Thursday 3rd December 2015
Steve Ledger (195) 1-0 Graham Borrowdale (183)
Paul Habershon (181) 1-0 Adrian Elwin (181)
Ravi Arulnandhy (170) 0-1 Graham Smith (170)
Michael Botteley (170) 1-0 Rob Whiteside (161)
Richard Bodily (171) 1-0 Peter Rawcliffe (146)
Looks easy, but the result was in doubt until well into the rapidplay finish. After Borrowdale did not quite make the time control in a slightly inferior position, all the other games went beyond move 35. Habershon was next to win after Elwin inexplicably failed to regain a pawn and reached a lost rook ending. Board 3 was wild with Arulnandhy sacrificing material to nudge the uncastled white king to f1. He could not find a killer, though, and had to keep finding desperate counterplay. In the ending, despite an advanced pawn to compensate for his bishop against a rook, the position was probably lost when his flag fell.
So Bedford were 2-1 up with Board 4 double-edged and Bodily, a pawn up on Board 5, finding it difficult to win a rook ending. All four players were down to their last few minutes when Whiteside dropped a knight for nothing and Bodily finally pushed through a winning pawn.