Our A Team captain, Toby, is rather busy with exams, at present, but I thought something should go on the website to show that Bed A did actually win the Beds league recently (!) so I’ve cobbled together some of my recollections:-
Bedford A limp over the line to clinch Beds League Title.
After winning our first 6 matches, Bedford A had pretty much clinched the title having only to avoid, I think, losing our last 2 matches 0-5.
We, of course, would have much preferred to maintain our 100% record.
Anyway, we duly trotted off to Leighton Buzzard on Tues 18/04 and, rather feebly, lost 4-1.
I had a rather tame, quick draw with Gary Kenworthy and trotted off to the pub with him so I didn’t see much of the other games (guess this half did actually clinch us the title though ! ). This was also the first time Captain Toby had dropped any points after winning his first 6 games.
| Board | Home | Leighton Buzzard A | Bedford A | Away | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (B) | 2169 | Kenworthy, Gary | ½ – ½ | Ledger, Stephen C | 2145 |
| 2 (W) | 2027 | Sharp, John R | 1 – 0 | Cox, Toby | 2085 |
| 3 (B) | 2055 | Law, Stephen | 1 – 0 | Arulnandhy, Ravi | 2124 |
| 4 (W) | 2011 | Hunt, Peter | 1 – 0 | Gardner, James | 2023 |
| 5 (B) | 1953 | Williamson, Kevin J | ½ – ½ | Collacott, Nick | 2020 |
So, with the title duly in the bag, for our final game we entertained Milton Keynes ( nominally called MK B but this is their 1st team ) on Thurs 27/04.
This was a bit of a better performance, especially as Ravi had to pull out on the day and was replaced by Lucian.
I didn’t have much time (see game below!) to watch the other games but Toby got back to winning ways and James was the last to finish as he and opponent battered each other pretty much down to K V K.
| Board | Home | Bedford A | Milton Keynes B | Away | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (B) | 2145 | Ledger, Stephen C | 1 – 0 | Tweeddale, Eoin | 0000 |
| 2 (W) | 2085 | Cox, Toby | 1 – 0 | Elwin, Adrian G | 1996 |
| 3 (B) | 2023 | Gardner, James | ½ – ½ | Estevez Fernandez, Josue | 1968 |
| 4 (W) | 2020 | Collacott, Nick | 0 – 1 | Smith, Graham | 1955 |
| 5 (B) | 1508 | Cox, Lucian | 0 – 1 | Heath, Alan | 1832 |
My own game was quite an interesting, and fluctuating, tussle.
Just what you don’t want in the quickish time limits of the Beds League is to let an opponent you’ve never played (as Black) before and who has no games on any database I could find trot out one of his pet openings that you only face every couple of years !
All good fun. Steve Ledger, 03/05/2023.
Many congratulations to Toby and his team!