4NCL: 3-5 May 2008
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CHEDDLETON-POINTON |
v |
WESSEX 1 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Bellin,
Robert |
2407 |
1 - 0 |
Allicock,
Rawle A |
2301 |
|
2 |
b |
Wallace,
Paul A |
2258 |
½ - ½ |
Webb,
Richard M |
2259 |
|
3 |
w |
Sharp,
John R |
2155 |
0 - 1 |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2228 |
|
4 |
b |
Bennett,
Patrick |
2128 |
0 - 1 |
Simons,
Martin J |
2221 |
|
5 |
w |
McKenna,
Jason P |
2134 |
1 - 0 |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2120 |
|
6 |
b |
Berglitz,
Regina H (F) |
2103 |
0 - 1 |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2137 |
|
7 |
w |
Simmons,
Matthew |
2061 |
½ - ½ |
Rutter,
Nicholas |
2186 |
|
8 |
b |
Rowe,
Peter |
2051 |
0 - 1 |
Moore,
Gillian A (F) |
1905 |
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3 - 5 |
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The final weekend of the season. A
sequence of unlikely results would still have seen the first team gain
promotion, but realistically the main priority was for the second team to
finish in the top six of the third division in order to play in the second
division next season. Already shorn of a
whole team of players our plans were thrown into further disarray by the
withdrawal of our first team board seven on Friday evening when his daughter
was taken to hospital. Some teams would
no doubt have simply defaulted a board.
Others judging by our recent experience wouldn’t have even bothered to
tell the opposition they were doing so.
Many phone calls later managed to unearth 3 further players prepared to
travel to Sunningdale for just one game each, thereby costing us a further £30
as they were all wild-cards.
Over the board this match went reasonably smoothly. Gavin played a particularly aggressive French
which brought a swift reward (although I am not yet convinced that his opponent
needed to resign when he did). Martin’s
opponent gifted him a passed a pawn which was rapidly pushed. Richard reached a K&7P ending which he
decided not to try and win. Bruce was
slightly better when his opponent blundered.
Nick was in danger of trying too hard to win and nearly paid the price
before baling out for a draw. (We didn’t
manage a repeat of the dream M. Simons v M. Simmons pairing but at least the
arbiter was confused for a while!) The
star performance was from Gillian.
Having made a slight mess of her pawns in the opening, she managed to
straighten them out and gradually push forward.
Her win made it 5-1, but neither Rawle nor I were able to hold dubious
endings.
The route-march to the curry house was dampened by unexpected
drizzle. My subsequent pontifications in
the bar until 3 am may have been unwise.
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WESSEX 1 |
v |
WHITE ROSE |
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1 |
w |
Allicock,
Rawle A |
2301 |
0 - 1 |
McNab,
Colin |
2443 |
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2 |
b |
Simons,
Martin J |
2221 |
1 - 0 |
Gourlay,
Iain |
2371 |
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3 |
w |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2228 |
½ - ½ |
Van
de Griendt, Jan W |
2354 |
|
4 |
b |
Webb,
Richard M |
2259 |
½ - ½ |
Barrett,
Steve J |
2260 |
|
5 |
w |
Rutter,
Nicholas |
2186 |
½ - ½ |
Gayson,
Peter M |
2259 |
|
6 |
b |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2137 |
½ - ½ |
Townsend,
Paul * |
2214 |
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7 |
w |
Yeo,
Michael J |
2120 |
½ - ½ |
Adams,
David M |
2194 |
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8 |
b |
Moore,
Gillian A (F) |
1905 |
0 - 1 |
Khakimova,
Masura (F) |
1978 |
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3½-4½ |
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Peter Wells’ disinclination to rise from his Bulgarian bed at 3 am
(unlike Gawain Jones) meant that we had more of a chance in this match than I
had thought. Rawle’s oversight sent us
1-0 down very early and Gillian was always struggling, but elsewhere we gave a
reasonable account of ourselves, helped by the curiosity after two hours of
being significantly ahead on the clock on all boards. Martin’s opponent used up a lot of time while
sacrificing two pawns. My game was very
unbalanced but probably always drawn with best play. Bruce was the last to finish in an
interesting R+P ending. He had to cope with passed a and h pawns but wasn’t
quite able to mobilise his central mass in time to win.
This narrow defeat against the division champions finally killed off any
lingering promotion hopes. The evening
tramp to a pub was a sombre affair, but the menu was interesting, amongst other
delights allowing two players to indulge their love of pigeon!?
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WESSEX 1 |
v |
POISONED PAWNS 1 |
|||
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1 |
w |
Corkett,
Anthony R |
2307 |
½ - ½ |
Posazhennikov,
Alex |
2247 |
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2 |
b |
Lock,
Gavin R |
2228 |
½ - ½ |
Swanson,
Stephen |
2231 |
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3 |
w |
Webb,
Richard M |
2259 |
1 - 0 |
Dargan,
Paul |
2185 |
|
4 |
b |
Simons,
Martin J |
2221 |
½ - ½ |
Dunn,
Andrew |
2210 |
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5 |
w |
Wheeler,
John F |
2126 |
½ - ½ |
Rosen,
Daniel B |
2137 |
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6 |
b |
White,
Graham A* |
2135 |
0 - 1 |
Byway,
Paul |
2152 |
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7 |
w |
Jenks,
Bruce |
2137 |
0 - 1 |
Goodger,
Martyn |
2180 |
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8 |
b |
Norman,
Dinah (F) |
1965 |
1 - 0 |
Mountford,
Corinne (F) |
1615 |
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4 - 4 |
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A new-look team in order to strengthen the second team. Dinah and the Drawmeister both won for the
first time in the weekend, but accidents on Boards 6 & 7 meant that we only
scraped a draw.
Eighth in the division was a disappointing result for the season,
although we were not that far away from fourth.
In the end the 2 drawn matches in the first weekend proved critical.
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CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY 2 |
v |
WESSEX 2 |
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1 |
w |
Spencer,
Carl |
2115 |
1 - 0 |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2095 |
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2 |
b |
Beckett,
Chris J |
2108 |
½ - ½ |
Purkiss,
William * |
2084 |
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3 |
w |
Chan,
Nevil |
2065 |
0 - 1 |
Gregory,
Keith D |
2087 |
|
4 |
b |
Jones,
Richard M |
2064 |
½ - ½ |
Marsh,
Roger |
2088 |
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5 |
w |
Gooding,
Ian |
2014 |
½ - ½ |
Taylor-Bowd,
Phil |
2048 |
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6 |
b |
Kreuzer,
Christopher |
1949 |
½ - ½ |
Wilkinson,
John R * |
2030 |
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7 |
w |
Kapadia,
Sujit |
1915 |
½ - ½ |
Coburn,
Joe |
1945 |
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8 |
b |
Owens,
Megan (F) |
1772 |
½ - ½ |
Norman,
Dinah (F) |
1965 |
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4 - 4 |
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This was a match I thought we had to win to keep hold of a place in the
top half of the division. For quite some
time this looked feasible. Allan felt he
had been smashed until Fritz pointed out some reasonable compensation. John was
a pawn up, but unable to convert. The
real disappointment was on Board 8 where Dinah was completely on top but
allowed herself to get irritated by her opponent’s continuous draw offers and
blundered. It has been suggested that
she was still winning in the final position but she wasn’t. We were left 3½ -2½
down while Roger went purple in an unsuccessful attempt to win and Keith
smoothly converted a pawn advantage in the seventh hour.
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WESSEX 2 |
v |
PANDORA'S BOX |
|||
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1 |
w |
Pleasants,
Allan J |
2095 |
0 - 1 |
Mannion,
Stephen |
2361 |
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2 |
b |
Marsh,
Roger |
2088 |
1 - 0 |
Dilley,
Jason M |
2163 |
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3 |
w |
Taylor-Bowd,
Phil |
2048 |
½ - ½ |
Stone,
Andrew * |
2228 |
|
4 |
b |
Kemp,
Paul M* |
2039 |
½ - ½ |
Walton,
Alan J |
2217 |
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5 |
w |
Gregory,
Keith D |
2087 |
0 - 1 |
Cumbers,
Paul |
2156 |
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6 |
b |
Tunks,
Dominic |
1936 |
0 - 1 |
Coates,
David |
2050 |
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7 |
w |
Coburn,
Joe |
1945 |
0 - 1 |
Woolley,
Jos |
2101 |
|
8 |
b |
Norman,
Dinah (F) |
1965 |
½ - ½ |
Gallagher,
Marie (F) |
1730 |
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2½-5½ |
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