Mosslands beats the grammars to win the Wirral Chess League

First-hand account by Matthew Howgate

The school bell went at 3:20. We all gathered inside Mr. Farrell’s room. Of course, this was part of the Mosslands’ Chess team, getting ready for the final big push in the league.

  competition from the likes of Upton Hall, Wirral Grammar and both Calday Grammar teams. One team, however, had remained above us for the entire epic; St. Anselm’s Grammar.

Tonight was the night where Mosslands could either win or come second.

Our team on the night consisted of myself, Robert Edwards, Joe Walker, Charlie Campbell and Lance Jones. Our first set of games were against Wirral Grammar and St. Anselm’s. The result was promising: we won 3 of the 4 games, allowing us to fall even with St. Anselm’s.

It was all down to the second set of games.

 All of our games were against Upton Hall. We were  against a formidable team, and the chances were  perhaps not in our favour. I recall that Joe’s game  was the first to finish – a win for Mosslands, giving  the team some much needed hope. Next to finish  was Rob’s game, which was unfortunately a win for  the opposition. Sadly, Lance’s game finished soon  afterwards, which was another loss. This led to pressure mounting on Charlie and me. I was next to have a checkmate, in our favour. It was all down to Charlie’s game which, thankfully, he won.

Mosslands had won enough games to win, but it all depended on whether St. Anselm’s could take their

 lead back. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long to find out in the big announcement from the organiser; Mosslands had won!

Our team had won the coveted trophy, held by St. Anselm’s for the last two years, and come out at the top of the Wirral Schools Chess League. We had won by just one point!

Every game we had played for the last six months had counted towards our win. To emphasise this, if we had lost just one more game in those six months, we would have drawn with St. Anselm’s.

Because of the tightness of our win, I think it only fair to give my thanks to every player and teacher who contributed to Mosslands’ win:

Ross Mercer                                                   Lance Jones

Bradley Sherlock                                            Robert Edwards

Ben Parry-Yates                                             Charlie Campbell

Jack Sharpen                                                 Mr. Johnson

Joe Walker                                                      Mr. Farrell