2008/09 County Juniors

Leading results and prize and trophy winners. Note that out of county players are not eligible for trophies.

Under 8
Skye Wiggins	4	1st & Trophy
Jacob Boswell	3	Best U7
Emily Chan	3	Girls prize & Trophy
Dylan Brownson	3
Aroun Kalyana	2	Special U7 prize
Under 9
Aloyius Lip	6	1st & Trophy
Ashwan Kalyana	4½	2nd
Daniel Holland	4
Alex Jarvis	4
Under 10
Tom Davies	5	1= & Trophy
Jack Healins	5	1= & Trophy
Emma Crick	4	Girls prize & Trophy
Charlie latham	4
Under 11
Ben Scattergood	5	1st
Edward Davies	4	2= & Trophy
David Kay	4	2= & Trophy
Sam Beardmore	3½
Siddharth Singh	3½
Jade Lawton	3	Girls Trophy
Under 12
Athar Mehmood	5½	1st & Trophy
Conrad Green	5	2nd
Tom Adams	4½
Meghana Hegdekar		Girls Trophy
Under 14
Shakeel Choudhury	4	1st=
Philomena Lip	4	1st=
Ellen Scattergood	4	1st=
Matthew Greenwood	3½	Trophy
Under 16
Manpreet Sangha	4½	1st & Trophy
Andrew Ng	3½
Under 18
Craig Whitfield	6	1st & Trophy
Andrew Smith	5
Alice Marlow	3	Girls trophy
Ebrahim Arshad	3
Nathaniel Paul	3

2007/08 County Juniors

Total entry 81

2006/07 County Juniors

Group	Section winner	Score	County Champion	Girls trophy
U8	Thomas Davies	6	Thomas Davies
U9	Ben Scattergood	5	Edward Davies Thomas Croghan
U10	Conrad Green Athar Mahmood Matthew Storer	5	Conrad Green	Kelsey Anne Hughes
U11	Henrik Stepanyan	6	Utsav Nanda Rhys Wiggins	Rosa Dilling
U12	Brandon Clarke	5	Matthew Greenwood Ravi Patel
U14	Astghik Stepanyan	6	Colin Hock	Neha Patel
U16	Christopher Bellin	5.5	Christopher Bellin	Alice Marlow
U18	Yangshi Yu	5.5	Yangshi Yu	Yangshan Yu

Total entry 98

2005/06 County Juniors

Clubs and Schools represented: Abbey, Alleynes (Stone), Barbican, Berkeley (Crewe), Bishops Lonsdale, Broughton Arms, Chads, Cheadle Primary, Checkmate, Cheddleton & Leek, Clayton, Coddon, Endon, Graham Balfour, Hassell CPS, Lady Grove, Leighswood, Newport, Old Hall, Orme House, Madeley, Newcastle-u-Lyme, Park Hall, Queen Marys, Rushall, St Dominics, St Edwards, St Johns, St Margarets, St Matthews, St Nicholas, St Wulstans, Tamworth, Tettenhall, Walsall Wood.

2004/05 County Juniors

16/04/05
The last chance tournament was held in Newcastle yesterday and successfully provided an opportunity for many juniors to qualify for next months Megafinal.

22/03/05
This weekend it was the turn of the U11s county team to take part in their Northern Zone qualifying round for the EPSCA competition. So armed with crutches, hockey sticks and other paraphenalia not normally associated with chess 15 regulars together with Natasha Brian, Tom Davies, James Davies, Chiraag Hegdikar and 7 year old Oliver Reynolds (special thanks to them for standing in at the last minute) descended on Wallasey.

The contest consisted of three rounds, and after a slow start of just 4½ points in round one, the team improved in each successive round to reach a total of 20½ points and eighth place out of 10 competing teams.

Top individual performers were Sam Bromage (3/3 on board 11); Craig Whitfield and David Li (2½ on boards 1 & 14 resp.); Desmond Leung, Danny O'Gorman and Matthew Lawton with 2 on boards 3, 14, &16 respectively. Alex Brian on 10 and Conrad Green on 15 also reached 50 percent.

Although the team didn't qualify for the finals they not only gained valuable experience but now don't need to worry about the clash between the finals and the Staffordshire megafinal of the UK chess challenge. As ever the real test of success is whether they will be back for more. Hope to see all the juniors competing again sometime soon.

16/03/05
The U9 Staffordshire Junior chess Team travelled to Hyde in Manchester on Saturday (12th March) to take part in the English Primary Schools Chess Association (EPSCA) North Zone Under 9 competition. Facing strong competition from other northern counties and association teams, they played very well and qualified for the national final in Nottingham on 23rd April.

The team consisted of Ravi Patel, Conrad Green, Greg Smalley, Alex Tsang, Utsav Nanda, Henry Stanley, Joshua Hollins, Calum Williams, Matthew Kelly, Richard Stanley, Tom Sweeney and Ross Fuller. Conrad and Calum both had perfect 3/3 scores. Congratulations to them and the whole team.

The Under 11 team are the next side in action, in their zonal competition at Wallasey on Sat 19th. Good luck to them.

02/10/04
Over 80 juniors converged on Weston Road High School today to compete in the County Junior Championships. Organised by Traci and Graham, and controlled by Andrew Leadbetter, Steve Wilcox, Alex Richardson and Malcolm Armstrong, the players competed over 6 rounds for titles in 8 age groups.

Age Group	Winner	Girls Title
U18	Richard Westwood	Charlotte Wilcox
U16	Yangshi Yu Chris Lewis	Yangshan Yu
U14	Craig Whitfield
U12	Rory Corden	Neha Patel
U11	Michael Brown	Sarah Davies
U10	Joe White Megan Owens	Beth Haigh
U9	Greg Smalley	Estelle Humphries
U8	Conrad Green

18/09/04
The U13 and U15 squads had a training day at Hassell Street. Approximately 20 juniors suffered at the hands of Alex, Bill, Chris, Malcolm and Martyn; with Traci making sure things ran smoothly.

18/07/04
The U13 and U15 trials took place yesterday at Hassell Street, with David Hallen, Simon Edwards and Malcolm Armstrong joining Bill Armstrong, Lawrence Cooper, Roger Edwards, Martyn Harris and Chris Simpson as selectors. Over thirty players accepted invitations to participate, and with the teams due to play on different dates some players may be selected for both teams. Thanks are again due to Traci for setting everything up.

2003/04 County Juniors

Eurobrat?
Craig Whitfield has been selected to represent England in the U10 section of the European Junior Chess Championships in Yugoslavia.

UK Land Chess Challenge
Alphabetical list of squad qualifiers from the Staffordshire Megafinal:
Reuben Alcock, Rory Corden, Ben Crome, Sarah Davies, James Evenden, David Haigh, Luke Hatcher, Desmond Leung, Alex Mason, Anne-Marie Moruzzi, Bernadette Morruzzi, Neha Patel, Ravi Patel, Marcus Reynolds, George Russell, James Sloan, David Washington, Ben White, Joe White, Craig Whitfield.

28/03/04
Staffordshire Juniors played in the EPSCA U11 North Zone qualifying competition on Saturday, finishing 6th out of 10 with a score of 25½ out of 60, missing out on qualification for the finals by one place.

Alex Mason (who played in the reserves event) and David Washington both achieved a maximum 3 points while Sarah Davies was unbeaten with a score of 2½ points.
Other leading scorers for the county were Craig Whitfield, Rory Corden, Neha Patel, Danny Bowers, David Haigh, Luke Hatcher, Harry Simpson and William Lawton each of whom got 2 points.

Thanks are due to Mr Washington and Mr Griffiths who found themselves acting as (respectively) board and room stewards, and to all the other parents providing support to the team.

15/03/04
The juniors have been in action twice as a team in recent weeks. There are also some excellent individual performances to report.

First off was a friendly for both U9s and U11s at Repton against Derby. Depleted in numbers, the U9s still managed to draw, with several players taking on Derby opponents one after the other in each round so that no Derby player was without a game. More of a consecutive rather than a simultaneous display.

The U11s were less successful in their attempts to make up for fielding a depleted team.

100% scores were obtained by both Staffs captains - Michael Rees for U11s, Craig Whitfield for U9s - and also by Ben Crome, Bernadette Moruzzi and Sophie Jerrum.

Then the U9s visited Oldham (dare I say someone has to?) to participate in the English Primary Schools qualifying tournament. The team duly qualified for the Finals to be held at High Wycombe at the end of April by finishing 4th out of the 9 competing teams.
Each competitor played three games. Leading scorers for Staffordshire were Craig Whitfield and Beth Haigh (3 points), Ravi Patel (2½), George Russell, Bernadette Moruzzi and Sophie Jerrum (2).
Thanks to all the parents providing transport and support, and particularly to Mr Patel and Mr Haigh who allowed themselves to be talked into helping with the running of the event.

On the individual front the county now boasts two Midland Counties Junior Champions with Craig Whitfield and Neha Patel winning respectively the U12 and girls U12 titles at the event held in Syston. At the same event Ravi Patel took joint 4th prize in the U8 section.

Neha also participated in the girls competition in Swindon, scoring three out of 5.

17/02/04
Thanks to the organisational skills of Traci Whitfield, Staffordshire has this year been the proud owners of junior teams in both the U9 and U11 age groups. Trials were arranged at Hassell Street at the end of November with Bill Armstrong, John Blackburn, Laurence Cooper, Roger Edwards, Martyn Harris, Andrew Leadbetter and Alex Richardson acting as selectors. This was followed by a training day at the same venue at which Chris Simpson joined Bill, Laurence, Martyn, Alex and Traci in providing words of varying degrees of wisdom before Laurence put his head on the block by playing a simul against the squad members.

So far, so good. But now for the test.
Saturday February 7th. Nottingham.
Midland Counties Junior Team Championships.
37 players and more than a score of hangers-on (drivers, cheerleaders, cleaners) left the familiar scenery of Staffordshire to mount an assault on the Championships. The eight teams present were each given their own base, Staffordshires being on the third floor. This ensured the fitness of the adults who did the equivalent of a session at the Gym walking up and down stairs whilst seeing all the kids got to the rounds on time, didnt buy up the tuck shop and got adequate football supervision. We assume it was football - the boys presumably didnt pick up the mud at the chess board. All part of team bonding.

Resplendent in their red team shirts Staffordshire were a sartorial match for their opponents. Furthermore they were not all show and no substance, with the U9s finishing 4th and the U11s 3rd in their respective sections. A most satisfactory outcome, particularly given that the the event marked the competitive debut for most of the players in the Stafffordshire teams.

The adventure for these players continues with a friendly against Derbyshire at Repton on the 28th February followed by EPSCA competitons on the 13th (U9) and 20th (U11) March.
It is also hoped that some players will take part in the Midland Counties Chess Union Junior Individual Championships at Syston in Leicestershire on March 6th. There are sections for U8, U10, U12, U14 and U18.

Squad Member News:
Congratulations are due to Sarah Davies who entered the English Girls Championships at Ormskirk and qualified for the next round.
Congratulations also to Craig Whitfield who has been short-listed to represent England at the 2004 World and European Junior Championships.

Thanks to Traci for all her hard work in getting the teams up and running, and for passing the information on to me. Thanks also to Graham Humphreys (Staffs Junior Chess Organiser) for allowing her to do so.

The BCF site seems to be strangely quiet about junior chess, but Neville Belinfante is trying to collate information about junior chess on his site.