Steve Westmoreland
This month we have a double header, with the u1850s facing Lincolnshire and the u2050s against Surrey. I was fortunate to play for both teams this round, so we now have a double match report!
U2050s Surrey 7.5 – 8.5 Yorkshire
Another humdinger of an event, almost echoing the tense draw with Cumbria at Tennants Auction House. The teams met in the beautiful and very quaint Grimston village in Leicestershire. It was leafy, picturesque and has a lovely looking Church. The community owned Black Horse pub also looked nice, with a happy Surrey player ensuring he got a round prior to the match commencing.
We used Grimston Village Hall, which is very spacious (room for 100) and nice. The hall itself was festooned with Union Flags after May Day, adding to the charm. Around the room there were pictures of school kids through the ages, men going to war and Coronation day.
It was a glimpse into what was and I did notice the school pictures from the turn of last century, holding increasing mischievous looking kids as the decades rolled on. The class of the 1960s looked like a handful.
The players gathered in decent time chatting away. A mutual love of cricket over football was announced, as both teams complained about their respective county teams and especially recent England selections. A bond was formed.
After becoming stuck in Singapore on honeymoon for the last round, Dave Patrick took back over the reigns as Captain. He had been up since 6pm with his wife Angela and had done an amazing job with the food. Banoffee and Lemon drizzle cake, a legion of sandwiches, crisps and pizza sat temptingly. It was even more food than John Arnott’s mum had made for the u1850s and was demolished over the next 5 hours.
The team featured three u1850s players, including two massively improving juniors in Kavin Sudagar and Adamjeet Singh, who will be full members of the u2050s (or even the Open team) next season. The other u1850 was me, filling in a vacancy.
Board 7, however, was definitely of note. Nathanael Lancelot made his debut for Yorkshire after getting spotted by Dave Patrick at the Huddersfield Congress and immediately grabbed for Holmfirth by yours truly. Remarkably, prior to March, Nathanael had only ever played online, reaching 2300 on Lichess and Chess.com. Along with Kavin and Adamjeet, he was our secret weapon.
Alas, Surrey had their own secret weapon with FM Peter Lee entering the fray at the grand age of 82. Peter won the British chess Championship in 1965, representing England at the Olympiads of 1966, 1968 and 1970. He also won the English Bridge Union’s National Pairs title seven times and the Gold Cup.
Peter is the only person to win the British Championship in both chess and bridge. Nathanael had no chance but got quite a few pointers on how to handle his Ruy Lopez theory better, afterwards.
The match was pure blood and thunder with only three draws. After a couple of hours Yorkshire were three up but Surrey pulled it back. We feared the worst towards the end, with Dave Shapland remarking what an amazing event it was and the overall result didn’t matter – to the nods of several Surrey players. However, Patrick Joseph and Chris Bak managed to squeak the White Rose over the line.
Derbyshire next on the 13th June.