Ashes to Ashes

These are dark days indeed for all England cricket fans and, judging by his performances on recent Thursday nights, one KCC member in particular seems to be something of a broken man. Of course, it might well be thought that this is just a resumption of the natural state of things, and that the last few years, when we actually gave the Aussies a good spanking, were nothing but an aberration. History definitely suggests that the boys from down under have the upper hand over us Poms on the sporting front, but in fact it wasn’t always so, and if we go back far enough, we’ll even come across a series of English triumphs by yours truly!

In 1984 my then employers had, rather generously, sent me to Australia for 6 months to work in the Sydney and Melbourne offices.  In Melbourne my chess was restricted exclusively to blitz events, but when I moved to Sydney, things got more serious. I joined Hakoah Chess Club (who played at Bondi Beach) and scored 5.5/6 on Board 3 in the first division of the Sydney League during my brief stay.  My greatest successes over the old enemy, though, came one week-end in May 1984, when, in successive rounds, I took the scalps of two former Australian champions.  First up, was the 1970 champion.

This was the last round on the Saturday evening, and with 3.5/4 I knew I’d get someone rather good on Sunday morning.  As it turned out, up stepped a former double Australian Champion, John Purdy, (admittedly from back in 1955 and 1963!) to try and put the Pommie upstart in his place.

I suppose it would be churlish of me not to record that the tournament was actually won by future GM Ian Rogers with 5.5/6, and that my very best move of the weekend was to avoid being drawn against him.  I finished 2= with former NZ champion Craig Laird on 5 pts.

But it gets even better. Continuing the cricket theme which started this article off, I can actually claim a hat trick of Australian champions, because long before I ever set foot down under, I had enjoyed a delightful, though totally unsound, win over Daryl Johansen, who has subsequently racked up a record 6 Australian titles (1984/88/90 and 2000/02/12) as well as gaining the GM title in 1995 and appearing in 14 Olympiads.  It would be highly remiss not to finish with this enjoyable romp.

This article and accompanying games first appeared several years ago on the web site of Correspondence Senior International Master Mike Donnelly (a Kenilworth resident) http://chesspagesofmikedonnelly.co.uk/ - which is well worth a visit.