Malcolm Clarke’s weekly look at the League, including the Robertson Plate.

Chandlers Ford B team were involved in two matches this week and lost them both.  In the Robertson Plate they lost 4.5-0.5 to Hamble A, but with Hamble’s two teams in divisions 1 and 2 and their own players mostly playing in divisions 4 and 5 they were always likely to be up against it and on all boards they were outgraded by 50 or more points and on the top three boards this discrepancy averaged 78 points.  Don Creasey on board 4 obtained the only half point against an opponent 50 points higher.

In the match against University C who had already beaten them once this season Peter Przybycin and Dick Meredith obtained draws against players who had represented the University A team earlier in the week, but in the remaining games Sam Murphy was a rook down and Simon Kay was two pawns down and both games were eventually lost leaving University 3-1 winners,

For the second successive week draws featured prominently in a match involving Winchester A with four of the games being drawn in a 3-2 victory over Andover A with Jose Alfonso Jimenez Capilla their sole winner beating the experienced Stuart Knox in a match that was almost also drawn.

On Thursday Chandlers Ford A and D teams travel to Ringwood and Salisbury respectively, while on Tuesday the C team are at home to Winchester C.