Wednesday 31 October 2018

The Big Mo

That's momentum, in case you are wondering, and nothing to do with either a former Secretary of State for Northern Ireland or a bartender from The Simpsons.  And we've got it, as the A team notched up its second consecutive win in the Coventry League last night, with a resounding 3-1 win over Coventry A.  Indeed, if we hadn't missed those two Ronnie Rosenthals against University A and I hadn't lost a drawn ending against Rugby, we'd now be top of the table!

Mike was first to finish last night after a rather unexciting encounter with Dave Ireland, and I followed shortly after with a scarcely more interesting game against Coventry's new addition, Henrik Stepanyan. Yes, as if having 300,000 people to choose from wasn't enough, Coventry now need to recruit from distant Sutton Coldfield to take on the mighty resources of Kenilworth's 22,000.

Which left the evening's adrenaline quota all riding on Boards 3 and 4. Luckily, they each provided far more in the way of dramatic content. I was on hand to witness the dramatic climax of Dave's win over Ed Goodwin, where an apparent infiltration/attack by Black's queen to g4 rebounded in the most horrible way, as the queen found itself with no escape squares and about to be rounded up by a White rook. In trying to avert this catastrophe, Ed instead walked into the loss of a rook.

Ben, meanwhile was a pawn up against Bernard C (unlike Joshua, our dual-loyalty member had not absented himself from the opposition for the evening - and I bet he's applied for an Irish passport, too!) after a very enterprising opening with Black, and with Bernard's rook almost stranded on a5 things were looking very good for us. Even so, I was surprised at the speed with which matters concluded, but full marks to Ben on an energetic game. Some welcome compensation for the pain he suffered against Bernard last season!

So two valuable points for us, and since there are only 6 teams/10 matches in the first division this season, every point is especially precious.  And when you are out-graded on every board, even if not by all that much, then its particularly satisfying.

And - not that anybody's counting - I hope you've all noticed that this report went on-line just after 11.00 on the morning after the match. A full hour earlier than Roy managed last week with his B Team report. And where is he this week? I'll tell you, where he is - nowhere to be seen! He'll have to up his game another notch or two if he thinks he can steal my blogging crown!

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