Fenton Into Withnall Trophy Semi-Final

Fenton moved into the semi-final of the Withnall Trophy with an excellent 3-2 win over last years winners, Rushall, in a match played at Stafford. An early win for Ernie on Board 4 gave us a good start. Stuart then agreed a draw on Board 3 to give us a 1.5 - 0.5 lead halfway through the evening. Geoff was always in control in his match on Board 2 and went into an endgame with a 3 pawn advantage and the inevitable win followed, putting us 2.5 - 0.5 in the lead and guaranteed to win the match whatever happened on the other 2 boards. We could afford to lose both remaining games and still win the match on the elimination rule. In the event it didn't come to that as Neal drew an extremely hard fought game on Board 1 to put us 3-1 up. Unfortunately, Derek was unable to get anything out of his game on Board 5 and Rushall pulled one back to make the final score 3-2. You can click here to view the full score card. This was a great result against a team who traditionally do very well in this competition and who outgraded us on every board.