Our pre-seaaon friendly against Steve Emmerton's "other team", Fenton from the North Staffs League, ended in a hard fought 5-5 draw. Had it been a Cup match we would have won on the board elimination rule !! Outgraded on 7 of the 10 boards, we got off to a bad start, going 2-0 down early on in the match with losses on boards 7 and 8. However, we redressed the balance with wins on boards 4, 5 and 9 for Larry, David and Neil, plus a draw on board 3 for Paul, to put us in the lead by 3.5 - 2.5. An unlikely draw for Nick on board 6, where he was a Knight and 2 Pawns down in an endgame, plus a win for Alan on board 1, increased our lead to 5-3 and needing only a draw to win the match. Unfortunately Fenton pulled one back on board 10, despite Brian putting up a great fight against the Staffs U100 County Captain. All eyes were then on Chris in the final game on board 2, where he was the exchange down but looked to have good drawing chances. His opponent then found a tactic to win a Pawn and, with Chris's time slipping away, his position deteriorated rapidly, leading to the inevitable loss.
All in all it was a very enjoyable evening, with both sides comnmenting on the fact that it was nice to play different opponents for a change. Many thanks to Fenton Chess Club and all of their players for some very close and competetive games. We hope to organise a reciprocal fixture at Ashby before the start of next season.
Please click
here for Monday's match score card, and
here for photos taken during the evening.
