Was Your Journey Really Necessary?

Well, as far as Mike was concerned, the answer was no, as the home team had suffered a late call off and could only muster three people to play against us in last Thursday's Banbury A v Kenilworth A Division 1 encounter. But the missing person missed out on quite a strange and rare experience - it was certainly a new one for me! When we arrived, the usual venue of St Mary's Church Centre was full to the rafters with non-chess players, who had in fact assembled there for a talk on "Mountains and Fjords". And very interesting it was, I'm sure, but (a) it wasn't chess and (b) where was our match going to be held?

The answer, it transpired (clever choice of word there - pay attention at the back!) was ........ here!

We actually played in the South Aisle, off to the right

Yes, next door in the imposing St Mary's Church itself. Which if you are interested, doesn't have a spire, but a dome, so my clever word play was a bit off target. But never let the facts get in the way of a joke! Anyway, it was dark, cold, short of facilities and slightly spooky. Interesting for a one-off, but I wouldn't like to make a habit of this. (Another religion-inspired pun - please try and keep up.)

And so to the match, where Banbury were lacking not just one player called Jackson (IM James) but two (Captain Gary), and with a default on Board 4 (which left Mike freezing and with nothing to do for a couple of hours) we were obviously in the driving seat. Joshua was the first to finish (I seem to recall typing those words before, once or twice) conducting a ferocious attack on Paul Rowan's king, after Paul had inexplicable dropped an exchange to an eminently avoidable knight fork. Jude was playing Nathan Manley on Board 1, and after seeming to overlook some tricky moves, he had to temporarily regroup before eventually transitioning into a rook and pawn ending, where he soon annexed a stray Black pawn. The game then ended in truly dramatic fashion, as Nathan marched his king forwards only to be hit by the move h4 mate!  So 3-0 to us, and just me left in play. Another rather too familiar line! I was trying very hard to make something happen with my slight advantage of two bishops and a weak, isolated White pawn on b6. But my opponent, Danut Joian, defended well and in the end I had to be thankful that he missed a chance to turn the tables on me and start pushing for a win himself. So honours even in that game, and a 3.5-0.5 win overall for us.

I'm almost spoilt for choice on the music front this week, given the match venue, but I decided to go with my very first thought. I mean, you can't really go wrong with a Nobel Literature Prize winner, can you?

But it was a close run thing, as I quite fancied this, too. (Now, you'll believe that a man can fly! And what about those hair styles?? Even more remarkable than early-Jude!)

And this! But I'll stop now, you'll be pleased to learn!