Three teams of Leicester Juniors played in a record field of 26 teams in Division 2 of the 2nd J4NCL (Junior 4 Nations Chess League) weekend on the 21st/22nd January in Solihull and the Leicester Reds team achieved a historic victory. In the 1st weekend back in October the two Leicester teams had finished 3rd and 7th respectively but with a few key players missing on the 2nd day, we were left with the feeling that, but for that, Leicestershire might have placed higher. This time with a more settled team it was a different story. After day 1, Leicester Reds lay in 3rd place just a point behind the leaders having had 2 wins and a draw, however on the 2nd day they won both matches to overtake the teams above them and take the title. Milly Kotecha (with 5 wins out of 5 mostly on board 2) and Tom Brown (with 3 wins and 2 draws on board 1) were outstanding throughout with good points also achieved by Peter Mottram-Epson (2 wins and 2 draws) within a great team performance overall.
Both Leicester Blues and Leicester Greens had tough 1st days but rallied strongly on day 2, both winning all their matches to improve their positions markedly to 11th and 18th respectively. David Collyer had a great competition on board 1 for the Blues achieving 4 wins out of 5 but some of the younger players such as Umar Syed and Jason Jiacheng LV both excelled scoring 3 wins over the course of the weekend and Matthew Lo and Rory Haywood both achieved 2 wins out of 2 and Anika Khare a win and a draw with the games they played for the team on the 2nd day.
1st Leicester Reds 9 pts
2nd Welsh Dragons Yellow 8 pts
3rd Cambridge Knights 8 pts
11th Leicester Blues 6 pts
18th Leicester Greens 4 pts
26 teams competed
Full results on the 4ncl website 4ncl
Leicester Reds: Tom Brown, Milly Kotecha, Peter Mottram-Epson, Thomas Blay, Arjun Vadgama
Leicester Blues: David Collyer, George Worrow Goodin, Joseph Ward-Langman, Umar Syed, Rory Haywood, Rakshai Muthusamy
Leicester Greens: Alastair Mottram-Epson, Stephen Matts, Matthew Lo, Jason Liacheng LV, Anika Khare, Austin Meynell
Here is a photo of the winning Leicester Reds team