Mighty Macc C powered clear of their rivals last night after a hard-fought win at home to Northenden. All the pre-match talk was of the newly revised gradings. Readers of this Blog will not be too surprised to learn that Man with Hat’s grading has fallen off the edge, through the floor and ended up in the bowels of the earth’s crust. Meanwhile the eager Northenden team were sat down and ready to roll at 7pm. First to finish was Marc against Andrew. Would Marc be tired from his efforts the previous day at the Stockport Rapidplay? Nope, Marc played a beautiful game forcing all of Andrew’s pieces onto a corner of the back 2 ranks before playing cat and mouse and winning. Next to finish was MWH and the game had opened up nicely for me after the ladies were exchanged in the middle of the board. A winning endgame was apparent and I wasn’t going to let Anthony back. MWH has a rep for using up every second on his clock but tonight he still had 20 minutes. Add to this Anthony’s 1 hour and it was a rare opportunity to chill, relax and escape to the bar. As I sat down with Anthony, the Northenden team one by one joined us. A nice touch and it certainly brought a smile to the face of Zoe the landlady. Young Liam, elevated to top board for Northenden must have been pleased with a solid half against a higher graded player in Francis. Dad Des failed to match his son’s endeavours though losing out to Tom’s runaway pawn. The only loss to the Macc Lads being Tony’s defeat to Neil. A piece down early doors, Tony tried to use his compensatory pawns to engineer a passed pawn but it was not enough to stop a confident Mr Oddie. On returning home, MWH told his tale of glory, of bravery and a lion’s heart. Mrs Hat put down her croquet and turned instead to another 2,088 hours of recorded Gotham box sets showing an appalling nonchalance towards her other half’s heroics. A big thank you for Northenden for a thoroughly enjoyable night and we look forward to the return match in March.
Man with Hat