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Yet again
the C team did the business. Now we have reached the halfway stage of our season
with our 100% record intact. This bodes very well for the return matches and it
remains for us to maintain the good form we have shown and press for promotion
and the division championship.
Our first
surprise of the night was that the University captain ceded the bottom board,
saying that their man was ineligible. Reasons were not given and I guess that
this was a last minute surprise to them. Nice to see that honesty and
sportsmanship persist in this day and age.
Keven was
first to finish, duffing up his opponent in a quite aggressive display of
forcing chess, delving deep into enemy territory with his rooks and checkmating
his man near the centre of the board before the end of the middlegame !
Sam was
next up, taking slightly longer than is his wont, having temporarily given his
opponent one of the rooks he had purloined earlier. Cool play in a tricky
endgame ensured that Sam converted for the full point.
I came in
next, having led positionally and with a pawn to boot, only to almost lose to a
pawn fork of queen and rook. I was genuinely lucky to escape with a forcing
capture leading to a queen swap. My chap resigned soon after but I had had a
close shave and it was a reminder of how patchy my play is at present ( the
previous Saturday I was, to all intents and purposes, lost on move 4 playing for
the County second team at Wincanton, losing in under 20 moves to someone in his
late seventies ).
Patrick
finished just after 10 pm, losing a trappy endgame after leading in a highly
tactical opening and middlegame.
In spite
of Rob's opponent being rendered ineligible, they played a gradeable friendly
match and had a reasonable game by all accounts.
Dave Culliford - Eastleigh Unity C Match Captain
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