Lee Davis presented with Bennett Cup

13 Aug 2025. Winner of the bennett Cup competition in 2024-5 received his trophy just prior to round 1 of the open teams Summer Cup competition. Lee, a Welsh international player defeated Joe Friar, county champion in the final. Picture by Laura.

Longbridge teams and Redditch lead in Towers Cup jamboree

13 Aug 2025. This season, controller Dan Lambourne had to provide a jamboree draw for six teams. Round 1 led to good results for both Longbridge teams and Redditch all of which ended the evening on 3 points. Malvern and Worcester each scored 1½ points and Kidderminster left empty handed. see detailed results.

Redditch win Wheatley Final

23 Jul 2025. The home team Redditch won the Wheatley Cup final with Worcester. Teams had similar ratings and there was no handicap. Game results went according to the form book and Redditch won 3-1. See full result.

16 Jul 2025. Worcester and Kidderminster fielded evenly match players and there was no handicap in the second semi-final. Worcester won 2.5-1.5. See full result.

10 Jul 2025. Longbridge turned out a strong team against Redditch. The over-the-board game results gave 2.5 points to Longbridge, but this failed to overturn the handicap of 1.1 points faced by the stronger team so Redditch qualify for the final when they will play either Kidderminster or Worcester. The other semi-final is on 16 July. See full result.

Picture on right: The winning 2025 Redditch team (Adrian Griffiths)

Worcestershire Chess Association annual meeting

2 Jul 2025. President Ray Collett (Worcester) and secretary Paul Sharratt (Stourbridge) reported on a successful year with an influx of young enthusiastic players. Worcestershire played in the Midland Counties Junior team championships for the first time for many years. Simon Berry (Worcester) took a team of junior players to Nottingham where they gained useful experience. Worcestershire Wolfpack A team won Division 4 of the Four Nations Chess Online League in December. Redditch was the dominant club in the Worcestershire League winning three trophies: the Bonham rose bowl for the Championship League, the Cobham trophy for the Challengers League and the Rapidplay 1 League plaque. Kidderminster won the Worcester & District League and Rapidplay League 2 plaque. Individual winners were Lee Davis (Malvern) in the Bennett Cup and Paul Serafini in the Ball Cup. Eric Horwill (Stourbridge) was unable to attend the meeting. He was awarded the Jim Friar award for services to chess in Worcestershire by Paul Sharratt separately to celebrate fifty years of Eric’s high class play for the county first team. Eric first played for Worcestershire in the 1940s and has continued playing throughout and beyond a busy career in education, both over the board and by correspondence. The meeting re-elected senior officials and resolved to hold a further meeting to add officials to its leadership team. Members voted for a default 3hr playing session in the Championship League and a time control of 60+30 unless a club elects at the start of the season to play home matches with a shorter 45+30 time control. There were no other changes to Worcestershire Leagues.

Cup winners

29 May 2025. Both Bennett and Ball Cup finals were played at Worcester City club. In the senior competition for the Bennett Cup Lee Davis (Malvern) confounded my prediction of 15 May and won the final against Joe Friar (Kidderminster). This is Lee’s seventh win of the trophy - his first was in 1981. The Ball Cup competition for u1650 players was played between Giles Stanton (Redditch) and Paul Serafini (Worcester). Paul gained the exchange for a pawn, but Giles’s bishop was in a commanding central position. Paul engineered a strong attack on the white king, forced the exchange of a pair of rooks and neatly wrapped up the game using a a passed rooks pawn. This is the first season of competitive play for Paul and winning the Ball Cup at his first attempt is a fine achievement. Congratulations to Lee and Paul!