24 Oct		Wigston 5		v	Kirby Muxloe 2
				2½ - 2½
1	B	120	Eastlake, Charles	1 - 0	McEachran, Ewan	124
2	W	115	French, Barry	0 - 1	Walker, John	125
3	B	114	Goldsmith, Rory	½ - ½	Cowley, Jim	116
4	W	110	McKiernan, John	0 - 1	Skelley, John	115
5	B	107	Cooper, Barrie	1 - 0	Lund, Malcolm	90

 
In a quite crazy match, Barry French lost early, which I think it's fair to say gutted him a little. After a good opening, Barry made a mistake, which then led to a blunder and it all went wrong I'm afraid, Barry did the noble thing and resigned after allowing a rook to be pinned to his King by a Bishop.
Rory then marked his debut with a draw against the dangerous Jim Cowley. Jim is a very experienced player and in a tight opening, Rory's opponent mounted a strong Kingside attack with a Queen and rook battering ram on the h file. Rory worked out in analysis with his opponent that he didn't quite defend the position in the best way, (the analysis line had better chances for him!) and a draw was agreed in what was a tight game that could have gone either way.
John and Barrie finished closely together, Barrie's game looked very closed and tight with Barrie slowly improving his position. His opponent eventually blundered a Knight with check, which allowed Barrie to gradually steamroller his opponent into resigning.
John lost to a very capable opponent. In mounting an attack consisting of a passed pawn, John overlooked the fact that advancing this passed pawn blundered his Bishop and it all kind of went wrong from there. Fair play to John for trying to play on but a rook and 3 pawns vs King and 2 pawns and short on time John, you were right to resign!
This left Charles on board 1. Having asked the match score, he knew we were 2.5 - 1.5 down with just his game to play. He said to me afterwards that he'd considered offering a draw (which in the position was totally feasible), but alot of credit must go to Charles for at least trying to force a win. 3 pawns each, rook each, Charles had a knight and opponent had bishop, the important thing is, his opponent's bishop covered the h pawn's queening square. To cut a long story short, Charles maouvered his Knight to block the Bishop's sight of the queening square in a quite magnificently played endgame allowing said pawn to queen, win the game
and draw the match.
Well done team!