Allenburys Blitz (01 Jul 2025)

The Allenburys 5 min blitz event is always a nice way to round off the Hertfordshire chess season. It is usually a relaxed affair with food, drinks and a general friendly competitive nature from all teams.

This year there were 13 teams (5 people per team). Due to popular demand Welwyn Hatfield had 15 members joining in. Each team played each other once. Playing 12 games in just over 2 hours led to a somewhat more frantic evening of chess than usual.

First Team (WH1):

Edo, Cameron, David W, Roger, Andy Sp

Second Team (WH2):

Andrew R, Andy Sm, Paul, Beck, Will

Third Team (WH3):

Matt, Tony, Mark, Alex, Marko

For some it was their first time representing Welwyn Hatfield in competition (Paul, Will, Marko). For some, it was a welcome return to the family fold (Matt)

Before the competition we were thinking a good result would be a top 3 finish for the first team and somewhere nearer the middle to bottom-end for the other teams.

WH1 started off on winning ways (as expected). Less-expected was a sudden realisation that WH2 were also winning most of their games. WH3 were doing well, although not winning games they were certainly giving opponents a run for their money.

WH1 continued unbeaten throughout most the evening. Eventually though all good things must come to an end. WH1 were beaten by the mighty …. the great … the superb ….. WH2.

Things were suddenly getting interesting. Had this (momentous) victory allowed Hemel Hempstead to overtake WH1 as leaders? Was WH2’s crushing* defeat over WH1 going to be the cause for the trophy going to another part of Hertfordshire?

No need to panic, the WH1 team licked their substantial* wounds and recovered well from their thrashing* to score in the rest of their games.

*I may be exaggerating the extent of the victory but as a member of the WH2 I am allowed to be a little biased.

When the final results came in it was third place to Hemel, second place to WH2 and a well-deserved first place to WH1.

WH3 finished in 13th but it should not be underestimated how good their performance was. This was a third team facing mostly strong first team opponents from other clubs. They got a good draw result in one match and all members scored some points.