The new Dragon League was a hectic mass of organised chaos! With a record 24 of Castell Nedd’s junior members, 2 new players, and (with a slight slip up in fixtures that saw four guest teams arriving to take part in the league instead of three) 14 guests coming along to take part in the league, the room was packed with a mass of 40 players and their parents! It was fantastic to see so many young players taking part in chess and we can only hope that some of these will make their way into the adult league one day.
Headmaster Gary Clement, an old friend of the club secretary, brought along Toby Duet and Archie Evans to play for Crymlyn, joining Oscar Purcell and Arush Ram who were also members of Castell Nedd. They had one of the hardest teams to start with, Castell Nedd’s Barbarians, so there was certainly a battle that, unfortunately for Crymlyn, ended in 4 – 0 to the Barbarians. With gifted youngster Tristan Rostier-Llwyd leading (shockingly only having played chess for 6 months), the totally focused William O’Connor-Gunston on board two, and players Angela Zhu and Cae Aubrey making their mark the Barbarians certainly showed their skill.
The much newer Glynneath Library showed exceptional playing against Clydach, taking a 3.5 – 0.5 win away with them. Although the club has only been running for just over a year now, Glyn Hill has recently been going up to help and should definitely be given a hats off to his contribution. There were particularly good games from Mariya Sony (Clydach) and Angel Bithell (Glynneath Library) who got down to a two rook and pawn ending with very few mistakes. It’s always rewarding to see a chess game where blunders haven’t ended the game before it starts! There was also a fantastic game to Sophia Harris and Mia Matson, with a complicated middle game that was no way swayed in either direction.
Finally, due to my fixture mistake, St Joseph’s took on the Barbarians in the latter’s second match. Ian’s school played well but the top two Castell Nedd boards showed their strength again while board four achieved another win. The match ended 3 – 1.
In the background, club members battled it out in the Club Championship and took part in tactical lessons to learn about skewers and disclosed attacks. The night didn’t seem to end. All in all, the evening was a tad stressful but very successful! The first round of this experiment Dragon League seems to have gone well (thank you to Ian Eustis for coming up with the name) and we can look forward to good games in the next few rounds. A thank you to Martyn Griffiths, Glyn Hill and Claire O’Connor-Gunston for the help they gave and the stress they took off the main organiser’s shoulders! Another thank you to Gary Clement, Rhyannon Smith and Ian Eustis for coming along to support their teams. I would also note a thank you to Claire who has offered to donate to the league to buy a trophy. Here’s to more success to come.
**January results:**
**Clydach 0.5 Glynneath 3.5**
Allan Paul 0 Lisa Gale 1
Mariya Sony 0 Angel Bithell 1
Sophia Harris 0 Mia Matson 1
Justin Joseph 0.5 Charlotte Elson 0.5
**Crymlyn 0 Barbarians 4**
Oscar Purcell 0 Tristan Rostier-Llwyd 1
Arush Ram 0 William O’Connor Gunston 1
Toby Duet 0 Angela Zhu 1
Archie Evans 0 Cae Aubrey 1
**Barbarians 3 St Joseph’s 1**
Tristan Rostier-Llwyd 1 Owen Morgan 0
William O’Connor-Gunston 1 Gwen Davies 0
Angela Zhu 0 Elves Jake-Justin 1
Cae Aubrey 1 Nishail Nipim 0
**Next fixtures:**
11th February St Joseph’s v Clydach Glynneath Library v Crymlyn
