Press Report 27th October 2017

The week started on a Monday for the South Hams Chess Club with an away match against Torbay Chess Club who are based in Torquay. They got off to a flying start with an early win for David Archer against Matthew Wilson. This was followed by a draw from Ben Wilkinson and a win for Phil McConnell, which meant the South Hams had won the match. A draw in the last game to finish from Clifford Peach gave them an excellent 3-1 victory.

On Thursday club night, there was another Torbay League match against Newton Abbot. This time it was a 2 ½ - 1½ loss. Steve Levy drew on top board against ex South Hams chess player Paul Brooks although an excellent result from David Archer beating Trefor Thynne couldn’t prevent the defeat. Phil McConnell and James Schofield both lost.

In the club’s internal competitions Clifford Peach drew with Roy Greenhalgh, while Ben Wilkinson had the quickest Homan League win ever beating Chris Wilcox in just ten moves. Chris fell foul to a gambit that Ben had set for him. Then a first in the Homan League - they played their return game immediately. Normally players like to recover before a return is played, but Ben beat him again. This time not so quickly, but Chris was certainly reeling from the walloping. He learnt the hard way not to play both games on the same night. These two wins put Ben top of the Homan League.

In the Dunleavy League James Savage took revenge against Richard Thomas after a surprise defeat the previous week; Dennis Russell beat Ken Ashby; Alan Davies beat Oliver Zaffiro, but the best result of the night was junior member Noah Farrand beating James Fowler. With James chasing promotion to the Homan League this was certainly a body blow, but he was outplayed by young Noah from start to finish. When the three junior players in the club put their mind to it they are a force to be reckoned with.