County Captains for 2012/2013
Open - Mike Conroy
U180 - John Cooper
U160 - Bill O'Rourke
U140 - Dave Almond
U120 - Dave Thorp
U100 - Phil Shaughnessy
There has been a rash of Roses battles recently in this season's Northern Counties Chess Union Championships. The results at the various levels were as follows.
We understand that Yorkshire are not entering the U140 competition this season and so Lancashire's team will progress straight through to the national stages.
NCCU U160 Lancashire 8 v 4 Cumbria - Played at the Reform Club Lancaster 09/02/14
After Cumbria's victory last season, it was with some trepidation that we met again. However I felt we had a stronger team this year. Jordan Lewis was the first to finish, with a draw on board 3. Speaking later George said he was happy to get the draw, as he felt Jordan had an advantage in the ending. Roger Chapman weighed in with a nice win to give us a lead, which Paul Bridge doubled quite soon after. 2½-½.
Lancashire's U180 and U160 players headed off to Finals Day of the ECF County Championships on Saturday, 13th July 2013. The venue for the event was the Trident Centre, Warwick and play was due to start at 13:30. Unfortunately many of Lancashire's players were late due to closure of the M6 and this did our players no favours at all.
Despite the travel problems, and defaulting board 1 because Dominic Rabbitte couldn't make it through the traffic on time, the U180 team were comfortable winners in the end against Cambridgeshire. Congratulations to captain John Cooper and all his players.
Unfortunately the U160 team couldn't quite surmount the travel difficuties and ended up losing a very close match to Essex. Many thanks are due to the organisers and the Essex captain and players who all did what they could to accomodate our late arrivals.
The Essex v Lancashire U100 semi-final match was played at Syston and District Social Club in Leicester and the result was 9-3 to reigning national champions Essex.
Lancashire's Open team also lost in the semi-final, this time by a score of 10 - 6 to Surrey.
Better news for the U160 team who beat Warwickshire by 9½ - 6½ when the two teams played at Newcastle Under Lyme Bridge Club on Sunday 9th June 2013. The team will now face either Essex or Nottinghamshire on Finals Day.
Good news too for the U180 team who also qualified for Finals Day with a 11½ - 4½ victory over Kent on 16th June. They will face Cambridgeshire.
Lancashire's U180 team were drawn against Warwickshire in the quarter finals. The match was played on Sunday 12th May 2013 and resulted in a win for Lancashire by 10 - 6.
The Open team had a reasonably comfortable 9½ - 5½ win against Somerset in their quarter final match held on Saturday 18th May 2013.
The U160 team played their quarter final match against Kent at Syston on Saturday 18th May 2013. The match was a close affair with Lancashire eventually progressing to the semi-finals by a score of 8½ - 7½.
Lancashire U120's quarter final match against Essex was held at Cossington on Saturday 18th May 2013. Unfortunately Essex won the match 7-5.
The U140 team were well beaten by Shropshire when the two sides met on Sunday 19th May 2013.
The U100 team progressed to the semi-finals without moving a piece as their opponents Leicestershire defaulted at the quarter final stage.