LADY Anne Middleton team have won their opening three fixtures and are the early leaders in division one of York Evening Chess League.

They started with two fairly comfortable 4-1 wins over Minster Inn and York RI Kings respectively and followed this with an excellent 3-2 win over Shepherds 1.

Shepherds, with John Clark in their team, look to have the makings of a very strong side, but on the night wins from Tony Slinger, Jon Griffith and Neville Pearce and a draw secured Lady Anne Middleton the win.

Cavaliers opened their campaign with a 3-3 draw against The Whippersnappers. Wins by Steve Huxley and Sri Sriharan for Cavaliers 'A' were countered by wins by Arjuna Prithiviraj and Richard Alliss for The Whippersnappers.

The games between Richard Hardy and Fahad Yousif and Jim Schemelt and Patrick Gower ending in draws.

In division two the early pace has been set by RI Conquerors and Lady Anne Middleton 2, who have both won their opening two fixtures, starting with 5-1 wins over University 2 and Nowhere Men respectively.

Conquerors then won 3-2 against RI Danger Squares with wins from Richard Hardy, Owen Robson, Sid Kirby and a draw from John Lafferty seeing them home.

Lady Anne Middleton had an identical single point victory over Shepherds 2, with wins from Steve Cooper and Andy Wade and draws from Neville Pearce, Sean O'Neill and Peter Mander proving enough.

York players took part last weekend in the Scarborough Congress at the Spa Complex.

In the Foundation Section Steve Webster and Graham Marshall both had excellent tournaments and came equal first with 4/5.

In the Open Section, John Clark and Tim Turner scored 2 and 2 points respectively after both had the 'privilege' of playing Grandmaster Keith Arkell.

In the Major Section John Cawston withdrew due to illness after scoring /4 and Laurence Cornhill withdrew on /3.

In the Intermediate Section Norman Andrews posted 3/5 and Steve Huxley withdrew after four rounds,while in the Minor Neville Pearce, Colin Snowball and Sri Sriharan scored 3, 3 and 2 points respectively.

York and District Senior Schools' Championship takes place at the Guildhall on Sunday, November 24.

This is an open event for the Schools' Champion Cup. There will also be extra 'year' and merit prizes, plus prizes for the best girl players and for teams using the top four individual scores.

There are five rounds start at 11.30am through to 5.30pm. Entry costs £3 per player and forms are available at schools or via York Chess Club (phone Peter Cloudsdale on 01904 767177 or David Baren on 01904 794636).

Updated: 11:14 Thursday, October 31, 2002