SUPER PHILCO ON FIRE

In atrocious driving conditions our opponents travelled across the county for this Cheshire derby with Macclesfield C aiming to build on last week’s success with the visit of Altrincham A. Super Philco, fresh from his looting of the prize money at Stockport and Frodsham was the first to declare having got the better of an opponent 28 grading points higher. I’ve tended to stay sat down much more in recent weeks putting my journalistic ambitions to one-side and trying instead to win an occasional game. I did however sneak a peek at Board 5 where Dave M had opened up his opponents defences and sure enough a second win was recorded for the Macc Lads. Marc was next to finish agreeing a draw with his old adversary Bill. Next to me Tony and Reg seemed to be pushing the wood to little effect when an attack by the former led to a forced mate. This was game over in record breaking time. Even when Tom confessed to losing to Stephen on Board 6, Man with Hat was still giddy at the result that it clearly affected his play. Truth was I played a poor game but well played to my opponent Mark who outplayed me when watched by his team mates who presumably were by now looking forward to an early night.

So the Macc C bandwagon rolls on and we move albeit temporarily to the dizzy heights of third. We have now played everyone bar Chorlton and with the exception of Macc B competed well. However, most of the results in this division have been close and we do have 5 away games to negotiate. Watch this space!

FORAGING IN FRODSHAM

Over the 3rd,4th and 5th of February, three Macclesfield players participated in the Frodsham Congress. Phil Colville was playing in his first standard play congress in over 25 years, but fresh from his success at Stockport, he won 4 of his 5 games to finish equal second in the U120 section. Patrick Curr managed 1.5 points but, as lowest graded in the section, that represented a good return. The Secretary having taken a half point bye in round 3, entered the final round of the U160 section on 3.5 and in joint first place. He turned down a draw offer (which would have given him a 4 way share of 1st place), as he was a pawn to the good. A serious error this turned out to be as he went on to blunder, losing material and eventually losing on time....will he ever learn!

INVASION OF STOCKPORT

An army of Macclesfield players invaded Stockport on Sunday to participate in the annual quickplay tournament. In addition to the various section prizes, of particular interest were the Stockport League trophies (for best placed Stockport League registered players) and also the veterans prize for which Macclesfield had its own dad's army contingent!

Robert Shaw produced a fighting defence of his Open section title with an excellent score of 4 out of 6. In the Major, Colin Davison was not able to hold on to his Stockport League prize from 2016, but that honour remained in the club thanks to Dave Risley whose 4.5 points included a win over the secretary. Dave won a grading prize too and also took the veteran's prize to complete a profitable campaign. Denzil may have been lowest graded in this section, but managed a couple of good wins.

In the Intermediate Section, the Macclesfield Challenge came from the two Phils, and also Mick and Marc. All recorded good scores, but Phil Colville, in his first congress of recent years, scored 4 points to win both a grading prize and the Stockport League trophy. Phil was last seen walking out into the Manchester evening to spend his winnings on on a family meal.