First Round Fervour At Fenton

The Fenton Chess Club Internal Championship kicked off last night, accompanied by the sound of South African Vuvuzela horns, or Baboon Bassoons as they're otherwise called.

The night wasn't without it's upsets as John Amison, a once strong player but now in terminal decline, laboured to a draw against promising young club junior player, Stuart Hull.  This was reminiscent of England's game against Algeria with John expected to win at a canter, but it was young Stuart who provided all of the sparkle and John left the club with the sound of the fans boos ringing in his ears.

The other theory is that John deliberately tried not to win in order to avoid a strong player in Round 2. This is blatant cheating in anybody's book and could provoke an investigation by Martyn Harris, the Judge Jeffries of Newcastle. A public hanging could be the ultimate outcome.

The major upset of the round was John White's win over Robet West, a player graded no less than 51 points higher than him.

Elsewhere, new member and relative novice, Shane Benton gave Tony Holdford a very tough game before succumbing to Tony's superior experience in the endgame. Shane is looking like being a very welcome addition to one of the club's teams next season.

Paula Yates and Jasper Carrott seemed more interested in the sandwiches than the chess but Jasper showed slightly more interest and finished Paula off while she was arguing with me over the last pork pie.

Ernie and I had hard fought wins over Derek Shitehead and Joe Orsolics repectively, both games lasting until the end of the evening.

Karl Walklate and Phil Grocott were keener than everybody else and played their match last week with Karl coming out on top.

The final game of the round was the All Taleban match between Dusty Bin Laden and Hamid Shabani. Unfortunately Dusty performed his usual trick and dropped out an hour before play was due to start, giving his opponent a win by default.

Neal Davies and Peter Tideswell both took half point byes in this round.

So Tony Holdford, the bookies favourite, has taken an early lead in the competition by virtue of his 1st Round win and the half point bye he has already been given in Round 6.