The C Team faced the OU at home on Thursday. Those joining old foe Dave Phillips (once memorably described by former member John Harbour as a “strong 80” but much stronger than that now) included two players I don’t think we’ve seen before, Peter Hawes and Matthew Jacques.
Peter Hawes was unlucky to be facing Division 1 squad member Mike Botteley on top board. Mike was playing in the absence of Callum Shields. Peter hung on for an hour or so before any pieces were exchanged, after which I lost track of the game, but Mike crashed through.
On board 2 Robert Walker established a lead in development against a defensive set up by Dave Webber. Eventually a flurry of exchanges left each player with Queen, both Rooks and Bishop but Robert had engineered a strong passed pawn and duly converted for a win.
Matthew Jacques faced a Sicilian against Richard McMorran and to my eye there was very little in it when he left his Queen en pris.
Dave Phillips also played a Sicilian against me but, unusually in my experience after my pawn to d4, did not exchange pawns. I managed to win a pawn on f7 and with both Kings exposed and seemingly on the brink of disaster Dave missed a Knight fork and lost a Rook for nothing.
Joe achieved a comfortable position with his Bishops dominating the board and much better than Steven Wayne’s Knights. After skewering Steven’s Queen and Rook Joe ended up with a a piece for two pawns and comfortably converted with – for once – plenty of time left on his clock.
So:-
Mike Botteley 1 – 0 Peter Hawes
Robert Walker 1 – 0 Dave Webber
Richard McMorran 1 – 0 Matthew Jacques
Peter Gill 1 – 0 Dave Phillips
Joe Valerio 1 – 0 Steven Wayne
5 – 0