Man with Hat arrived early at the Navvy to find that the room had been used for an earlier function. With no thought for his safety he sneaks behind enemy lines and unfurls the Macclesfield flag at the far side of the room with the chair backs facing the wall. In football parlance this is like winning the toss away from Home and electing to swap sides, a bit like Graeme Souness plunging the Galatasaray flag into the Centre Circle of Fenerbahce. Unfortunately, it didn’t really get much better… Joachim on Board 3 made a solid start with an agreed draw. A quick glance over my shoulder and I see that Joachim had wedged a pawn on the 5th rank whilst his opponent Andy had jammed a knight also in the centre of the board. No room to play ½ : ½. Tom dropped a pawn against a tough opponent and the experienced Mr K was able to convert (Tom, I’ve not beaten him in 3 attempts)! ½- 1½. Next to finish is yours truly. I actually thought this ½ wasn’t too bad and although the green shoots of recovery are still very much frozen underground the rot has, for now at least, stopped. A blunder free draw with the Black pieces did not however please the indomitable Mrs Hat whose withered look was accompanied by an order not to mention the grading differences (never occurred to me)! Three games left and the Macc Lads have big time advantages in all of them but we need 2 wins for a match point and I am realistically only optimistic for Denzil against Alan who for some reason he likes to play against. Alan was eyeing up a winning endgame but Denzil managed to keep the Queens on making it difficult to play with less than 3 minutes on the clock. A mating net was weaved and not seen and the scores moved to 2 each. Francis had allowed Paul a free run of his Queen down the Queenside. The idea was to trap Paul’s Queen but Paul created a flight square and was able to free himself with a 2 pawn winning advantage. The baying mob then turn their attention to Board 5 where John had a good position until he ran out of rope to tie Chris up. Chris emerged free at last with a 2 pawn advantage but no passed pawn i.e. 4 v 3 and 3 v 2. Could John keep the game alive with his time advantage and pressure Chris into an error? It’s John that makes the error and another deserved win for Marple. Well played Terry, well played Marple and we move on to the second half of the season when we will once again be up against it. Thanks to all those who stepped in at the last minute to ensure 6 very keenly contested games played in good spirit with congenial hosts.
Next up for Man with Hat is the Stockport Rapidplay where Mrs Hat will be signing books and scaring the children.