2026-02-23 U1500 Team lose at home while the A's win away

The Stirling Under 1500 Team, which has enjoyed a very successful time in the Cup in recent years, had a disappointing loss in the Preliminary Round to Grangemouth.

   Central League Under 1500 Cup
   Stirling               ½-4½ Grangemouth

1. Harry Feather    1450  ½-½  Bill Gray      1486
2. Sandy Carmichael 1394  0-1  Jim Stallard   1330
3. Tom Wallace      1313  0-1  Crawford Welsh 1243
4. David Fowler     1250  0-1  Sean Gray      u/g
5. Mick Bloor       1100  0-1  Joe Johnstone  u/g

Stirling had White on boards 2 and 4

Tom Wallace provided this overview of the match:

On board 4 Sean from Grangemouth won quickly followed by another win on board 2 where Jim’s 3 connected pawns where too much for Sandy's Knight. That meant Stirling were 2 down with 3 boards left.

My game should have been an easy win with a Rook up and Crawford's King in a precarious position. If Mick had got a draw on board 5 we could have won with a board count draw with a win on board 1 and 3. However Joe finished his endgame well and won, so match over.

Bill and Harry agreed a draw on board 1 and I let Crawford's King slip away to safety and eventually Crawford went on to win.

Meanwhile, on their travels to Broxburn, the A Team had a very good win over their hosts.

   Central League Division 1
   Badgers Brook A       1-4  Stirling A

1. Kenny McGeoch   2014  0-1  Isaac Browning 2054
2. Mark Cooke      1876  0-1  Leo Gardner    1889
3. Stuart Ward     1868  1-0  William Spiers 1758
4. Jonathan Rowney 1543  0-1  Steve Smith    1549
5. Mark Brown      1456  0-1  Nathanael Loch 1515

Badgers Brook had White on boards 1 and 5