Up for the Cup!

 Last year we entered the U8750 Cup as the defending champions, only to fall at the very first hurdle. Returning to Banbury, a week on from our triumph in the League, we made it through to the next round but it was a tougher evening than the final score suggested. It is fair to say that on a rainswept night, there was more than a storm or two raging at the board...

All the early action was on Board 4. Banbury's Chris Evans looked very keen to avenge his loss against Katya in last week's League game, and launched a brutal assault on Bernard Roger's kingside, straight out of the gate. Chris threw his pieces forward with the force of a hurricane, leaving Bernard desperately trying to batten down the hatches. Bernard put up a good fight, but for the second week in a row Chris was the first to finish. Unfortunately, this time he had put Banbury 1-0 up.

My view from Board 3 was certainly not the best at this stage of the proceedings. Keaton's position against Nathan Manley on Board 2 was also pretty dreadful. He was down material and I feared we were on the brink of going 2-0 down. But as they say, it's often darkest just before the dawn, and if the sun did not exactly start to shine, this is when everything started to change.

Firstly Solomon who was making a welcome appearance on Board 5, steadied our nerves a bit by bringing home the full point against Richard Meakins. I didn't see a huge amount of this one, but Solomon always looked very comfortable to me, and while credit is due to Richard for a good effort against a stronger opponent, Solomon had got the job done with something to spare. So 1-1.

On Board 3, I was up against Mal Waddall for the second week in a row, with the same colours. I switched openings from my improvised efforts last week which had secured a great position and ultimately the win, and went for something more tried and tested. Predictably, I got a lot less from it and soon we were in a very tight game, which always looked destined to go to the wire, as it ultimately did.

Meanwhile, our debutant Paul Badger was giving Paul Rowan the run around on Board 1, with a terrific looking kingside attack, albeit Paul Rowan was defending doggedly. So my guess as to the final match score at this stage was that we would likely draw 2.5-2.5, with us going through on board count (so no margin), but then lightning struck! 

Nathan had been drifting into time trouble, and while he still had much the better position, it was clear that the strength of Keaton's resistance was beginning to tell. Nathan had four minutes left to Keaton's forty-four, and just seemed to be losing the thread, when astonishingly he dropped his queen to a knight fork and immediately resigned. I doubt Keaton will see this as having been one of his better games, but he showed real strength of character. It was clear that his practical match play and never say die attitude had won us the point.

As a captain, I was delighted that we were now 2-1 up and that thanks to Paul, we were also clearly winning on Board 1. However, as a player, I now had to resist Mal. He had clearly realised that he was going to have to win our game to give Banbury any chance. Just as earlier in the week against Coventry, I found myself in a minor pieces endgame, but this one was a lot more active. At one point I thought I was better, at another Mal managed to get his knight onto a killer square and I clearly wasn't. Somehow I brought things back to equality, and reached a moment where I might have actually been ahead again. (While we both thought so at the time, subsequent analysis showed that it was not clear cut.) Mal had 4 minutes left, I had 20 seconds and happily took the draw he offered. So 2.5-1.5.

But we weren't quite done. Paul Badger needed at least a draw. Up the exchange and with a lot of play, it seemed like he was very close, but Paul Rowan is a real fighter. As the clocks ticked down, Paul Rowan generated some counterplay with a passed pawn that reached the second rank. At all times Paul Badger was better, but playing on embers it was easy to envisage a mistake being made. Paul Rowan eschewed a perpetual check that would have cost Banbury the match, but the reality was that he did not have anything better and Paul Badger did not give him another chance to split the point - forcing resignation in the final seconds. An amazing debut performance! 

So, a tense and stormy night. I didn't feel the same euphoria as last week, when driving home on soaking wet roads. More a sense of relief that we'd got the job done. Now we can plan for the next round. With the squad we've got, we're certainly going to give reclaiming the Cup a good go!