John Wright 1 0 Matthew P Wyza 137
13 144 Malcolm Kingsley 1 0 John Button 135
14 144 Ian Woodward 1 0 Peter Broomhall 133
15 141 Peter Nickals 0 1 Brian T Birchall 125
16 133 Alan Riddoch 1 0 Karol Grzybowski 112
TOTALS 9½ 6½

MCCU Inter-Counties Under-160 Championship

Shropshire 8 - 11 Staffordshire
Match played 20 March 2010 in Shifnal

Bd Grade Shropshire Staffordshire Grade
1 156 Iain R Wilson ½ ½ John Staniforth 157
2 156 Gerald C Link 0 1 Ben Zitha 156
3 152 Andrew Tunks 0 1 Max Wootton 154
4 149 Glyn Randle 0 1 Martin May 154
5 147 John A Westhead 0 1 Peter Leary 153
6 143 Eugene BD Raby 0 1 Steve Hill 152
7 147 Steve Tarr ½ ½ Derek Perks 152
8 141 Gary M White 1 0 Mike Groombridge 151
9 139 Graham C Shepherd ½ ½ Phil F Staley 147
10 138 Richard G Thompson 0 1 William Rea 146
11 138 John A Tunks 0 1 Alan Thomason 142
12 131 Nathanael Paul 0 1 John Day 134
13 136 Stefan H Tennant 1 0 Matthew P Wyza 137
14 134 Windsor WA Peck 1 0 John Button 135
15 129 Richard Gillespie 0 1 Peter Broomhall 133
16 117 Roger R Brown ½ ½ Brian Birchall 125
TOTALS 5 11

Staffordshire 8½ - 7½ Nottinghamshire
Match played 27 February 2010 at Bushbury, Wolverhampton

Looking at the MCCU tables at the start of this match, Notts were in second place, with the Staffs team joint third, two points behind.

As today's match began, the Notts team quickly went into a 5 - 0 lead. It wasn't looking good. As the other matches began to finish, the results started to swing back the other way. Peter Broomhall found himself in a tense engame position, but forced the advantage by pushing his king side forward. Matthew Wyza (white) missed one winning opportunity, and soon found himself with pawns locked together on f3 and f4. His rook on d4, against black's bishop on b8. With careful play, he drove the black king across to the a file, with inevitable results - Well done Matthew.

With just three matches still playing, it still looked like Notts would win by the narrowest of margins. Steve Hill asked how the game was going, and was told that a draw from him would be useful. A short time later Bill Armstrong's win brought the teams level. Now there was just Steve's game to finish. A tense position, with plenty of onlookers. On Steve's clock his flag had started to lift, his opponent had almost 10 minutes left. Then it was all over - Alan's team had won, by the narrowest of margins.

Once confirmed, this results should put the Staffs team in equal second place. Well done to Alan Thomason and everyone on the team.

The season concludes with a match against Shropshire, in Shifnal next month.
Good Chess!

Bd Grade Staffordshire Nottinghamshire Grade
1 159 Richard Parker 0 1 Robert P Taylor 157
2 157 John Staniforth ½ ½ Stephen J Foster 156
3 156 Ben Zitha 1 0 Eric Williamson 156
4 154 Max Wootton 0 1 Tim R Poole 155
5 153 Peter Leary 0 1 Richard Myers 153
6 153 William Armstrong 1 0 Janos Wagenbach 152
7 152 Steve Hill 1 0 Dragoljub Sudar 151
8 152 Derek Perks ½ ½ Marcel Taylor 150
9 151 Mike Groombridge ½ ½ Keith W Roper 148
10 147 Phil Staley 1 0 J Keith Walters 148
11 146 Ken McNulty 0 1 John Tassi 146
12 146 William Rea ½ ½ Philip D Morgan 145
13 139 Ken Francis ½ ½ Stanley E E Cranmer 144
14 137 Matthew P Wyza 1 0 Keith D Brameld 143
15 133 Peter Broomhall 1 0 George J Murfet 140
16 128 Andy Lenz 0 1 Hamzah Ali 140
TOTALS 8½ 7½

Staffordshire 11½ - 4½ Warwickshire
Match played 23 January 2010

Bd Grade Staffordshire Warwickshire Grade
1 159 Richard Parker 1 0 Robert Reynolds 159
2 157 John Staniforth 1 0 Neil Clarke 158
3 156 Ben Zitha 0 1 Darren Lee 155
4 156 Frank Wood 1 0 Philip Bull 150
5 154 Max Wootton ½ ½ Anthony Sadler 150
6 142 Alan Thomason ½ ½ Mike P Maher 149
7 153 Peter Leary ½ ½ Andrew Moxley 149
8 153 William Armstrong 0 1 Mark E Tallis 150
9 152 Derek Perks 1 0 John F Fahy 147
10 152 Steve Hill 1 0 Andrew J Moxley Ung
11 151 Mike Groombridge 1 0 Louis S Rawson 147
12 146 William Rea 1 0 Jon A Asbury 142
13 134 John Day ½ ½ Fred S Dickson 141
14 139 Ken Francis ½ ½ Andrew Cottom 141
15 137 Matthew P Wyza 1 0 Alan J Burnett 140
16 125 Brian Birchall 1 0 Chris W Pitt 131
TOTALS 11½ 4½

Staffordshire 8 - 8 Manchester Federation
Match played 7 November 2009 in Newcastle, Staffs.

Match report by Matthew Carr.
Play was due to start at 1:30 and when that time came all our opponents were here but three of our team were unfortunatly detained. Twenty minutes into play they had arrived and the battles were all in.

Some strong openings as expected from this team. Matthew Wyza had to face a centre counter, William Armstrong had to face the dutch defence, Steve Wilcox had the English thrown at him and I had to deal with the Kings Gambit accepted. While I was doing this early observation I noticed one of our boards had already finished. John Staniforth had secured a draw, well done John.

Just after the hour mark we were on 1½ - ½ however a blunder from me put us back on even ground, sorry everyone. After the two hour mark was reached everything was still even, then Mike Groombridge informed me he had lost and then Steve Wilcox's game ended in a draw.

After three hours things started to look good for Staffordshire. Matthew Wyza and Peter Broomhall won their games and brought the score to 6½ - 7½ to Manchester, so victory depended on wins from our last two boards. William Armstrong managed a draw, well done.

Now we could only draw - it all depended on Derek Perks. To me the game looked drawn but his opponent had only a few minutes left. The tension in the room was high and everyone was bunched around the board, I'm 5ft 11 so trying to look over the shoulders of people who were 6ft 3 meant I didnt even know the result until it was put on the score board. Derek's opponent had resigned with only seconds left, meaning we drew the match 8-8. Well done Derek.

It was a great day I thought, and look forward to reporting on my next (and possibly my last county game for some time), the U140 match against Debyshire.

Until then enjoy chess.
Matthew Carr.

Bd Grade Staffordshire Manchester Grade
1 157 John Staniforth ½ ½ Alan Beresford 159
2 156 Ben Zitha 1 0 Jon Lonsdale 157
3 154 Max Wootton 0 1 Joao Rita 155
4 153 Peter Leary 0 1 Steven Jones 143
5 153 William Armstrong ½ ½ ADB Wilkinson 153
6 152 Derek Perks 1 0 Matthew Pollard 149
7 152 Steve Hill 0 1 Richard Nurse 149
8 151 Mike Groombridge 0 1 Mick Connor 147
9 147 Andrew Leadbetter 1 0 Peter King 146
10 146 Ken McNulty 0 1 Mark McNulty 144
11 146 William Rea ½ ½ Damian McCarthy 142
12 157 Steve Wilcox ½ ½ Jim Nicolson 141
13 137 Matthew P Wyza 1 0 Ray T Sumner 140
14 135 Matthew Carr 0 1 Graham Phythian 137
15 133 Peter Broomhall 1 0 Les Moore 129
16 125 Brian Birchall 1 0 Harry Brooks 110
TOTALS 8 8

Leicestershire 9 - 7 Staffordshire
Match played 17 October 2009 in Leicestershire.

Match report by Matthew Carr:
The match started on time with all players present. Staffordshire were white on the even boards. An hour into the match and Alan Thomason and Peter Leary had secured draws. Peter Shaw finished next, unfortunately not with the result we wanted but it was still early days. Two hours later the score was 7 - 5: There were 4 games still playing and Staffs were 2 points behind.

Matthew Carr was a Rook, Bishop and Knight v Queen but lost the rook, with the inevitable result just a few moves later. Only minutes after that Ray Dolan followed suit, and resigned. That left just Steve Hill and Ben Zitha still playing.

Ben came through first. In the endgame, he pushed the a & b pawns and used them to checkmate the enemy king - a very rare checkmate if I do say so, and well done to him. In the final game, Steve's position looked very drawish but he managed to block out the opposing bishop and promote to queen. In the end Leicestershire won 9 - 7 but what a great day of fun we had.

Bd Grade Leicestershire Staffordshire Grade
1 159 Dave Farrell 1 0 John Staniforth 157
2 159 Rajin Ganger ½ ½ Mark Handley 157
3 156 Greg Adcock 0 1 Ben Zitha 156
4 154 Paul Deacon 0 1 Max Wootton 154
5 154 Karl Potter 1 0 Stephane Pedder 154
6 152 Alan Jex ½ ½ Peter Leary 154
7 150 Steve Turvey ½ ½ Mike Groombridge 151
8 143 Bob Collins 0 1 Steve Hill 152
9 141 Tom Dove ½ ½ Alan Thomason 142
10 140 Peter Harrison ½ ½ Matthew Wyza 137
11 138 Larry Hayden 1 0 Matthew Carr 135
12 137 Peter Hickman ½ ½ John Day 134
13 137 Tony Robinson 1 0 Ray Dolan 127
14 137 Barney Thomas ½ ½ Alan Dobson 125
15 135 Ian Farquaharson ½ ½ Paul Clapham 107
16 129 Roy Lathwood 1 0 Peter Shaw 107
TOTALS 9 7

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