Shropshire junior on England duties

Best of luck to Shropshire junior Athar Mehmood who is playing in an international tournament in Poland this week with an England side playing against teams from Turkey, France and Poland. We hope to give you the results of his exploits later in the week.

UK Chess Challenge qualifiers

Congratulations to all the Shropshire juniors who qualified for the next stage of the UK Chess Challenge competition. A total of 42 Shropshire juniors took part in the Megafinal which took place at Kingstone & Thruxton School near Hereford on Saturday and all those who scored 4 points from six games or were the leading player in their age group qualified for the next stage - the Northern Gigafinal which is held in July. The UK Chess Challenge is an annual competition that encourages chess amongst junior and secondary school children and involves more than 70,000 children.
The Shropshire qualifiers for the 2009 Gigafinal are:
Greg Jones - (Much Wenlock) Under 7 - Runner up 4/6
Laura Newey - (Lilleshall) Under 10 - Suprema 5/6
Angus Ingliss-Jones - (Castle House) Under 10 - Runner up 4/6
Charlotte Collier - (Castle House) Under 11 Runner up - 4.5/6
Alice Collier - (Castle House) Under 11 4/6
Georgia Stannard - (St Georges, Shrewsbury) Under 11 4/6
Tom Holiday - (St Georges, Shrewsbury) Under 11 - Runner up 4/5/6
Joe Booth - (St Georges, Shrewsbury) Under 11 4/6
George Kilby - (St Georges, Shrewsbury) Under 11 4/6
Athar Mehmood - (Wrekin College) Under 12 - Supremo 6/6
Angelica Dean - Under 13 - Suprema 4/6
Matthew Best - ( Mary Webb) Under 13 - Supremo 4/6
Mark Richards - (Adams Grammar) Under 13 - 4/6
Jonathan Newey - (Adams Grammar) Under 14 - Supremo 6/6
Luke West - (Adams Grammar) Under 14 - 4/6
Francis Rooney (Church Stretton) Under 14 - 4/6
Peter Mellor - (Blessed Robert Johnson) Under 15 - Supremo 4/6
Chris Lovejoy - (Adams Grammar) Under 16 - Supremo 4/6
Sam Eardley - (Adams Grammar) Under 16 - 4/6
Jamie Allan - (Adams Grammar) Under 16 - 4/6
Nathanael Paul - (New College) Under 17 - Supremo 4.5/6
Alex Taylor - (Adams Grammar) Under 18 - Supremo 3.5/6
(Supremo/Suprema means they won their age section.) Apologies if I have missed any qualifiers - of so please add the details on a comment and I'll update the table.

Peter Mellor wins junior prize at Nottingham

Congratulations to Shropshire Junior's county team board one Peter Mellor who played in the Nottingham Congress last weekend and won the top junior prize with 3.5/5 in the under 100 section.

Juniors excel in league season

Shrewsbury Juniors and Newport Juniors finished fourth and fifth respectively in Shropshire's division three this season, a very good outcome for both teams who have made some great results against higher-graded adult teams. Shrewsbury, who scored five wins and three draws from 12 matches, were lying in third place right up until the last match but a match default by Wellington B let Oswestry B slip past them. Let's hope they can match that form in the summer cup competitions!

Shropshire Junior county results 2008-09

Here is a summary of the results for this season's county matches. Bearing in mind that the juniors were outgraded significantly on almost all boards, it is a truly magnificent set of results. Special commendations to Nathanael for an outstanding 4.5 points, Athar on 3 points and Francis and Angelica who both scored 2.5.

SHROPSHIRE UNDER 100 TEAM 2008-09

Players	Grade	Leic	Nott	Worcs	Staff B	Warks	Staff T	TOTAL
Peter Mellor	85	0	0	1	0	0	1	2
Athar Mehmood	78	0	1		0.5	1	0.5	3
Nathanael Paul	65	1	0	0.5	1	1	1	4.5
Mark Richards	59	0	0.5	0	1	0.5	0	2
Huw Davenport	56	0.5	1	0.5	0	0	0	2
Francis Rooney	49	0	0	1	0.5	1	0	2.5
Jonathan Newey	49	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	0.5
Matthew Best	37	0	1	0	0	0	1	2
Jamie Allan	35	0	0.5	1	0	0	0.5	2
Joe Mellor	29	0			0	0	0	0
Matthew Mellor	23	0	1	0	0	0	0	1
Angelica Dean	ug	0	0.5	0	1		1	2.5
Oscar Nicholls	ug			0				0
Chris Paul (sub)	69			0				0
Luke West	ug					1		1

Another close encounter for Shropshire Junior team

Shropshire Junior's final county match of the season ended in another tight finish which unfortunately went against us. A fine win by Peter Mellor on top board was not enough to equal the scores and left the match result 6.5-5.5 in Staffordshire Terrier's favour. However the juniors have performed magnificently against tough opposition throughout the six-match campaign with a number of good individual results. The winners in the latest match were Nathanael Paul, Matthew Best and Angelica Dean with draws from Athar Mehmood, Jonathan Newey and Jamie Allan.

Shropshire v Staffordshire Terriers

SECTION - U100

DATE - 28 March 2009

VENUE - Trinity School, Ford, Shrops

Board	Colour	Shropshire Name	BCF Code	Grade	Score	Staffs Terriers Name	BCF Code	Grade	Score
1	B	Peter Mellor	248946G	85	1	N Mclean	271134F	96	0
2		Athar Mehmood	264465E	78	½	J Day	109480E	99	½
3		Nathanael Paul	245834C	65	1	S Burndred	107695E	99	0
4		Mark Richards	264468L	59	0	P Shaw	118825C	99	1
5		Huw Davenport	257511F	56	0	D Nesbitt	171039E	96	1
6		Francis Rooney	264469B	49	0	R Dolan	157184K	94	1
7		Jonathan Newey	267845H	49	½	J Montague	179091C	93	½
8		Matthew Best	269317D	37	1	P Shelley	118855A	92	0
9		Jamie Allen	273629K	35	½	K Grzybowski	266797G	88	½
10		Joe Mellor	252231H	29	0	M Wyza	240298B	85	1
11		Matthew Mellor	260562E	23	0	C Mustaffa	249951E	73	1
12		Angelica Dean		Ung	1	J Gater	255708D	72	0
					5½				6½

Shrewsbury Juniors end season with win

Shrewsbury Juniors topped off their season with another good result, winning 3-2 against Wellington B. Helped by a default on board two, the juniors sealed the result with a fine win by Matt Best on board five and a win on top board where Louis Graham was standing in for younger brother Henry who was unwell. Shrewsbury Juniors 3-2 Wellington B L Graham 1-0 D Powell J Newey 1-0 default F Rooney 0-1 K Hickmott C Lovejoy 0-1 J Kuczjnski M Best 1-0 M Walsh