Summer League teams

We play in the South East Lancashire Summer League during the 'close season'.

The league website is http://selscl.org.uk/

Season 2024

(Click here to view previous seasons)

This year, for the first time since 2017, we will be running a second team in the Summer League.

1st team fixtures
Date Competition Opponents H/A Result Score
06/06/2024 Cup Swinton & Worsley A Lost ½-5½
17/06/2024 A Div 3Cs I H Lost 2½-3½
09/07/2024 A Div Chorlton I A Lost 1½-4½
05/08/2024 A Div Blue Club I H Lost 1-5
20/08/2024 A Div Atherton I A Lost 1½-4½
02/09/2024 A Div Eccles I H Lost 2½-3½
12/09/2024 A Div Swinton & Worsley I A Lost 0-6


2nd team fixtures
Date Competition Opponents H/A Result Score
03/06/2024 E Div(W) Swinton & Worsley III H Lost 1-3
27/06/2024 E Div(W) Eccles IV A Lost 1½-2½
15/07/2024 E Div(W) Chorlton V H Lost 1-3
22/07/2024 E Div(W) Bolton II A Lost 1-3
12/08/2024 E Div(W) Atherton II H Won 3-1
27/08/2024 E Div(W) Chorlton VI A Won 3-1

12/09/2024 - Swinton & Worsley I 6 Altrincham I 0

Our summer season ended with a wipe out against Swinton & Worsley - with a weakened team there was never any realistic hope of getting the 4-2 win needed to avoid relegation. There were some hard fought games though. Tony reports "..it looks as if I threw another winning position away as John left a knight en prise which I didn't take, opting for something better which wasn't!" AJ's game also went the distance. I played probably my worst game of the summer, succumbing as White in only 23 moves. Our new member Faris put up a decent fight on board 6 against one of S&W's fast improving juniors. Sheraz and Nicolas were the other unsuccessful team members.

02/09/2024 - Altrincham I 2½ Eccles I 3½

We narrowly lost our penultimate Summer League match. Although Mark was available (giving Reg a welcome respite from board 1!) we were still outrated significantly, and lost on the top 3 boards (Mark, Reg and Tony). However Sheraz and Nicolas won, with Nick drawing. A win in this match would have taken us off the bottom of the table - we now need to win our final match at Swinton & Worsley by at least 4-2.

20/08/2024 - Atherton I 4½ Altrincham I 1½

On each of the top 5 boards the rating differences were around 300 points in our opponents' favour (400 in one case!) so we went down to a predictable defeat. Reg was delighted to draw on board 1 with Ethan Norris (rating 2249), who had finished in a tie for third place in the Manchester Congress the previous weekend. Bill McCartney was our other scorer on board 6, with a miraculous win after being a piece down. Tony, Sheraz, AJ and Nicolas Rojas (on his debut for the club) were unable to overcome the big rating gap.

12/08/2024 - Altrincham II 3 Atherton II 1

We finally broke our duck in the Summer League, with a 3-1 win for our 2nd team against Atherton 2nd. Winners were Tony Lane, Bill McCartney and Alan Tyson (who later admitted that he swindled a win from a lost position). This lifts the team to the lofty heights of 5th in the E Division table (out of seven teams!)

05/08/2024 - Altrincham I 1 Blue Club I 5

Another heavy defeat, with a very much under strength team against the very strong Blue Club. We avoided a whitewash courtesy of one of our opponents dropping out late in the day, giving us a default win on board 6!

09/07/2024 - Chorlton I 4½ Altrincham I 1½

Another defeat against a very strong Chorlton team, who outrated us by over 300 points per board on average, so to draw three of the games was actually better than statistically expected. All our draws were with the White pieces, by Sheraz, Tom and Reg, but Tony also came very close to getting a result. AJ and Alan were unsuccessful against tough opponents.

17/06/2024 - Altrincham I 2½ 3Cs I 3½

The first league match for our 1st team in A Division, and a narrow defeat to the mighty 3Cs. We were heavily outrated on the top four boards, and Tony, Nick (making his first appearance for over 4 years) and Reg all lost. However, AJ pulled off a great win on board 4 over 1968 rated Andrew Lewis. The two lower boards were more evenly matched, where Bill also won on board 6, and Richard drew.

06/06/2024 - Swinton & Worsley 5½ Altrincham ½ (Alan Yarker Cup)

We went out of the cup at the first hurdle, against a much higher rated Swinton & Worsley team. Reg scored our only half point on board 1, after 89 moves with an 11p.m. finish! Tony, Sheraz, AJ, Bill and Vinay were unable to overcome the big rating difference.

03/06/2024 - Altrincham II 1 Swinton & Worsley III 3

The young stars of the future from the Swinton Chess Academy were too hot for our 2nd team to handle in our first match of the season.

Vinay was playing his first match for the club, and he and his opponent both played at a very fast rate. The advantage seemed to swing to and fro (it was difficult for me to keep up!) but eventually Vinay lost. A useful experience for him though, and hopefully he will improve with more games, especially when he learns to slow down a bit!

Bailey was also prepared for his first match, but unfortunately his opponent did not show up, so the visitors had to default this game. It must have been disappointing for Bailey, but he will get his chance again in a later match.

The top two games took a lot longer, and were interesting struggles, which could have gone either way. Richard finally missed his opponent's two move mate threat, and Alan also fell victim to some tricky tactics, which youngsters seem to excel at.