I wasn't going to bother writing up the A team's final league match of the season this week, away against already-relegated Leamington A, because I was already resigned to the fact that it was an ultimately meaningless encounter. Despite us chalking up our fourth consecutive score of 3-1 or better, the league table looked likely to end up with us in second or even third place, even though we have built up a massively superior game points score to every other team. Olton A, Solihull A and Banbury A could all overtake us by winning their games in hand, and with the only direct encounter left being a Solihull - Olton match, my money was on Banbury who seemed to have the easiest fixtures and who would come out first if they won their three remaining games.
We duly got the two expected points against Leamington, thanks to very efficient wins with Black on Boards 2/4 for Andrew and Mike, and draws on Boards 1/3 for myself and Joshua. I went from +5 to 0.00 in one move at the end of my game against Tom Darling, allowing perpetual check when an alternative king move would have confirmed the decisive advantage I had enjoyed since move 2!
But the excitement for the week was not over, as I then discovered that Banbury A had rather carelessly lost that same night against Shirley A, despite averaging 184 against Shirley's 162, and they compounded that mishap the very next night by losing against Solihull B, this time averaging 184 against just 150! So Banbury are totally out of the running (despite James Jackson's monstrous 10/11 score on Board 1) and its all eyes on the Solihull A v Olton A encounter - or it would be if I could dare to look. A draw or a Solihull win will give us the title. Which would have been ours already if …….. if so many things, of course, and it would be unfair to single out one game/mistake that was more significant than any other. Although I have my own ideas on that, but in the interests of team spirit it is best that I keep them to myself! Especially as everyone else could readily point out that I have the worst score of any of the regular players, so ultimately I am more to blame than anyone!! Definitely not responsible for our likely near miss are Joshua and Mike who jointly top scored with 7.5/9 (83.3%).
Irrespective of the final Division 1 placing, we still have a KO Cup Final appearance to look forward to against Olton A in early May, so there is still a chance that some A team silverware will be sitting on my mantelpiece for the next 12 months. I'd better make sure we haven't run out of silver polish!
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