Wright leads Hebden Bridge back to the top

In today's post John Kerrane reports on a busy night for Hebden Bridge Chess Club on Monday evening as both our 1st Division sides hosted fixtures at the Trades Club. This article also appeared in Thursday's Hebden Bridge Times.

Belgrave, from Claremount, Halifax, has been the surprise team in the Calderdale League first division this season, with a series of very good results early on in the season. However, their run came to a shuddering halt on Monday evening, when they visited Hebden Bridge Chess Club at the Trades Club, Holme Street, to play Hebden Bridge ‘A’.


Without one of their regular players, the home team still scored a resounding 4½-½ victory, with quick wins for Matthew Wedge-Roberts, Andy Leatherbarrow and Alastair Wright settling the issue early on. They only dropped half a point when Dave Wedge, on board 1, was forced to settle for a draw when he ran out of time just before checkmating his opponent in a simple endgame. This results puts Hebden Bridge ‘A’ back at the top of Division 1.


The individual results were:

Hebden Bridge ‘A’ – Belgrave

D. Wedge ½ - ½ G. Farrar

A. Wright 1 – 0 Malcolm Corbett

M. Parsons 1 – 0 L. Johnson

M. Wedge-Roberts 1 – 0 M. Barnett

A. Leatherbarrow 1 – 0 A. Gonzalez

4½ – 1½

Here are some of the games from this fixture.



 

It was a different story for the club’s ‘B’ team, playing the mighty Huddersfield ‘A’. The visitors fielded a very strong team, and duly walloped the home side 4-1. Only Pete Olley and Dave Sugden managed creditable draws, while the rest of the ‘B’ team were easy meat for their higher-graded opponents.


The individual results were:

Hebden Bridge ‘B’ – Huddersfield ‘A’

P. Olley ½ - ½ L. Keely

D. Shapland 0 – 1 C. Booth

M. Syrett 0 – 1 D. Firth

J. Kerrane 0 – 1 R. Boylan

D. Sugden ½ - ½ R. Sutcliffe

1 – 4

There is just time for me to let you know that Courier ‘A’ doled out a 0 – 5 execution of the hapless Todmorden ‘A’. This result means that Hebden Bridge ‘A’, Courier ‘A’ and Belgrave are all on the same number of points after 5 matches with Hebden Bridge top by virtue of their superior board count. Huddersfield ‘A’ are 3 points behind the leaders but they have a match in hand to play against Halifax ‘A’. You can see the latest league standings on the Calderdale Chess League website.