Bedford A 3½-1½ Milton Keynes B

Thursday 4th February 2016

    BEDFORD A     MILTON KEYNES B  
1 195 Steve Ledger 0 1 Richard Freeman 181
2 181 Paul Habershon 1 0 Phillip Ekhaesomi 157
3 171 Richard Bodily ½ ½ Ray Holland 143
4 170 Michael Botteley 1 0 George Ward 136
5 170 Ravi Arulnandhy 1 0 Richard Keane 122
         

A much tighter match than it looks because on Boards 2 and 4 Bedford went  perilously close to losing on time. In my position below Black still had 45 minutes to White’s 2 minutes when he blundered with 46…Kc7?? allowing 47 Nd5+ and Kxd3 leaving White a rook up.

Mike Botteley, with fewer than 2 minutes left against 33 just managed to simplify into a trivially won K and P ending.

Richard Bodily had earlier drawn quite quickly. Ravi gained total central control and had the enemy king exposed and on the run. With the match already won Steve succumbed to a nice mating finish.

Paul Habershon