Juniors battle in Newport-Coddon match

The battle of juniors raged in Newport on Thursday night as Peter Mellor and Athar Mehmood, board 1 and 2 for Shropshire Juniors respectively, tussled on top board. Athar eventually gaining the victory. However, the rest of the games finished a lot quicker. Board 5 was settled after move 1 as for the third time Newport had to default with the loss of Luke West. Board three ended next when Huw Davenport agreed a draw with his childhood chess coach Alan Shaw. After playing on Shaw realised he would have won as a forced back rank mate was unseen by Davenport. Jamie Allan and Mark Richards lost on the other boards meaning Coddon won convincingly. Coddon B 3.5-1.5 Newport Juniors P Mellor 0-1 A Mehmood A Pickles 1-0 M Richards A Shaw 0.5-0.5 H Davenport N Paul 1-0 J Allan C Paul 1-0 Default