John Littlewood CC's inaugural fixture saw a narrow 1.5 - 2.5 home defeat to Hoylake in the Under 6000 league.
Board 1: M. Stoddart (Hoylake) (1701) vs. T. Francis (JL) (1587) 1-0
A topsy-turvy opening/early middlegame lead to what should have been an excellent position for Tom. However, with two pieces for a rook and pawn, and good squares for his pieces, he made a fatal misstep in allowing Mike's rooks to invade the seventh rank.
Board 2: K. McGarry (JL) (1486) vs. M. Battersby (Hoylake) (1430) 0.5-0.5
We had high hopes for this one. Keeghan, taking advantage of some excessive early pawn moves by Matt, managed to open lines to the black king. Sadly, he missed the killer tactic that would have complimented the rather attractive pawn sacrifice that preceded it. In the end, he was somewhat fortunate to draw, as Matt emerged from the chaos a good pawn up.
Board 3: S. Scullion (Hoylake) (-) vs. K. Broxup (JL) (1667) 0-1
Keegan Broxup takes his place in the (local) history books as scoring the first ever win by a John Littlewood player. A typical Scandinavian middlegame dissolved into a superior endgame for black, which ended prematurely owing to a blunder. Keegan was a late stand-in on board 3, and outgraded his opponent to a slightly regrettable degree, but it all has to start somewhere.
Board 4: P. Walsh (JL) (-) vs. T. Alldis (Hoylake) (1241) 0-1
Paul, also a late stand-in, acquitted himself well in his very first rated game. Alas, Tyler's greater experience meant eventual material losses for our man. Again, it all has to start somewhere...