The C team captain had told us we needed to beat Milton Keynes C to lift them out of the Div 2 relegation places. We thought we had failed, but it turns out that a draw was enough to do the job.
Milton Keynes C v Bedford D
| Home Team: Milton Keynes C | Away Team: Bedford D | ||||||
| Board | Name | Grade | Score | Score | Name | Grade | |
| 1 | Alan Heath | 152 | 0 | 1 | James Gardner | 173 | |
| 2 | Dave Wells | 133 | 1 | 0 | Qais Karimi | 140 | |
| 3 | Colin Solloway | 133 | 0.5 | 0.5 | John J Harbour | 138 | |
| 4 | John McKeon | 121 | 0 | 1 | Robert S Walker | 117 | |
| 5 | Geir Erik Nielsen | 116 | 1 | 0 | Toby Cox | 112 | |
| 2.5 | 2.5 | ||||||
| Played: 03/05/2018 | |||||||
Toby was first to finish after a bold attack, pushing the pawns in front of his castled king, rebounded on him.
Qais “sacrificed” first one pawn, then another. His position looked poor to me, but I was still expecting him to be explaining later on how he was “always better”. It wasn’t to be…
Robert and John took about 2 hours to exchange any material. I was otherwise engaged as Robert won first a rook and then the game.
James came out on top against Alan in a complicated, tactical affair. When glancing at their game I never felt I knew what was going on.
I got my pieces into a tangle, but after the first exchanges was able to build up a strong-looking king-side attack. This came to nothing, and we entered a R+B endgame with me a pawn down. When Colin offered a draw I nearly grabbed his hand off.
John
I guess it’s common sense, but the B and C teams’ final positions in the league have depended on the number of games won and not just the matches won. A salutary lesson!