We Are Family

Those sports nerds amongst you might remember the end of the 1985 Division 1 relegation battle. (For clarification, we are talking football here, not the Leamington & District Chess League! And yes, it was called Division 1 in those pre-Premiership days.) Coventry City had to win their last three matches to stay up and relegate Norwich in their place. With 2 wins achieved over Stoke and Luton, it all came down to a Sunday morning showdown against already-crowned champions Everton - unimaginable now, I know! Well, it was strongly rumoured that the Everton players had been celebrating their title rather vigourously, and come the final match they didn't quite perform as champions should.

The parallels with the Leamington A v Kenilworth A match last night were striking We went into the match 7 points clear at the top of the table, and with the title long since wrapped up. But Leamington were fighting for their lives at the foot of the table, and had picked up three points from their previous two matches against Stratford and Shirley which now put them just one point behind the 7th placed team ......... Who just happened to be our B team. So there was an added twist, as a Kenilworth A win would definitely save Kenilworth B, while a draw or - God forbid - a win for Leamington would see them overtake us ahead of the B team's tough last match against Olton A.

But what could go wrong for the B team? The A team had won 11 of its 12 matches, scoring at least 3 points in all those victories, and in the pre-Christmas meeting between the two teams had despatched Leamington A 4-0. Moreover, we had a strong team deployed for the occasion, and as far as I know there had been no riotous and prolonged celebrations of our title triumph, so it looked like a formality for the A team to get the required win. I imagine you're already guessing by now that things didn't necessarily go to script. Correct!

To relieve any anxieties, though, I will say straightaway that we did indeed win the match, albeit by an unconvincing 2.5-1.5 scoreline. But behind that there was a lot of drama. It was a good job that Ben was not in attendance to monitor the B team's survival prospects, as the tension would probably have got too much for him at times.

Things looked more or less OK to begin with. On Board 1, Javi had kept his extra pawn against Tom Darling's inevitable Elephant Gambit, but Josh had a ropey position against Ola Olaleye on Board 4. Andrew was equal against Ben Egid's Stonewall Dutch on Board 3, while on 2 I had a very double edged game against a new Leamington player, Mohammed Ben-Rashed.

Then the inevitable happened, and the games got too difficult for the players. Josh found a cheapo and Ola rather unnecessarily gave up an exchange, hoping his passed queenside pawns would compensate. Maybe they should have, but in practice they didn't and Josh crashed through with his rooks. so 1-0 to us. And I had played rather well, though I say so myself, and reached a completely won position. All under control.

No!!

Time trouble got to me and I missed a number of winning moves and finally had to accept a draw, and things had gone decidedly pear shaped on the other two boards as well! Josh assures me that Andrew was lost at some point in a double rook and bishop ending, and then compounded the situation by turning down a draw offer. (BTW, I seem to recall that Andrew's opponent once turned down a draw offer from the late Phil Holt in a Leamington-Olton match and went on to lose. If he had accepted, Kenilworth would have won another Division 1 title!) But a draw was then reoffered by Andrew soon afterwards and thankfully accepted. But things had also gone horribly wrong on top board and after being temporarily two pawns up, Javi somehow then lost 4 pawns to end up 2 pawns down in a rook ending. Happily, though, Black's extra pawns were f and h, and Javi's technique was up to securing a relatively easy draw to clinch the match. So thank goodness for Josh, as I would have been mortified if my inability to win from +6 had cost the B team their Division 1 place.

Incidentally, this is the second time I can remember winning our final game to relegate Leamington. The previous occasion was in 2014, when once again we had already won the Division 1 title. By winning this game, we relegated Leamington and saved Banbury B - who repaid us one year later by defaulting against Olton A to help them on the way to the title at our expense. (My memory may be going, but I still have total recall of all those who have done the dirty on us in the past!)

Some people come and go, but there are others you can never get rid of! Page, Pink and Wood all still going (strong?) 

Commiserations, then, to Leamington who had a more than decent team last night and may feel slightly hard done by, but with our B team likely to be pretty strong next season, there's no way it should be playing in Division 2.

And its also worth mentioning that on the same night, our D team were in Division 3 action against Stratford B and chalked up another win (2.5-1.5) to put themselves top of the table and set up a promotion/title decider against Daventry A next week. I hardly need to say that it was our juniors who were the heroes again - Keatan and George both winning - and the slightly more senior Patrick adding the extra half a point.

The A team did the B team a favour and the D team won, so only the C team was left out of last night's display of club unity and togetherness. But we love them, too! Cue this week's song.