County Teams share venue against Lincolnshire

 The Staffordshire Chess Association Teams had a double match with Lincolnshire on Saturday 17th January at Bramcote in Nottingham. The Under 1650 team drew 6-6, most of the matches were drawn, but there were wins for our two youngest players, Malcolm Fletcher a Junior from Stafford Chess Club and Daniel Jones represents both Bushbury and Brewood.

First Team Captain Andrew Smith had difficulties raising a side and unfortunately he was unable to play himself due to illness on the day. A four board deficit was conceded before the match began and with Lincolnshire having several players with a 2000+ rating the score of 1.5 to 10.5 was probably better than expected. There were draws for Pavel Nefyodov (Stafford), Mircea-Marius Mesesan (Tamworth and Lichfield) and Richard Anderson (Lichfield).

Full scorecards may be viewed on the MCCU website, or the LMS

The Minor Counties (first team) and the Under 1650 team have finished their fixtures for the 2024-5 Midland Counties Championship and both teams are unlikely to be invited to participate in the National County Championship. As the only entrant in the Under 1450 competition, Staffordshire has a bye to the U1450 National Stages.

Andrew Smith deserves praise for the work he is undertaken in leading the Staffordshire first team, and let's not hope he is too disheartened. Well done Andrew.