Report by Keith Farrell
NSW Country Teams Champions Mingara (John Nutter, Mal Murrell and Dennis Ward)
The latest NSW Country Teams Championship was won by Mingara Chess Club.
After achieving 2nd placing in the previous 2 years Mingara finally
broke through in very closely fought competition where even in the final round
there were three co-leaders.
Up till round 6 Mingara and the “Fright Knights” had both built dominating
leads against the rest – the youth team from Toukley’s White Knight Chess
Club being half a point shy of Mingara. Round 5 – just two rounds till the end
and the second round of the second day, was when Newcastle laid Mingara low 2½
: ½ while Ettalong dented the Fright Knights ambitions 2 : 1 (2 draws and a
win) . This left 3 teams on 11½ and a theoretic possibility of five teams
finishing equal first !
But Mingara showed a clean set of heels to Dubbo team (though indeed each
individual games was closer than a 3 nil score leads you to think) while
Newcastle and the Knights ground each other down 1½ : 1½ .
The quest for the Reserves Shield resulted in a three-way tie between Cardiff
(who were awarded it last year); Ettalong and Gosford.
We saw 5 players score over 70% and over the seven rounds and Lennie Locke
playing board 2 for the Gosford team impressed us with elegant chess in his
unbeaten run (we haven’t seen that since 1998).
We all had a thoroughly enjoyable chess weekend.
Players who scored 5 or more from 7
1 Locke, Leonard 1568 Gosford
7
2 Ross, Bill
1536 Coffs Harbour
6.5
3-4 Losh, Gary 1524
Knights Light
6
Nutter, John
2084 Mingara
6
5 Parker, Trent 1367 Gosford
tigers 5.5
6-8 Murrell, Malcolm R 1687 Mingara
5
Barnes, Stephen 1589 Fright
Knights 5
O'Riordan, Bernard 1808 Newcastle
5
Place Name
Loc Club Score Wins
1 Mingara,
1786 14.5 5
2-4 Knights light, 1585 13
5
Newcastle,
1605 13 3
Fright Knights, 1513
13 3
5 Coffs Harbour, 1659
12.5 3
6-8 Ettalong, 1506
12 4
Cardiff,
1456 12 4
Gosford,
1502 12 3
9 Dubbo,
1534 8 2
10 Gosford tigers, 1386
7.5 2
11 Hamilton Oasis, 1140 4
1
12 Ettalong B, 891
2.5 0
No Name Loc Total 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 Mingara, 1786 14.5 6:2.5 4:3.0 2:2.0 5:1.5 8:2.0 3:.5 9:3.0 2 Knights light, 1585 13.0 10:2.0 9:3.0 1:1.0 3:2.0 4:0.0 8:2.0 12:3.0 3 Newcastle, 1605 13.0 7:1.5 5:.5 11:3.0 2:1.0 12:3.0 1:2.5 4:1.5 4 Fright Knights, 1513 13.0 12:3.0 1:0.0 8:1.5 10:3.0 2:3.0 6:1.0 3:1.5 5 Coffs Harbour, 1659 12.5 8:1.0 3:2.5 7:1.5 1:1.5 9:1.5 11:2.5 6:2.0 6 Ettalong, 1506 12.0 1:.5 10:2.0 9:.5 12:3.0 7:3.0 4:2.0 5:1.0 7 Cardiff, 1456 12.0 3:1.5 8:2.0 5:1.5 9:2.0 6:0.0 10:2.0 11:3.0 8 Gosford, 1502 12.0 5:2.0 7:1.0 4:1.5 11:3.0 1:1.0 2:1.0 10:2.5 9 Dubbo, 1534 8.0 11:2.5 2:0.0 6:2.5 7:1.0 5:1.5 12:.5 1:0.0 10 Gosford tigers, 1386 7.5 2:1.0 6:1.0 12:2.0 4:0.0 11:2.0 7:1.0 8:.5 11 Hamilton Oasis, 1140 4.0 9:.5 12:2.0 3:0.0 8:0.0 10:1.0 5:.5 7:0.0 12 Ettalong B, 891 2.5 4:0.0 11:1.0 10:1.0 6:0.0 3:0.0 9:.5 2:0.0