The first game finished was on board 3 when Shrewsbury's Chris Lovejoy overlooked a combination from young opponent David Birtenshaw which lead to checkmate. Then a rook and pawn ending on board four went Shrewsbury's way to equal the score as Matthew Best overcame Luke West. On board one Shrewsbury's 'honorary' junior Ian Davies built up a strong attack and won his match against Mark Richards.
Henry Graham then clinched the match for Shrewsbury with a win on board five against Richard Heath. Henry got a two pawn advantage then sensibly swapped off major pieces and eventually won a rook as well.
The final game which wouldn't affect the final score was nonetheless the most closely-fought of the match. Shrewsbury's Francis Rooney defended stoutly against an attack on his kingside from his former team mate Jonathan Newey who now plays for Newport. The final stages of the game saw Jonathan a piece up but Francis' advanced pawn caused him a lot of problems with a number of mating threats from rook and king. Jonathan decided to give up his rook for the advanced pawn leaving him with a knight and three pawns against the rook. Perilously short of time, Francis found a way of forcing off a pawn and then Jonathan had to give away his queen promoted from a pawn to avoid checkmate.
The final seconds involved a desperate chase of king against knight and pawn and showed the weakness of the knight in such situations ending up with a drawn king against king and a pawn. Great entertainment for those watching!
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