County Teams 2015-16

3rd June 2016 : Despite Mark Hebden spearheading the team, the county first team lost to Cambridgeshire in the National stages for the 2nd successive year. Despite going 3-1 up Cambridge hauled us back and sealed the win comfortably with 3 games still in play, of which we won the last 2. There were excellent wins early on by Martin Burrows and Lewis Turner but to no avail as we had already lost when Bob Taylor and John Robinson finished proceedings, winning the last 2 games in play - the scoresheet is below.

A footnote: John Robinson played his first match for the county in May 1959 and his win in this match gave him his 100th win for the county- congratulations John. Report by Graham Booley.

22nd May 2016 : Having qualified for the Quarter Finals of the National stages of the County U100 competition only after Staffordshire declined to take up their place, Leicestershire, fielding 8 juniors in the 12 board team and outgraded by 7pts per board on average, gave a markedly 'less youthful' Essex team a real run for their money before going down 6½ - 5½ with the result uncertain until the conclusion of the final match. Things started well with an early victory for Joseph Ward-Langman but the next 6 games to finish yielded just a single point more with a win for Peter Mottram-Epson. However, with 5 games still in play a real fightback began with a combative win for Stephen Matts. A draw from Reg Agger pulled it back to 5½ - 3½ before wins from Mick Adams and Trevor Woods in quick succession took us level with a lower board count total than Essex. As a result, a draw would have sufficed to take us through to the semi finals but in the end Andy Carter fought hard but couldn't quite pull it off on board 1 against an accomplished and much improved junior, who started the season with a grade just under 100 (hence qualifying for the competition) but was clearly playing at much higher level than that during the match. the scoresheet is below. Report by Paul Mottram.

29th March : The Under 100 county team has qualified for the Quarter Finals of the National stages after Staffordshire declined the nomination. We will play Essex on the 21st May. Anyone who is interested in playing for the team please contact captain Paul Colburn on leicestershirechess@yahoo.com

29th February: In the Minor Counties section, Nottinghamshire beat Worcestersire on Saturday, which means that Leicestershire finished 2nd in the qualifying pool and avoided a preliminary round, so our next match will be on May 21st, our opponents yet to be decided. Please let captain Graham Booley know if you are available to play.

24th January 2016: The county Under 100 team lost to Warwickshire by 7 - 5 on Saturday 23rd January 2016, the scoresheet is below. It was a bit difficult to raise a team as the date clashed with several other junior events. As a result we were rather weakened and handed debuts to three young juniors on the day. Also we had to default a game at the start, as one player had to pull out before the event. So, we were heavily outgraded by the Warkwickshire side. In the end we only narrowly lost the match by 5-7, which was a fantastic performance from the team. In fact we had an opportunity to draw the match as Ben Raine, after playing an excellent game, in a winning position put his queen on a square where it could just be taken. Congratulations to those who won: Andy, George, Paul, Stewart, and Peter. And a special mention to Rakshai who playing in his first competitive match held out for over 2½ hours to narrowly lose against a player significantly higher graded than himself. Our final match is against Staffordshire on the 20th February. Report by Paul Colburn.

21st January 2016: The county first team lost to Warwickshire by 8½ - 7½ on Saturday, the scoresheet is below. Despite a gallant effort, with so many of the top boards unavailable, we couldn’t quite pull off a result.

7th December 2015 : The county first team beat Lincolnshire by 8½ - 7½ on Saturday, the scoresheet is below.

23rd November 2015 : The county first team travelled into deepest Worcestershire on Saturday, with directions reading like an episode of Countryfile and Sat Nav not knowing where the venue was and only the odd scarecrow to ask directions, most got a little lost, we eventually found our way to Tibberton. Another tight match against Worcestershire saw us scrape home 8½ - 7½. Unusually for a county match there were 11 decisive results and the match result was not decided until the last board finishing, where Alan Agnew (bd 2) held his nerve to win a tough endgame the exchange up (2R & B against R,B & N) and less than one minute on his clock.
The foundation for the win was an excellent top order display where we won 5 of the top 6 boards - Martin Burrows started the ball rolling with a relatively quick win on top board, followed by convincing wins by Andy Morley and Ray Burgess, Shabir then continued his impressive form with a win on board 3. However the match was not plain sailing and we only managed to take a one board lead to 7-6 when Jim Bingham completed his hard fought victory, however we were pegged back to 7-7 and the match looked to be heading for a draw with the aforementioned Alan Agnew the exchange up and John Mitchell a pawn down, looking worse and the customary time scramble looming! But as I was told and it was proven, you should never count out John Mitchell, having just beaten the first time control John managed to conjure a position where his opponent conceded the draw, 7½ - 7½ and on to the nerve racking finish, which we had to endure for 20 minutes before Alan finally forced the win. Well done to everyone. Scoresheet is below. Report by Graham Booley.

24th October 2015 : The county's Under 100 team went down by 8½ - 3½ to a strong Nottinghamshire team on Saturday. Given that last season Nottinghamshire won the National Finals at U100 level we shouldn’t be too despondent for our next two games: 23rd January 2016 away to Warwickshire and 20th February away at Staffordshire. Many Congratulations to Ben Raine and Paul Mottram on getting their wins. And to Andy Carter, George Worrow-Goodin and a very lucky Nathanael Jacob on their excellent draws. Report by Paul Colburn.

10th October 2015 : In the county's first match of the season against our old rivals Nottinghamshire, it was a very tight affair, in which we were leading most the way through until a couple of late losses put us at 7-7, this left just 2 boards playing for the last hour. It looked like we were on top in both games but couldn’t quite force the win needed. Shabir, making his board 1 debut, pushed all the way and despite sacrificing his rook had to agree the final draw through repetition with just a couple of minutes left - a fine performance by Shabir, stepping up to take board 1 in the absence of our top 4 boards. The scoresheet can be found below. Report by Graham Booley.

Leicestershire are running two teams in the MCCU county fixtures this season, 2015-16, a First team and an Under 100 team.

Here are the county team fixtures.

LEICESTERSHIRE COUNTY TEAM FIXTURES 2015-2016

1st Team

10th October 2015 - Leicestershire v - Nottinghamshire - drew 8 - 8 - Scoresheet

21st November 2015 - Worcestershire v Leicestershire - won by 8½ - 7½ - Scoresheet

5th December 2015 - Leicestershire v Lincolnshire - won by 8½ - 7½ - Scoresheet

9th January 2016 - Warwickshire v Leicestershire - lost by 8½ - 7½ - Scoresheet

21st May 2016 - Cambridgeshire v Leicestershire - lost by 9½ - 6½ - Scoresheet

Captain: Graham Booley 01509 816974 or email graham@acecleaningcompany.co.uk

ess.thurnby@gmail.com

Under 100 Team

24th October 2015 - Leicestershire v Nottinghamshire - lost by 8½ - 3½ - Scoresheet

23rd January 2016 - Warwickshire v Leicestershire - lost by 7 - 5 - Scoresheet

20th February 2016 - Staffordshire v Leicestershire - lost by 7½ - 4½ - Scoresheet

21st May 2016 - Essex v Leicestershire - lost by 6½ - 5½ - Scoresheet

Captain: Paul Colburn 0116 2322379 & 07971 164598 or email leicestershirechess@yahoo.com m

Some matches may be played at a neutral venue – see captains for details

*** Anyone wishing to play for any of the county teams please contact the relevant captain *** Captains are always keen to give players the opportunity to play for the County.

For full details with match reports of how the county teams performed in season 2014-15 click here.

For full details with match reports of how the county teams performed in season 2013-14 click here.

For full details with match reports of how the county teams performed in season 2012-13 click here.

For full details with match reports of how the county teams performed in season 2011-12 click here.