Its been Kenilworth v Solihull week in the Leamington League. On Monday, our C team edged out Solihull B 2.5-1.5 in a Division 2 encounter, and last night there was a double header at the Blossomfield Club, when it was A v A in Division 1 and Solihull E v Kenilworth D in Division 4. The indomitable Roy led the D team to a 2-1 win, (taking his own seasonal tally to 3/3), ably supported by new kid on the block Hector, who took his competitive record to 2/2 with a convincing victory. It could so easily have been 3-0 as well, since fellow newcomer Patrick was well on top, only to blunder the game away. But it's great to see two of our new members playing successfully in the League only a couple of months after first turning up at The Gauntlet. Thank you lockdown/The Queen's Gambit/online chess for giving us a shot of new blood! Toby should be the next off the KCC talent conveyor belt to make his competitive debut for us.
But I digress. What about the big match between the two A teams, I hear you ask? Well, I've been putting this off as long as I can, but now I have to bite the bullet and admit that I very nearly sank the team by playing a pretty poor game with White against Ray Carpenter on top board. I failed to notice when my initiative had been blunted, and with the game having turned against me I went downhill quickly - walking straight into a knight fork to end my miserable evening. So 0-1, and things looked pretty bleak. Our human points machine Andrew was decidedly on the back foot against Neil Clarke on Board 2, while things were at best unclear in the other two games. I departed to the bar for a post mortem with Ray but before you could say Jack Robinson, in sauntered Andrew and Lionel to report that they had both won! Not sure how Andrew pulled off that trick, but this latest win now puts him on 8/8 for the season, while Lionel was delighted to announce that he had gone to 2/2 for the season by winning on time! And - are you reading this, Phil? - he had noticed! To be fair to Lionel, he had apparently taken over the position and was making life very difficult for Julian Summerfield, and even the increment was not enough for him to be able to handle Lionel's pressure.
Which left Joshua to decide the match on Board 3 against Tony Sadler. After a very exciting opening, the game settled down somewhat, but just when Joshua seemed to be winning a very important pawn, he decided he couldn't take it and the game - helped by opposite bishops - settled down towards a draw. Which both players seemed reasonably happy about, even though it confirmed our match victory - and a clean sweep of the three KCC v Solihull encounters this week. We now need the B team to make it 4/4 when they play Solihull A at the end of the month.
So thankfully, my wonderful team-mates got me off the hook and saved the day. Chapeau, mes amis! But, of course, while Andrew, Lionel, Roy and Hector were all keeping up their 100% scores, I had to accept that after 9 unbeaten games my run of invincibility was over. Oh well, it was good while it lasted, but all good things have to come to an end, Take it away, Jackson!
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