Hosts left out in cold as freeze bites

Shropshire's finest were frozen out of the big prizes at the county's biggest chess event, with all three sections in the snowbound Wrekin Chess Congress being won by "outsiders" who had braved the winter weather in search of plunder.

A number of competitors cried off due to the conditions, and some others who started the tournament withdrew during it for the same reason.

Over half of the 96 who managed to make it to the weekend tournament at the Madeley Court Centre in Telford were from out-of-county.

Northwich, Warley, Stafford, Stourbridge, Rugeley, Lichfield, Holmes Chapel, Birmingham, Newcastle-under-Lyme . . . all were represented in the prize list and took a share of the loot totalling over £1,000. The winner in the strongest section, the Premier, had travelled all the way from Colwyn Bay.

He was David Jameson who secured the £200 prize with a final round win over Newport's Gavyn Cooper, which took him to a score of four out of five.

All players in the competition, unless they opted for a half-point bye in one round (a popular move on Saturday night), played five games, three on Saturday and two on Sunday.

Shropshire players were completely shut out of all the other money winning positions in the Premier too, although as only five of the 25 contenders were from the county, it is perhaps not surprising.

The best "home" performer was Shrewsbury's Francis Best, whose score of four in the Major - for players of intermediate strength - would have been enough to win in some previous years, but he had to be content with equal second, half a point behind Martyn Harris of Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Graham Shepherd of Church Stretton shared the prize for best performance by a player graded under 140, earning £12.50 for his efforts.

Champion in the Minor was Rugeley's Paul Jackson on 4.5. Oswestry's Alf Evans and Newport's Richard Szwajkun shared a under-105 grading prize, and Peter Mellor of Telford-based Coddon shared the prize for best junior performer.

Principal organiser Richard Thompson, of Shifnal & Telford Chess Club, said: "I think that under the circumstances it's gone extremely well.

"The atmosphere seems to have been good. It was a bit sad we lost about 10 entrants or so because of the weather.

"There were others who did not enter because of the weather, and some withdrew half way through. Everybody enjoyed themselves and that's the main thing."

He also praised the efforts of the caterers who were a "scratch team" who came in at the last minute.