This week marked the start of the Club Championship and the Pomeroy Cup. It is now up to the players to set about organising their games, and match reports will follow in the coming weeks.
There was no action in the Club Championship, as all of the club's top players were away at Wilmslow playing in the second round of the Charnley Cup.
Match Report - Charnley Cup
Wilmslow had white on odd boards. Denzil quickly forced his opponent to give up his queen to stop a mate and went on to win quickly. The Secretary benefited from his opponent's generosity, setting up Macclesfield with a 2-0 lead. Carl found it tough going on top board, eventually losing a pawn and soon after had to resign. Joachim was merciless in his match, winning pawn after pawn, and when his opponent Colin resigned it was 3-1. Ant was not doing well and looked lost so when team captain John Paul turned down a draw offer it was very worrying. Although he went a pawn down it was a relief when opposite colour bishops forced the half. Ant meanwhile was a rook down but his opponent was short of time and missed some simple wins. Inexplicably his opponent eventually let his clock run down and so Ant took home the "Swindle Of The Evening" award.
Wilmslow | 1.5 - 4.5 | Macclesfield |
Lamb, H Michael | 1 - 0 | Gartside, Carl |
Moran, Kevin J | 0.5 - 0.5 | Taylor, John Paul J |
Mills, Colin J | 0 - 1 | Trier, Joachim |
Mowat, David | 0 - 1 | Brough, Anthony RW |
Warhurst, Robin | 0 - 1 | Laurence, Geoff |
Howells, Mark | 0 - 1 | Lobo, Denzil P |
And so Macclesfield progresses to the semi final of the SDCL Charnley Cup, with the future opponent yet to be announced.
Meanwhile at home base, Brian and Marcus kicked off the 2023-24 Pomeroy cup competition, with Marcus besting his experienced opponent, punishing an early mistake.