We are now roughly half way through the 2024-25 season, Culcheth entered two teams in the league this year. An A team to defend their title in division 1 and a B team to complete in division 3. As well as this we entered a side in the grade restricted Richard Furness League and sides in each of the cup competitions.
In division 1 early year defeats against Winwick, Skelmersdale and Northwich got us off to a slower then usual start this season. Our team is definitely in a perios of transition no longer boasting the strength in depth of yesteryear. Despite this it has been good to see new players rising through the ranks to take their place. Shlok Maheshwari and Isaiah Slater for example have recently found themselves playing in the A team and scoring fine wins.
As the season has progressed the A team currently find themselves just off the pace with half a dozen or so matches left to play.
The B team have quite often had Captain Jonathan Miller scrambling around for players this year as a number of players are listed as either panelled or additional to the A team. It has been great to see this give opportunities to some of the lower rated newer players however and I think the fact we are in division 3 helps with this. For the past few season’s our second side has taken part in division 1 which really is a tough birthplace for new players.
Currently six games in the B team find themselves joint top of division 3
Phil Dawson has this year captained the Richard Furness league side, again he has done a great job of picking some of the players who might not normally play league chess such as Mike Selway and young players Mark Williams and Shlok have also featured with success, the RF side currently find themselves top of this closely contested division.
Due to bye’s and fixture postponements and bye’s there is not a huge amount to report upon from the cup competitions. We did play two games in the Peninsular cup in which our A team progressed V Winwick, whilst our 2nd side were defeated V Wigan.
The Kalmar cup side received a bye into round 2 whilst, our George Davision team were eliminated in a thrilling match v Stockton Heath which has already been reported on this website.
Finally I leave you with a close encounter between Atherton’s Martin Lythgoe and Nick Burriss which ended in a draw. (A smaller link is at the top of the page)