November 29, 2017
The Ron Evers Competition began in earnest last night at Hartlepool with South Shields 1 winning its first and second round matches to sit joint top of the leader board . A last minute change to the travel arrangements due to unforeseen circumstances forcing one of our drivers to pull out led to a frantic afternoon of phone calls and new arrangements to be sorted . Fortunately Dave Parlour , fresh from winning a grading prize at the recent Northumberland Rapid Play Tournament stepped in at the last minute to ensure we didn’t default any boards . Alan Blackburn managed a tremendous win in the match against Hartlepool who on paper were the stronger side , but our 1.5 point handicap counted in the end as we won 3 to 2.5 .
South Shields have again fielded two teams , of relatively equal grading strength . South Shields 2 picked up 1 point out of 4 , but as this years Competition is on an all play all basis there is still a lot to play for . The club is attempting to retain the trophy for the 3rd Successive year so every individual game point won is an important point . Congratulations also go to Jay Steel a relative newcomer to Chess and Shields Chess Club on winning both his games .
The next 2 rounds are being played on January 30th 2018 .
