The last week of the season saw the Spring Rapid tournament contested.This was well organised by Tony Soames.
The Spring Rapid Play was well attended and food was provided to aid the competitors.There were also a few puzzles to keep everyone entertained between rounds.
Robert was a great sport and accepted his inflated grading consequent to his 5/5 score in the Autumn fixture. This time he had Kieren to play and in an exciting game he suffered a rare defeat. Kieren came through undefeated and took first place with five points despite only having three minutes on his clock to begin with at least once. Second and third place were taken by Robert and Phil Cattermole.
The ambition for the handicap system is for everyone to have a chance of winning. This never happens and so Tony gave two prizes for the most valiant losers and Adrian and Patrick were the popular winners of these prizes.
Over the whole season Robert took the top spot from the best of two and so wins the Pollard Cup again. In second place was Phil Cattermole and in joint third were Phil Colville and Francis. Twenty-two players took part over the whole season and ten played in all three competitions.
Thanks to Tony for organising this and thanks to everyone who took part.
Drinking in the Queens Hotel, so many people deflated,
News had just come over, Macclesfield C had been relegated,
Man with Hat had told us,
He cried so much his face was wet,
We knew we'd been checkmated.
Despite some late fireworks from Joachim, Macc C failed to secure a point that would have seen their relegation struggle go right down to the wire for a second consecutive season.
For the record, Man with Hat led from the back and was, for once, playing a lower-graded player. However, I couldn’t break through and was getting increasingly frustrated and behind on the clock before Steve made a fatal mistake. On board 5 Pete had already drawn with the potential banana skin that is Vijay. I was still playing and could not afford the time to wander to the other side of the room until my win was confirmed. Even from a distance the body language did not look good and Man with Hat was to quickly learn that his beefed up team was now 1½ - 2½ down with the KoolKat unable to come back from a poor start against Mark W and Denzil beaten by David N on boards 1 + 3 respectively. Time for Joachim to add to his tally with breath taking combinations to prise Bill’s queen away from its guards 2½ - 2½. Ant looked to have lost the deciding game with Reg just needing to finish off a king and pawn endgame with a pawn advantage. I then noticed Reg’s clock was showing 19 seconds. Would this be enough time pressure to induce a mistake at the midnight hour and see the team cling on for another day? Well, you live by the increments and you die by the increments and Reg finished with aplomb.
As Ant’s king was laid down to rest, the fickle finger of fate was pointed, the death knell rang and man and boy openly wept in the street. Lights were lowered around the globe, the horsemen of the apocalypse were briefly seen through a thunderstorm of biblical proportions and hell froze over. Mrs Hat continued to crochet.
A big thank you to all those who played this season and Man with Hat looks forward to the club rapidplay on 21st May. See you all there!
Macc C took another beating last night as their Cheshire rivals closed in on the Division 2 title. Macclesfield C are still hanging on grimly to their Division 2 status, not by their own volition but by the inability of others to cut the cord. One last chance on 23rd April and even then it’s out of our hands. Macc C failed to post a game win recording 3 halves and 3 losses for a second consecutive match. Marc was at his brilliant best and infuriating worst. Facing Tudor on board 6 he somehow managed to power his h2 pawn onto g6 but then dropped a piece and in a classic case of chess denial dropped a second minor piece. Perhaps a plume of unnerve gas had found itself into the room. Pete had only just finished shuffling the wood about for a creditable half against Keven and this was matched by Man with Hat who was left frustrated when all the artillery was clattered off down the e-file. A quick look at David’s form for the season (unbeaten in Stockport League) helped numb the pain. Ant was next to finish. Having dropped a piece to Geoffrey on board 2 it was too much even for the king of the swindles 1-3. The prize for tenacity went to Joachim who hung on for his half when it looked like he was going to go 2 pawns down to Paul B the East Cheshire captain then again what do I know! Last to finish was East Cheshire’s top board John who found a way through in an absorbing finish against the animated Francis who threw everything at his opponent. MWH was going to mention that we were out-graded on every board and by a mean average of 21.5 but I thought better of it. As for Mrs Hat, she was less than impressed that I failed to restore the family honour against David who had beaten her some years ago.Well played East Cheshire and good luck for the rest of the season in particular your next match against Marple!