Lytham failed to fulfil the fixture.
Comfortable wins on boards 2, 3 and 4 with a much closer match on board 1 with Ricky Lord ready to queen a pawn until Colin Duerden resigned.
A win win for Lytham on handicap by ½ point. Lytham Ex go through after a close battle. Michael Thistelwood was the star for Lytham, beating Marjorie Ellison in two close encounters. In game 1 he had only a minute left on his clock when he delivered checkmate. All games were well contested and could have gone either way. With a grade difference of 137 points, Poulton needed to win by 5.5 to 2.5 to go through to the next round. An enjoyable match.
Lytham needed to win this match with 6.5 points due to the handicapping system. This was narrowly achieved. In Round 1 - Phil Raynor lost a pawn to Colin Duerden in the opening but won back both a pawn and the exchange through a combination in the middle game. Abi won a lot of material against John early and crashed through to win. Leo played a couple of combinations to win material against Malcolm Wilkinson - winning easily. On Board 1 Simon Rogers put up a very good fight in a complex game against Colin Liddle. Eventually the players agreed a draw with a R+K each and no pawns on the board - Simon starting to run short of time. This left Lytham with 3 points to get in the second round. Colin Duerden touched a pawn which he could only take with his queen early on in a Sicilian Grand Prix attack - this led to the loss of the queen and the game. Leo won easily again in the second round. Lytham just needed one more point but Abi was a pawn down and Colin was being hammered by Simon. Incredibly Colin managed to get a draw by perpetual check with his queen (when he was about three pawns down) and Abi headed to an exciting finish with just half a point needed. There was a very double edged ending with little time on both clocks. After an exchange on one side of the board both kings headed over to the other side of the board to try and pick up pawns. Both kings were successful in this leaving a position where there were just bare kings on the board hence the draw that was needed was gained. A thrilling and sporting encounter between the two teams with Lytham progressing to the next round.
Morecambe gave a good account of themselves having struggled to get a team together. They were without some of their stronger players on the night. Top board saw a very tight game go to David Boyd after Alan Pidcock lost on time whilst under pressure. Phil Taylor was fortunate against Carl Heald after he carelessly lost the exchange, but he managed to activate his bishops,regain material and win an endgame. Clifford Rutlidge lost a pawn early on, but Norman Blades pieces were not sufficiently well placed to take advantage and they drew. Conor Reaney won quite quickly against Paul Horman and Rob Hanson had too many pawns in the end for Barry Bourn to cope with and he won.
This match means that Preston 1 win the League. Most of the games were very close, and Preston players had to fight hard for their results. Board 5 was claimed by Poulton because Preston did not put in a replacement player before 8pm.
| Board | Blackpool | Preston 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mitchell, Martin | 1 - 0 | O'Mara, Paul |
| 2 | James, Peter D | Draw | Pennington, Geoffrey |
| 3 | Wright, Jon M | Draw | Quinn, Kenny |
| 4 | Davies, Dennis | Draw | Ramsey, Dave L |
| Board | Preston 4 | Lytham 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fielding, Thomas | 1 - 0 | Default |
| 2 | Kumar, Arulvel | 1 - 0 | Default |
| 3 | New Player | 1 - 0 | Default |
| 4 | Fielding, Christopher | 1 - 0 | Default |
| Board | Lytham 3 | Poulton 4 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lord, Richard | 1 - 0 | Duerden, Colin |
| 2 | Wilson, Allan | 1 - 0 | Hughes, Leslie |
| 3 | Coleman, Patrick N | 1 - 0 | Lewis, Jordan |
| 4 | Robinson, Geoffrey W | 1 - 0 | Bromley, Liam |
| Board | Poulton 4 | Bispham 2 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Duerden, Colin | 1 - 0 | Batty, Harry |
| 2 | Hughes, Leslie | 0 - 1 | Wallace, Peter |
| 3 | Bromley, Liam | 0 - 1 | Thompson, Norman |
| 4 | Wilson, William | 1 - 0 | Screen, Ken |
| Board | Lytham 3 | Poulton 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Regan, John | 0 - 1 | Heelis, Connor |
| 2 | Lord, Richard | 1 - 0 | Lewis, Dominic |
| 3 | Wilson, Allan | Draw | Lewis, Jordan |
| 4 | Coleman, Patrick N | 1 - 0 | Bennett, Gary |
| Board | Blackpool | Bispham | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Coward, Neil | 0 - 1 | McGrady, Blaine |
| 2 | Coward, Neil | 1 - 0 | McGrady, Blaine |
| 3 | James, Peter D | 1 - 0 | Batty, Harry |
| 4 | James, Peter D | 1 - 0 | Batty, Harry |
| 5 | Davies, Dennis | 1 - 0 | Wallace, Peter |
| 6 | Davies, Dennis | 0 - 1 | Wallace, Peter |
| 7 | Wright, Jon M | 1 - 0 | Broxson, Ron |
| 8 | Wright, Jon M | 1 - 0 | Broxson, Ron |
| Board | Lytham 2 | Poulton 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Morrison, Lynne GP | 0 - 1 | Parker, Michael L |
| 2 | Robinson, Geoffrey W | 0 - 1 | Ellison, D George |
| 3 | Wilson, Allan | 1 - 0 | Hartley, Dave C |
| 4 | Thistlewood, Michael J | 1 - 0 | Ellison, Marjorie A |
| 5 | Morrison, Lynne GP | 0 - 1 | Parker, Michael L |
| 6 | Robinson, Geoffrey W | 0 - 1 | Ellison, D George |
| 7 | Wilson, Allan | 0 - 1 | Hartley, Dave C |
| 8 | Thistlewood, Michael J | 1 - 0 | Ellison, Marjorie A |
| Board | Poulton 2 | Lytham 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Rogers, Simon N | Draw | Liddle, Colin |
| 2 | Wilkinson, Malcolm | 0 - 1 | Ainsworth, Leo R |
| 3 | Pouncy, John | 0 - 1 | Pritchard, Abigail |
| 4 | Duerden, Colin | 0 - 1 | Raynor, Philip N |
| 5 | Rogers, Simon N | Draw | Liddle, Colin |
| 6 | Wilkinson, Malcolm | 0 - 1 | Ainsworth, Leo R |
| 7 | Pouncy, John | Draw | Pritchard, Abigail |
| 8 | Duerden, Colin | 0 - 1 | Raynor, Philip N |
| Board | Poulton 3 | Bye |
|---|
| Board | Preston 2 | Morecambe | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Pidcock, Alan | 0 - 1 | Boyd, David |
| 2 | Taylor, Phillip J | 1 - 0 | Heald, Carl |
| 3 | Rutlidge, Cliff H | Draw | Blade, Norman T |
| 4 | Reaney, Conor | 1 - 0 | Horman, Paul A |
| 5 | Hanson, Robert | 1 - 0 | Bourn, Barry D |
| Board | Preston 1 | Poulton 1 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Lund, D Brett | 1 - 0 | Ellames, Roy |
| 2 | Peacock, Malcolm R | 1 - 0 | Ellison, D George |
| 3 | Jowett, Peter E | 1 - 0 | Parker, Michael L |
| 4 | Taylor, Robert K | 1 - 0 | Rogers, Simon N |
| 5 | Default | 0 - 1 | Gorman, Ken |
Fylde Championship
| Board | White | Black | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | John Cooper (2½) | 1 - 0 | Oleg Cukovs (2½) |
| 2 | Michael Parker (2½) | Draw | George Ellison (2½) |
| 3 | Jon Wright (1½) | 0 - 1 | Malcolm Peacock (2) |
| 4 | Abigail Pritchard (1½) | 0 - 1 | Tom Fielding (1½) |
| 5 | John Regan (1) | 1 - 0 | Phil Raynor (1½) |
| 6 | Dennis Davies (1) | 1 - 0 | Les Hughes (0) |
| 7 | Pat Coleman (0) | Bye |
At the start of this round 4 players shared the lead with 2.5 points, so it was a good time to strive for a win. Two of those leaders, Michael and George, shared the point after a close game, reaching the time-control after 42 moves with only a minute left on their clocks at the time-control. Oleg's game with John was also very close but, having adjourned a pawn up after 56 moves, John just managed to win the endgame. Malcolm Peacock's win against Jon Wright enables him to join Michael and George in 2nd place with 3 points.
There was a real contest this year for the title of Blackpool and Fylde League Junior Champion between Abigail, who has held it for the last 2 years, and Tom, who won the Lancs Junior Championship last year. Tom won this one and the moves and Tom's notes can be viewed here. John Regan defeated his Lytham-Ex clubmate Phil Raynor with a devastating combination after Phil's early pressure against John's uncastled king was insufficient and Phil weakened his back rank. Finally, despite losing a piece after only 21 moves, Dennis fought back strongly and prevailed after 66 moves in a game thoroughly enjoyed by both players.