UK Chess Challenge Qualifying event

SAT 7 MARCH 2009 - 1pm to 5pm TRINITY SCHOOL, BUTTS LANE, FORD, SHROPSHIRE The UK Chess Challenge is the biggest junior tournament in the country and each year more than 70,000 children take part. The competition is open to all under 18s. Some schools run their own qualifying tournaments but for those who don’t have the chance to enter through their school (or who haven’t managed to qualify that way!), Shropshire Junior Chess Academy is holding a special qualifying tournament on Sat 7 March. There are lots of prizes available and the chance to qualify for the next stage of the competition which is a regional event, normally held in Hereford. And after that there are national finals held in Manchester. It is a great event and we will have lots of fun prizes at the qualifying day so no-one will go away empty-handed. Full details can be downloaded - here

Juniors still in the race - just

Shrewsbury Juniors' promotion hopes took a knock after they lost to Shifnal Telford D. The result leaves the juniors in third place but they need one of the top two to slip to have a hope of going up. Francis Rooney got the only win of the night for the Shrewsbury team while Henry Graham got another well-deserved draw on top board. Shifnal Telford D 3.5-1.5 Shrewsbury Juniors J Kenderdine 0.5-0.5 H Graham T Skidmore 1-0 C Lovejoy J Beddoes 0-1 F Rooney A Carr 1-0 M Best N Donaldson 1-0 K Lovejoy

Junior county match winners

Shropshire's Juniors had another close county match against Warwickshire. Although the match ended 7.5-4.5 in the visitor's favour, there was a chance of drawing the tie right up to the last few games. For the second match in a row, the juniors got the better of the top six boards. There were wins against higher-graded opponents for Athar Mehmod, Nathanael Paul, Francis Rooney and Luke West (the latter making his debut for the side) and Matthew Best drew. MATCH - Shropshire Junior U100 v Warwickshire

SECTION - U100

DATE - 7^th February 2009

VENUE - Trinity School, Ford, Shropshire

Board	Colour	Name Shropshre	ECF Code	Grade	Score	Name Warwickshire	ECF Code	Grade	Score
1	B	Peter Mellor	248946G	85	0	Malcolm Phipps	117082L	99	1
2	W	Athar Mehmood	264465E	78	1	Steven Bowen	263574E	97	0
3	B	Nathanael Paul	245834C	65	1	Medhi Al-Samir	270896G	95	0
4	W	Mark Richards	264468L	59	½	Richard Leaper	192092D	94	½
5	B	Huw Davenport	257511F	56	0	Paul Hardstaff	112088J	93	1
6	W	Francis Rooney	264469B	49	1	Peter Hodkinson	249822E	92	0
7	B	Jonathan Newey	267845H	49	0	John Green	273516H	92	1
8	W	Matthew Best	269317D	37	0	Ken Wise	126940K	88	1
9	B	Jamie Allen	273629K	35	0	Graham Gee	157194B	84	1
10	W	Joe Mellor	252231H	29	0	Pauline Woodward	152732A	84	1
11	B	Matthew Mellor	260562E	23	0	Shakeel Choudhury	269822F	57	1
12	W	Luke West	-	-	1	Harvey Watkins	273993J	51	0
		TOTAL			4½	TOTAL			7½

Shrewsbury Juniors continue winning run

Shrewsbury Juniors chalked up another victory in division 3 with a win against Telepost C. Wins for Chris Lovejoy, Jonathan Newey and Matthew Best added to a draw from Henry Graham to secure the win. Telepost C 1.5-3.5 Shrewsbury Juniors S Jones 0.5-0.5 H Graham C Micallef 1-0 F Rooney J Casewell 0-1 C Lovejoy B Holdford 0-1 J Newey S Sweeney 0-1 M Best

Shropshire Juniors take on Bulldogs

Shropshire's junior county team lost 8-4 away to Staffordshire Bulldogs this month. Still looking for their first county win, the juniors tied the top six boards 3-3 but lost the middle order boards. Wins came from Nathanael Paul, Mark Richards and Angelica Dean, with draws from Athar Mehmood and Francis Rooney. MATCH - Staffordshire Bulldogs v Shropshire

SECTION - U100

DATE - 10 January, 2009

VENUE - Bushbury Community Centre, Bushbury, Wolverhampton

Board	Colour	Staffs Bulldogs	BCF Code	Grade	Score	Shropshire	BCF Code	Grade	Score
1		Peter Broomhall	107382F	99	1	Peter Mellor		85	0
2		Ravi Patel	252770E	91	½	Athar Mehmood		78	½
3		Robert Brodie	143228L	90	0	Nathaniel Paul		65	1
4		Paul Walters	259317J	90	0	Mark Richards		59	1
5		Peter Crozet	176457D	88	1	Huw Davenport		56	0
6		John Fenby	185108B	83	½	Francis Rooney		49	½
7		Tony Meakin	104387A	84	1	Jonathan Newey		49	0
8		Kevin Moore	181458J	79	1	Matthew Bent		37	0
9		Paul Guest	263626J	75	1	Jamie Allen		35	0
10		Simon Jones	113908D	75	1	Joe Mellor		29	0
11		Peter Evans	128860L	68	1	Matthew Mellor		23	0
12		Siddharth Singh		Ung	0	Angelica Dean		Ung	1
		FINAL SCORE			8				4

Shrewsbury Juniors do the double

Shrewsbury Juniors completed a double over Newport Juniors in the return league match this month. Wins for Chris Lovejoy against Jamie Allan and Francis Rooney against Luke West plus a default win for Matthew Best sealed the win early on, with Jonathan Newey also securing a draw for the home side against Mark Richards. Athar Mehmood got Newport's only win against Henry Graham on board one. Shrewsbury Juniors 3.5-1.5 Newport Juniors H Graham 0-1 Athar Mehmood J Newey 0.5-0.5 M Richards C Lovejoy 1-0 J Allan F Rooney 1-0 L West M Best 1-0 default

Congress success for juniors

Shropshire Juniors stormed the Wrekin Chess Congress held in Madeley last weekend with Ieuan Fenton (17) from Oswestry winning the Major section with 4.5 points from five games and Athar Mehmood (12) from Newport club winning the Minor section with a stunning 5 points after winning all five games. A number of the county's juniors competed in the Minor section with many of them chalking up wins against higher-graded and mainly adult opponents. Full results: Major section (under 150 grade) Ieuan Fenton 4.5/5 1st place Minor section (up to 99 grade) Athar Mehmood 5/5 1st place Nathanael Paul 4/5 joint 2nd place Peter Mellor 3.5/5 Angelica Dean 2.5/5 Mark Richards 2.5/5 Chris Lovejoy 2/5 Jamie Allan 1.5/5 Matthew Best 1.5/5 Huw Davenport 1.5/3 Francis Rooney 1.5/5 Alex Dillon 1/5