Yorkshire met Lancashire in both the U-180 and U-140 sections of the Northern Counties Chess Union’s inter-county team championships on Sunday, 08/04/2018, at Wakefield Sports Club, Eastmoor Road, Wakefield, WF1 3RR, which is the meeting place of Wakefield Chess Club to whose members thanks are due for assisting with the arrangements.

Both matches were fairly close, but both Yorkshire teams established a 2-point lead fairly early on.

Yorkshire U-180 averaged 174.5 on grading, while Lancashire averaged 163.9, predicting a “7.27-4.73” result. Yorkshire U-180 managed to notch up a 6½-3½ lead, so the games on the remaining boards, 4 and 6, though interesting, were unimportant to the overall outcome.

Yorkshire U-140 team meanwhile reached a 6-4 lead but had the worse of it in both remaining games. However, even at that stage, Yorkshire was assured of at least a win on board count. In the event a draw on bottom board, a pawn down but with opposite coloured bishops, clinched the win without resort to tie-break.

(See summary of NCCU results to date below, and notice for ECF final-stage fixtures.)

		NCCU Under-180 Championship
Bd	Col	Yorkshire	7-5	Lancashire
1	B	Rob Woodford (Darnall & Handsworth)	0-1	Robert A Newton (Heywood/Morecombe)
2	W	Steve R Hodge (Hull)	½‑½	Andrew A Clarkson (Burnley)
3	B	Jim WR Nicholson (York RI)	1-0	Scott Riley ()
4	W	Christopher Bak (Bradford)	½-½	Mark A Whitehead (Rochdale)
5	B	Andrew Bak (Bradford)	½-½	Tom Leah (Lytham Ex Chess Club)
6	W	Leo A Keely (Huddersfield)	0-1	Barry J Hymer (Lancaster)
7	B	Paul SN Kendall (Beverley)	½-½	John G Cooper (Lytham St Annes)
8	W	David C Wedge (Calderdale)	1-0	John Whitfield (Crusaders Blackburn)
9	B	Jeremy A Hamm (Sheffield Nomads)	1-0	Armand Catz (Rochdale)
10	W	John M Morgan (Calderdale)	½-½	Graham W Dobson (Crusaders Blackburn)
11	B	D Michael Denison (Wakefield)	½-½	John D Lyth (Morecambe)
12	W	Richard M Cowan (Brigantes)	1-0	William O'Rourke (Heywood)

		NCCU Under-140 Championship
Bd	Col	Yorkshire	6½‑5½	Lancashire
1	B	Phill J Beckett (Worksop)	½-½	Paul O'Mara (Preston)
2	W	David Stothard (Hull)	½-½	Robert Morris (Crusaders Blackburn)
3	B	Paul A Allison (Hull)	1-0	Derrick Taylor (Rochdale)
4	W	Andy Ross (Rose Forgrove)	0-1	Philip N Raynor (Lytham St Annes)
5	B	Neville R Pearce (York RI)	0-1	Michael J Fisher (Rochdale)
6	W	John K Holliday (Bradford Chess Club)	1-0	Dave S Almond (Heywood)
7	B	Alec Grice (Beverley)	1-0	Steve Hutchinson (Radcliff)
8	W	Chris R Tinker (Wakefield)	1-0	Jason Widdup (Morecambe)
9	B	Peter Rawcliffe (Harrogate)	½-½	David Tuke (Preston)
10	W	Ian D Strickland (West Leeds)	½-½	Steven M Flaherty (Heywood)
11	B	Paul Gelder (Alwoodley)	0-1	Con Carey (Heywood)
12	W	Norman G Andrews (York RI)	½-½	Ian Mitchell (Heywood)

NCCU County Championship results to date, in summary, have been as follows:

Section	Match Results				Winner

Open	Lancashire	7-5	Yorkshire	report	Lancashire

U-180	Yorkshire	7-5	Lancashire	(as above)	Yorkshire

U-160	Lancashire	5½‑6½	Yorkshire	report	Yorkshire

U-140	Yorkshire	6½-5½	Lancashire	(as above)	Yorkshire

U-120	Yorkshire	3½-8½	Merseyside	report	Merseyside
	Merseyside	6½-5½	Lancashire
	Lancashire	*	Yorkshire
	* yet to be played