Off the mark

After a season to forget, we've made a winning start in Division 3.

There's no hiding from it: 2025/26 was hard going. We lost 11 of our 12 matches in Division 2 and finished bottom with just 2 points, so relegation to Division 3 was the inevitable result. The one bright spot came in January, when we beat Barnsley A 3½-2½ at home. The Summer League went even worse, with a single draw from our 8 matches in Division 2, but a summer spent testing ourselves against stronger sides was good preparation for the season ahead. Thanks to everyone who kept turning out all the same.

A new season brings a fresh start, and we've made the most of it. We opened our Division 3 campaign away at Darnall & Handsworth C tonight and came home with a 4½-1½ win, taking four wins and a draw from the five boards we played, despite giving away a default on board 6.

Next up is a trip to Barnsley C on Wednesday 7th October, followed by the Richardson Cup against Sheffield Nomads 1 on Tuesday 13th October. As always, we meet at The Bluecoat every Wednesday, so come along and say hello.

Board	Darnall & Handsworth C		Rotherham A
1	Geoffrey Brown	0-1	Oliver Brennan
2	Paul Davies	0-1	Nathaniel Holroyd-Doveton
3	K Noman Ahmed	½-½	Chris Willey
4	Tadeusz Gumulka	0-1	Mick McManus
5	James Brown	0-1	Dean Campbell
6	Alex Williams	1-0	(default)