Merseyside CA U1850 V Yorkshire CA U1850
1 Owen, Phil 1 – 0 Annan, James
2 Ellington, Ben 0 – 1 Westmoreland, Steve
3 Latham, Chris ½ – ½ Mason, Peter F
4 Ramsey, Phil 1 – 0 Thompson, Keith
5 Barnes, David 0 – 1 Patrick, David A
6 Banerjee, Sanjoy ½ – ½ Woodbridge, Charlie
7 Owens, David 0 – 1 Tomlinson, Zak
8 Ledgerton, Joe ½ – ½ Jones, Rupert W (Captain)
9 Hrabchak, Artur 0 – 1 Boot, Granville
10 Gillett, John 0 – 1 Dean, Robert A
11 Webb, Tom 0 – 1 Browne, Robin F
12 Moran, Thomas ½ – ½ Corcoran, Gary
The Most Important Match of the Season (before the next one)
It was away from the grandeur of country chess when I wrote the above title. Holmfirth were playing Leeds in the Yorkshire League and the winner would get promoted (apologies Skip, it was your team that lost). It was the most important game of the season for us but with other games to win the league, win the Watkinson’s league, NCCU promotion and a sequence of county knockouts, we were on a trajectory of most important games.
This was my first experience of playing away at Liverpool and I must say, it is one of my favourite cities. The people of friendly, the architecture great and we were hosted a 15-minute walk from the train station at the wonderful Cross Keys Pub, with Everton fans all over the place.
It was not a youthful Yorkshire team, with three juniors missing largely due to an international event at York.
Most of us arrived on time although one opposition player was late and our own Keith Thompson got horribly lost. Much to the credit of Merseyside, they waited for him to arrive, before hitting the clock.
Again, for a county fixture, the food was great. Awesome sandwiches and two buckets of chips, which I tucked into with mayo.
In terms of the match, the first to finish was myself, after about an hour. Deciding to go for a long and dry game, I went into a Rubenstein French. However, a blunder by my opponent led to a victory in 17 moves. It happens and it happens to me a fair bit as well. On the plus side, I was able the retire to the bar with Robin Browne, who also had a quick win.
A few more early results flew in, with Keith lost after getting into trouble. Peter Mason had a quick draw and amazingly Rupert. Peter was very surprised by Rupert, whose pawn structure looked awful, with a backwards D pawn. Rupert’s opponent started the season at 1400 and is now 1740, so certainly one to watch.
The most enjoyable to watch wins were with Zak and his excellent pawn endgame technique. Also, Granville, whose sacrificing and king hunting skills were a joy to behold. James Annan had a very long struggle but was unsuccessful and Dave Patrick had an excellent game.
Then there was Gary…
County scheduling can be awkward and this one certainly was, with Gary travelling up from London after a friend’s wedding and very late night. Gary went through chess hell as he then had to face a very talented much lower rated (not for long based on what I saw) junior, over four hours. He even declined a draw offer, eliciting a terrified squeak and muttered oaths from the watching Yorkshire players.
So, 4 – 8 to Yorkshire and the knockout stages beckon! The next most important game of the season.
Note some of the Manchester players have already been on at me about doing the clean sweep of all the NCCU league titles. Dave Kilmartin has asked me to take the pictures of the teams with the Trophies. Let’s make sure this does not happen again!
Steve Westmoreland