Macclesfield C stumbled into their nightmare last night with a 4-2 defeat at the hands of Denton. Their Division 2 status is now out of their hands.
Almost 2 years to the day, Man with Hat masterminded (with the help of others), a shock cup final victory on par with the Liverpool v Wimbledon final of 1988 and the Leeds v Sunderland final of 1973 and ...... For those who witnessed the extraordinary events of that balmy evening the memories will live on for the rest of our lives. It is with the cruelest of ironies therefore that MWH is now reporting the final implosion of the Macc C phenomenon at, of all the venues in the world it had to be, Denton. To compound the irony, my conqueror and now erstwhile friend will in just a few days time be my holiday companion. I guess this puts things a little more in perspective but it doesn't help. There appears to be an inherent equality in the universe that transcends time and for whatever reason there has been a leveling up.
For the record, there was a win for the Kool Kat on board 1 carrying on from his impressive slaying of his strong Stockport opponent the previous week. A win also from Joachim who continues to impress at his temporary reduced grading. In between top and bottom boards we therefore required another 1.5 points and none were forthcoming. An uncharacteristic poor game from Tony, possibly the wrong type of opponent for Marc and Ant coming out second best in an extreme double-edged game that could have gone either way. Man with Hat, not for the first time makes a hash of the opening, fights back doggedly (but dogged costs time) then makes poor end game choices with limited time left.
Turn on and tune in this summer for updates from Man with Hat.
Result update; (19th April)
Denton 1.5 Chorlton B 4.5
The results of this week’s Division 2 fixtures mean that the closest relegation battle in centuries is heading for the Apocalypse. The four horsemen, MACC, DENT, CHOR AND MARP are riding to the 4 corners of the earth and one will be torn asunder and hurled into the abyss that is the relegation trapdoor.
As I understand it (this website accepts no responsibility for errors);
1) Macc must beat Denton to move 4 points clear of Denton.
2) Denton could still overhaul Macc with 2 big wins from their last 2 matches
(one of which is v Marple)
3) Chorlton would still be able to overhaul Macc if they win their final game
(which is v Marple)
If 2) + 3) were both to happen then Marple would be stranded on 9 points with Macc, Denton and Chorlton all on 10 points.
If Macc beat Denton we will not finish last and this would normally give us the right to remain in Division 2
Desperate for points to beat the dreaded drop, we arrived in good time at the Navvy. Unfortunately my brain was a bit late coming to the party. I blundered a piece on Move 4 (not a misprint), the worst move of my life and previous lives (did Derren Brown move my piece)?, Its 7.35 pm and my own personal objective is now to make sure that I don't finish too early and draw attention to my poor play.
Marc was first to lose having dropped a Rook early on to Terry (Something in the beer) !? He was quickly followed by Tony who was desperately trying to hold his position against Chris when his King was sucked out into the middle of the board and checkmated. My game is still going on even though I've missed the same Qa5+ manoeuvre again (this is stretching credulity). Finally some good news, Tom has beaten Joseph although the youngster continues to impress and gets better every year (I'm still playing). Two draws agreed by Pete C and Dave M to Toby and Neil respectively leaving Man with Hat to face the baying mob. My opponent Alan was clearly unnerved by the generosity of the Hat that he allows his pieces to become trapped giving me at least an equal position. Unfortunately, as captain of the team that is losing 2-3 I have to carry on, watched by the throng for at least 6 Billion years before finally giving up the ghost and the game. Well played to my opponent and thanks to Marple for hosting 6 games played in good spirit.