Ballynafeigh 5 win - cue the flying pigs

Division 1

Ballynafeigh 1 3-2 Muldoons 1

The league leaders edged further away from the pack after beating nearest rivals Muldoons 1. The bottom two boards were drawn, and while Nicholas Pilkiewicz scored a win for the visitors against Alan Thomason, Soren Jensen and David Houston made sure of the bonus points for the hosts with two wins.

Ballynafeigh 2 3.5-1.5 Lindores 1

An under-strength Lindores 1 team, missing the likes of Calum Leitch and Ulster Champion Gabor Horvath, were beaten by Ballynafeigh 2 thanks to wins from Chris Kelly, Ian Woodfield and John O'Doherty. Damien Cunningham drew with Ross Harris on board 1, while Fred MacDonald scored the visitors' only win of the night; his opponent, Thomas Donaldson, was fresh from an excellent Bunratty where he scored 4/6 in the 1600-2000 Challengers section and was in contention for a share of first place until the final round. He couldn't carry that form through to this league encounter, though, and MacDonald got the win to keep the score respectable.

Bangor 1.5-3.5 Fruithill

Fruithill claimed a vital win at Bangor to make up vital ground on their relegation rivals. John Monaghan and Sean Linton beat the unrated duo of Jordan Graham and Michael Sheerin. Gerry Collins was held to a draw by Gary Johnston and Walter Wilson beat Frank Carrothers, but Ciaran Marron secured the bonus points with victory over Alan McConnell.

Standings

Division 2

Muldoons 2 2-3 Belfast South 2

"Kelly's Heroes" were in trouble for a while against Muldoons 2, but came through to keep a comfortable lead over their promotion rivals. They raced into a quick 2-0 lead with wins from William Storey and Bernard Jaffa, but Jim Waddell struck back for the hosts and the situation on the two remaining boards was not looking so rosy for the leaders - Chris Armstrong and Cathal Murphy were both in time trouble, and Murphy was a piece down to boot. While Bernard McCaughey went on to flag Armstrong, Pat McKillen was on the receiving end of a remarkable turnaround as Murphy sealed the match for the visitors.

Ballynafeigh 5 3-2 Ballynafeigh 4

After 16 straight defeats (including eight whitewashes in a row) Ballynafeigh 5 finally won a match as they triumphed over Ballynafeigh 4, courtesy of wins from James Weir, Liam Ferris and Suraj Tirupati, who continues his white-hot form in the league despite a somewhat disappointing Bunratty. Paul Anderson and Edward Doak won for Ballynafeigh 4.

QUB 2-3 Ballynafeigh 3

Ballynafeigh 3 defeated QUB on Tuesday night, but will have felt that they had chances to win by a more convincing margin - as it is, their John Strawbidge Cup hopes are realistically over. Eoin Carey, having taken a share of the second place prize in the Major section at Bunratty, got the visitors off the mark with a win over Ram Rajan. Gerard Bannon soon followed suit against Chris Roe, but QUB staged a fightback as Tyrone Winter's attack fizzled out against Paddy Magee, who went on to take the full point and Gavin Fong defeated Stephen Rush in a similar manner. Another recent addition to the QUB squad, Milad Fozooni, was tipped to pose Robert Lavery some problems on board 2 after a dominant performance against Lindores 2's David Barr last week. He had the upper hand for most of the middlegame, before the players traded down into a drawish same-coloured bishops ending. Time-trouble was becoming a factor for Fozooni at this point, though, and after he allowed Lavery to skewer his king against a vital pawn resignation was never far away.

NI Civil Service 2-3 Lindores 2

Lindores 2 defeated NICS at the Pavilion. Mark Newman and David Jackson got wins for the hosts, but the visitors' superior strength in depth was evident as Iza Bujak, Andy Hughes and Garhy Aboelsoud (joint 3rd in the Minor section at Bunratty) won on boards 3-5 to clinch the match.

Standings