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!