A good night in Loughborough

The finals of the Chapman Cup took place last night between Loughborough 2 and Wigston 2. It was going to be our toughest match yet in the competition and we had used up all our luck in the first rounds against Loughboro' 1 and Birstall 1.
We decided to take the team picture before the match commenced, since we reckoned we would be looking too battered and bruised afterwards:

And this is what then happened:

1. John Dawkins (142) 0-1 Phil Watkinson (127)
2. John Glover (135)  ½-½ Stephen Smith (124)
3. Otto Hardy (131)   0-1 Andrew Pike (115)
4. Terry Adcock (109) ½-½ Barrie Cooper (111)
Team Bonus            0-½
-----------------------------------------------
Total                 1-3½

I am so proud of the team - we all had the right attitude and motivation and were going to provide as much resistance to our opponents as possible whatever the outcome.

This perservance paid off with excellent results - Andrew, with positive play, gave Otto too many problems to solve; Stephen defended for a long time in the kinght and pawn ending with four knights (although the position was so complicated I'm sure I counted five knights on the board at one time); Barrie agreed a draw in an equal game but where he had all the chances. My opponent allowed me a kingside hack attack in all the best traditions of the Grunfeld Exchange, which, of course, failed but he had used up so much time that he mucked up the resulting drawn endgame.

We therefore won the match even without the handicap bonus (the team were out graded by 40 points).


The award ceremony will take place next Thursday at the Association prize giving event at Spinney Hill. We will get Andrew to comb his hair and I will try not to look like I have a broom handle up my a**e.


Cheers,Phil.