Derek Whitehurst Wins Rapidplay Championship

Many congratulations to Derek Whitehurst on winning this season's Rapidplay Championship. A couple of late withdrawals meant that 12 people contested the event - still an excellent turnout. An exciting competition saw Mike Smith winning his first 3 games and taking a 1 point lead into round 4 where he was drawn against Derek. Unfortunately, Derek upset Mike's applecart by beating him to go level on 3 points going into round 5. Jason also caused a bit of an upset by beating yours truly in round 3 and also putting himself on 3 points. This led to an exciting final round with 3 players level on 3 out of 4. Derek was drawn to play Jason and beat him to move up to 4 points and Mike did the same to Stuart, putting him on 4 points as well. This meant a 2-way tie had to be decided by an Armageddon game. Mike had the White pieces and 6 minutes on his clock and Derek had the Black pieces and 5 minutes on his clock. 7 minutes later it was all over and Derek had beaten Mike for the 2nd time in the evening to become the new Champion. He was also the only player to be unbeaten on the night, with 3 wins and 2 draws from his 5 games prior to the Play-Off. You can click here to view all of the results from the tournament.