21/04/23
With the current World Championship providing a feast of decisive games, rather than the normal draw fests of recent years, Telepost league action has followed the trend with a succession of dramatic results, both good and bad.
In Division One, Telepost A maintained their challenge for honours with a hard fought win away to Maddocks B but then suffered their worst result of recent times. Down one player, the A team travelled to Oswestry for a fixture that had been rearranged following a postponement for bad weather. The missing player was top board Nigel Ferrington, and with league rules determining that the default has to be made on bottom board, all the Telepost players were forced to move up a board. The highly experienced Oswestry team took full advantage, securing a whitewash 5-0 win. However, the A team are still in touch to fight for second place and have a chance to put the record straight when Oswestry arrive in Abbey Foregate next week (Mon 24) for the return fixture.
The decisive results went the other way for the A team in Rapidplay Division 1. Their most recent match night, hosted at Telepost, saw them secure three wins out of three. Phil Zabrocki maintained his superb form, picking up three wins to remain unbeaten across the season so far. Nigel Ferrington, with 7.5/9, and David Hodge, with 7/9, have joined Phil to form the backbone of a formidable team. The A team are now level with Maddocks A at the top of the table with both teams having six games left to play over two match nights. If the A team can prevail, it would make for a Rapidplay double as the C team have already secured Division 2.
In Division Two, Telepost C suffered a 0.5/4.5 loss to champions elect Telford A which means they still need one point from their final fixture – a home derby against Telepost E – to secure a promotion which would counterbalance Telepost B’s drop from Division One, which has now been confirmed following their own 0.5/4.5 reverse against Shrewsbury A. The B team’s blushes were saved by Rob Nield’s draw against Shrewsbury’s Peter Kitchen, while Nick Holmes did likewise for the C team with a topsy turvy draw against Telford’s Roger Brown. Meanwhile Telepost E fought for a superb 3-2 win away to Maddocks C. The match featured a winning league debut for Archie Flavell, one of our ever growing crop of Juniiors. Congratulatons Archie!
The influx of Juniors has contributed to a new record membership for the club of 48 players. This has necessitated some reorganisation of the club room to accommodate all the activity – a healthy problem to have, indicating the continued resurgence of the game.
4NCL Online Season 7 came to a close with Telepost Dark Knights 1 losing 3-1 to Colchester JFF and TDK 2 losing 3.5-0.5 to a War & Piece Nimrod team which included Maddocks’ Munroe Morrison, who drew with Dennis Bonner. TDK 2 pipped TDK 1 on game points as the teams finished in 22nd and 24th place respectively in their debut season. The next season comes in September and we hope to add a Junior side to our squad. Captains Matthew Clark and John Casewell thanked all who played for the teams – let Matthew or John know if you’d like to be involved in the next season.
Entries are now open for this year’s Shrewsbury Town Championship, which will be enlivened by the addition of Junior players. Open to all members of Telepost or Shrewsbury clubs, the championship is a five-round Swiss, played as one game a month from May to September. Up for the grabs are Open Champion, U1700 Champion and U1400 Champion. Contact the organiser, Paul Billington, before the end of this month if you’d like to enter.