Hey Mister Porter what shall we do, we meant to play at Scarborough but we’ve ended up in Crewe!
Mr & Mrs Hat racked up early having made the short trip from Derbyshire to support our friends in Crewe…..
Round 1 and Man with Hat is gifted a piece early on and dreams of an early visit to the bar for the purpose of imbibing with our congenial hosts. Also known as `The Ditherer` MWH contrives to finish last and comes through the X-Factor doors with the full point only to be greeted by burglars and owls. Well played to Steve S for putting up such dogged resistance. Unbeknown to the Hat, Mrs Hat had received a full point bye after her opponent withdrew at the last minute (we hope all is well).
After a hearty breakfast, we are joined by our Macclesfield cohorts Geoff and Francis (Major) and Patrick (Minor). MWH (Inter) moves to 2 ½ / 3 at the end of Saturday having made friends with Crewe gladiators Ricky, Lucasz and Chris.
Round 4 and I’ve trapped my bishop for the 2nd time in a week (Unbelievable)! I eventually slip the handcuffs for the knockdown price of just 1 pawn and immediately launch an overdue attack against my youthful opponent. Too late and my opponent’s understanding of pawn endgames that belies his age leaves Man with Hat desperately clinging onto the opposition for a save. As the crowds start to mill around the scoreboard it becomes clear that MWH will still have a shot at some prizemoney but with all the excitement he makes a fatal mistake. Mrs Hat, winless on the previous day, had pulled off a terrific win and the Hat had spectacularly failed to ask about her successful endeavours. At the time of going to the Blog press, Mr Hat is still grovelling with 2021 being touted as the thaw year!
MWH gets shot down in the final round, brutally dispatched by a decent player in form and courtesy of a Ginger GM video (Simon Williams). Not even time to imagine the elusive cheque let alone time to dream of spending it. Time to watch Patrick enjoying himself, Mrs Hat adding to her total and Geoff surviving a stern test by a ridiculously young opponent.
A big thank you to Les and the team for a well run weekend.
Twenty players took part in the first event of the season. Generous supplies of sandwiches, nuts, crisps and even pickled onions appeared on the bar for consumption between rounds and as the plates emptied it was obvious that everyone had followed Geoff's instructions about not overeating at teatime.
The winner was Robert, who defies all attempts at being handicapped, with the maximum score of 5. It was, however, comforting to see Francis and Phil Colville sharing second place with four points.
As there were a number of new players taking part Tony added an extra prize for the highest ungraded player. This was John, but as he had departed before the prize giving so the lucky recipient was Simon.
Tony arranged a fresh puzzle for each round and was gratified that Robert failed to solve the most difficult position, but offers his thanks to him for helping others with the solutions after they admitted being baffled.
The tournament went well, with any pairing problems although several players had an excess of Whites or Blacks. This is always difficult when there is a good attendance .
I take over for the Christmas quickplay so hopefully I can match this high standard.
The new season is upon us, its dark at 8 so let the hibernating begin. Time to hunker down for the winter months with a mug of cocoa and some crumpled up scoresheets from previous seasons.
Stoke league fixtures have been posted, the Annual Fixtures Meeting of the Stockport league has been scheduled and consultation on the internal club championship seems to be meandering towards the successful conclusion few would have predicted at its outset. An outpouring of collective responsibility is all that is now required to deliver an outstanding club championship.
Man with Hat continues to captain the C team and steadfastly refuses to blame his alarming loss of form on any of the multitude of idiots (officialdom) that have plagued him over the last 12 months (a rolling of the eyes from Mrs Hat)!
A big welcome to Francis and Carl, two tough players both tempered in the furnace of tournament chess. Man with Hat has played alongside both when playing for Denton and Buxton respectively and both will prove to be enormous assets to the club. Carl scored 4/5 and a share of 2nd prize in the British Championships (U160) this year. An equally warm welcome to any other new members, I’m sure that Man with Hat will meet you soon enough.
Almost there, just waiting for the outcome of the Stockport Fixtures meeting (what could possibly go wrong)!
Let the good times roll!