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Division 1[d] Weekend 5, HIBA, Rounds 9-11, 30
Apr-2 May 2016
by John Carleton
The final weekend of the 4NCL
brings a particular sense of anticipation; the
unfinished business was awaiting us all and we
knew we had 6 months to live with the results of
our labours over this weekend before the
resumption of hostilities next season. We were [and we had no doubt our upcoming opponents felt
the same way] determined to give our all in the
cause. First up on the Saturday were South Wales
Dragons who have assembled a strong new-look
squad over the last year. We felt we would have
a good chance of retaining our first division
status with two wins from the three matches and
this game appeared crucial. [We were hopeful
against round 10 opponents Sussex Martlets and
doubtful against Cambridge University, in round
11].
Talking to South Wales
Dragon team members after the match, their
analysis was not dissimilar to ours. At the
start of play they had harder fixtures left
than we did in the form of 3Cs and Oxford,
widely regarded as the best in our
mini-league, and they also had 2 points more
than us in the demotion pool.
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John Carleton |
They thus felt
that one win would see them safe and this
game represented their best chance of that
win. There was one surprise to the outside
world in our line-up: normally the first
name on the captain's team sheet is our
fighting female player Sheila Jackson who is
strong enough to play in the team, not just
on gender but on merit too, never having
played on bottom board for us and present
for every single first and second division
fixture over the history of the team. Sheila
has recently undergone surgery to combat
breast cancer and is undergoing
chemotherapy. We wish her a swift recovery
and look forward to welcoming her back into
the team next season. In her place we
welcomed Alina L'Ami who had just completed
a tournament in Cairo from where she flew to
join us, via Amsterdam, on Saturday
morning. Her signing up came as a somewhat
last minute affair after painstaking work by
Grub Meister Dave Robertson using his links
forged at the big Liverpool Tournaments he
organised from 2006-08.
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(Rounds
9 & 10, 30 Apr-1 May) |
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And so to the match; the early
phases saw a balanced picture overall but once
the results started to come in the Dragons built
up a commanding 3½-½ lead. Nick Ivell on
board 4, Dave Latham on board 7 and myself on
board 2 had been wiped out by Timothy Kett, Sven
Zeidler and Katarzyna Toma respectively. I was
most impressed by my opponent 's calm control
and then attention to detail as she dispatched
my desperate attempts to break out. Board 6 saw
a brief flurry of activity after a solid opening
and Martin Mitchell and opponent John Redmond
were fully justified in negotiating peace in the
resulting position. Despite the big deficit we
could still imagine a draw in this match: we had
hopes of wins for Alina on board 1 [the natural
place for a ringer of course] against Sam Chow,
for Glenn House on board 5 against Roger
Williamson and for Peter Ackley on board 8
against David Jameson.
All had theoretical won games
but all had great hurdles to overcome.
Eventually Alina did land the win after most
original play by both combatants and stubborn
resistance from Sam. The other two games saw
Peter denied by David when he ran out of pawns
and Glenn thwarted by Roger in a bishop ending
where he was a pawn up : this last game was
completed approaching the 8th hour of play.
Meanwhile our hoped-for draw on board 3 had
evaporated when Brett Lund was ground down by
John Cooper. Thus a 2½-5½ defeat which left
South Wales Dragons confident and us a long way
from survival.
The long last game meant a
scramble to the leafy Warwickshire village of
Barston to the highly rated Gastropub, The
Bull's Head. Just in time for last meal orders
of the day, the real ale was much enjoyed and
the simple menu well received and consumed. Wine
was of course not squeezed out of the picture.
Our one concern for future possible customers
would be the extremely limited understanding by
the establishment of the possibilities with
vegetarian cuisine. The return to the hotel saw
a quiet bar and a very limited uptake of the
facilities by our squad perhaps reflecting the
concerns of the team to do better on the morrow.
The morrow duly arrived and we
joined battle with our fellow travellers Sussex
Martlets having played them in each of the
previous two years and having, like them, had
successive promotions. We knew we would be in
for a tough match against their young and
talented squad. Once we got into the match none
of the outcomes seemed easy to predict. On board
1, Alina playing 14 year old Brian Tarhon faced
a difficult opening but counterattacked
dangerously; Brian countered with a series of
"only moves" before launching the well
coordinated winning counter- offensive. This was
our first view close up of this young player and
we were impressed. On board 2 I turned a good
position into a level one to an awful one in a
few careless moves. I suffered long and
painfully before, in the last game to finish, I
resigned prematurely in what was nonetheless
almost certainly a lost position.
I could have no complaints about
my inadequate play having been the beneficiary
of two swindles in the previous two Sussex
Martlets encounters. On board 3 Brett faced
dangerous discomfort against Rhys Cumming for a
long time but eventually simplified to a
fortress position and a draw. On board 4 Nick
,against Grant Bucher, had a potential edge on
both wings but put his eggs in the kingside
basket and although still somewhat better in a
simplified position he decided, looking at the
remaining games, that a draw should seal the
match in our favour. This turned out to be a
correct decision as board 5 saw the last of the
decisive results in our favour; Glenn with the
black pieces was trying to grind down George
Salimbeni's queen bishop and knight combination
with his queen and two bishops and space
advantage.
When George inadvisedly allowed
the exchange of queens Glenn's king had freedom
to roam and put decisive pressure on the white
pawns. Board 6 was an early win for us, Martin
with his king apparently wide open, whipped up a
big attack down the centre. This seemed touch
and go but with delicate timing and checks all
the way Martin picked up two rooks and organised
cover for his king in a forcing sequence. Board
7 saw an interesting drawn battle which was
unbalanced all the way , full of unusual
positions and still not totally clear at the
end, at least to this observer, between Peter
and Callum Brewer. Dave against Cassie Grant on
board 8 also scored a relatively early win. If
Dave's opening and middlegame had caused some
worries they were forgotten as he sailed to a
win in a rook and pawn ending. So victory by
4½-3½.
As we enjoyed our food and
drink in one of our favourite restaurants in
the locality we discussed the possibility of
upsetting the odds against Cambridge
University. We were up for the challenge of
course but the framework of the demotion
pool had changed dramatically over the last
two rounds: Grantham Sharks had beefed up
their team and for their match against 3Cs
fielded the highest rated team to play in
the demotion pool; by winning this match
Grantham established themselves in front of
us and Cambridge University. From our
perspective Grantham seemed likely to win
their last game and even if [quite a big if]
we won it would be likely that the game
points we had let slip in the last two
rounds would cost us in a tie break with
South Wales Dragons. In the more likely
outcome of a Cambridge win it was felt that
they might just squeeze to safety on
tie-break. So, reflective and determined we
returned to the hotel and rest, again
scarcely pausing at the bar.
The evacuation of the hotel at
4:15 in the morning of Monday did not appear to
have dampened the enthusiasm of the chess
community too much and there was palpable
tension in the air as play got under-way in our
section. As with round 9 we were to fall into an
early deficit with Nick on board 4 seeing his
defences stripped away by Daniel Bisby. [Lifestyle coach's tip: if ever you are feeling
under the weather play over some of Daniel's
games; your mood will be lifted]. Martin on
board 6, our current big hitter, fought fire
with fire , as his wont, against Alistair Hill
but on this occasion met his match in an
entertaining contest. In contrast the first game
to finish saw Peter on board 7 play a draw with
Audrey Kueh. [Lifestyle coach's tip: Do you
suffer from sleepless nights? Just play through
this game whilst sipping your cocoa, sleep will
follow].
Brett on board 3, who looked as
though he may have been move-ordered in the
early stages of his game against Adam Eckersley-Waites, regrouped and launched a ferocious queenless
assault on the black defences. An elegant mating
net was the end result and we were back in the
match. Things got even better when Alina, on
board 1 against John Paul Wallace, somehow
salvaged something of a ship-wreck of a position
to end with rook, f and h pawns against a lone
rook. This is a well known theoretical draw but
it was clear that the method of drawing is not
well known and Alina brought in the full point
without discomfort. This left the match all
square with 3 in play and we could claim an edge
but no win in all three. Dave on board 8 after
some enterprising play in the early middlegame
had emerged from complications with queen and
two pawns against two rooks. Opponent Rohan
Churm coordinated his rooks and a level ending
was agreed drawn. Next to finish was Glenn on
board 5 playing Chris Beckett; remarkably after
hours of patient probing, Glenn put us into the
lead outdoing even Alina by winning with rook f
and h pawn against rook and a pawn. I was still
in play against Ravi Haria and by now had a
winning position; however just to prove our team
is human [and my opponent very resilient] I
failed to convert the win and we settled for
victory by the single point.
This result saw 3Cs, Oxford,
Grantham and South Wales Dragons retain their
first division status. We missed out through an
inferior game point total after finishing level
with South Wales Dragons and are joined in
division 2 next season by Cambridge University
1, Sussex Martlets 1 and White Rose 2. White
Rose 2 after 10 defeats finished the season on a
high with victory over Sussex Martlets; bravo!
Congratulations too to North East England who
ensured that they were the second Northern
League team to reach the first division after a
storming last round win; bravo! Looking back to
our roots, congratulations too to Bradford DCA
who return to the 2nd division by finishing
second in division 3 North; bravo!
The season saw major problems
for the 4NCL in many areas, notably in dealing
with hotels to confirm present arrangements and
thereafter for the future. Many thanks to Mike
Truran for his continuing vision, his robust
consultative processes and his unstinting work
on our behalf. Clearly Mike is the head of a
team and the continuing hard work and
helpfulness of this team has contributed to the
4NCL's unchallenged status as the best team
tournament around. For us our visit to the first
division saw tough matches, a long losing
sequence to start with, several real thumpings,
two matches by 7-1 and negative scores over the
season for many players who had never scored
under 50% in our history. Overall though we feel
we have gone down fighting, that next season
will not be all doom and gloom and that we will
aim to fight as hard as we can to experience the
first division again. We relish this fight which
we know will be difficult.
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