Just twenty four hours on from Dave earning us a miracle
second point in his time scramble against Jason, I returned that bonus point in
an end of game scramble against Gary Hope. This sadly saw us go down 2.5-1.5 to
League leaders Olton. Still lots of
games to play and hope remains for our League challenge, but it clearly wasn’t
the result we wanted.
As with the previous evening, things didn’t start well for
us. Nick seemed to drop a piece early on against Robert Wallman. Whilst he made
a good game of it after that, the end result was probably inevitable and Olton
went 1-0 up. Mike and Dave were in action against the Reynolds brothers and
both games looked pretty solid. It wasn’t a surprise when they ended in draws.
So we were 2 – 1 down. But the good news was I was having a
great game. Everything seemed to click. I was very good out of a somewhat
unorthodox Lopez and picked up a pawn and some pressure. It really looked like
I was on the brink. Gary fought back and whilst my defence was fine, it cost me
time on the clock which developed into a problem. In an ending with Queen, Rook
and Bishop vs Queen Rook and Knight, my passed b pawn looked invincible, but
Garry found the right defence. Afterwards we thought I’d made a mistake in
taking the Queens off – it was actually easier to win with them on. I turned
down a number of draw offers, but with both flags hanging, I just couldn’t see a
way through. If I’d had increments I would have played on, but I just had a
sense that it wasn’t my night. So not for the first time Gary escaped my
clutches with a draw by the skin of his teeth…
Very disappointing, but these things happen. Incidentally,
in the 8 individual games we have played against Olton in the League, 7 have
been draws, so there is clearly not a lot between the teams.
We have an interesting few weeks ahead and we’ll look to put
things right next time out.
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