Weekend Three of the 4NCL was played at Peterborough and for the first time all three Ashfield teams were together. Split weekends are the bane of organising so at least we were able to play in the same room (at least for Round Four).
Division Three Bishops has developed into a table of two halves. At the top, six teams have 8/12 or better whilst at the bottom, six teams have 4/12 or less – so promotion and relegation issues are already clear. In Round Three, Ashfield lost 4-2 to the strong Poole Patzers team drawing four and losing the top two boards. It needed a reversal in Round Four to ensure we didn’t finish at the bottom of the table and indeed we took a 4-0 lead against Cambridge University 2 and eventually finished as 4½-1½ winners.
In Division Four, Ashfield 2 had a Welsh weekend with matches against Castell Nedd (Neath) and the Full Ponty (Pontypool). There was certainly a welcome in the hillside for the local team as both opponents were impressively brushed to one side by 4½-1½ . The former result was no surprise but the latter match was something of a giant killing are we were conceding 100 rating points a board. The most incredible part was that Ashfield scored 6-0 on the top three boards over the weekend plus consolidating on Boards 5 & 6. The result will probably mean an up float next round.
Ashfield 3 meanwhile won easily 5½-½ on Saturday against Guildford Young Guns 2 whose ratings weren’t of the calibre to challenge our side. On Sunday there was a narrow loss by 3½-2½ to Lisburn Chess Club from Northern Ireland. Quite what happened here I’m not sure as by the time I had finished my own game, the third team match was already completed. We maintain a position in mid-table.