Yo-Yo Time

Another week, another leader of Division 1. After the B team had reclaimed top spot last Tuesday, seven days later it was the turn of the A team to leapfrog them again, after a 3-1 win away at Stratford last night. Even finding the new Stratford venue should be worth half a game point bonus for visiting teams - I managed to get lost inside the building, and finding the way in is even harder than tracking down the room. Still, its a nice enough venue, in a church hall sort of way, which - of course - means there's nowhere to get a drink. Of any description.  We may have venue issues ourselves, but at least we don't have to die of thirst during a game. And, of course, we don't have to shell out a hefty fee to hire a room for each match/club night. If you want to see what effect that has on club subs you might want to take a look at this! If that doesn't encourage you to buy a drink at The Abbey Club and the Ale Rooms, nothing will.

But I digress. Andrew, borrowed for the evening from the B team, was first to finish, despatching Richard Dobedoe on Board 4, about 10 minutes after I'd taken my one and only look and thought it could be a long game! Says it all really. I suppose if there's a queen and a knight loitering around the enemy king's broken defensive position, a quick conclusion is always a possibility. But given that Andrew's b8 and a8 pieces were still on their start squares, I didn't envisage quite such a swift finish.

Bruce then continued his impressive form with a chaotic win over Sam Cotterill on Board 3. We've all heard about "fire on board", but this was more a case of "anarchy on board". Bruce sacked an exchange, but had a horde of monstrous minor pieces swarming around Black's long castled king. Even with queens off this looked very dangerous, but how he actually finished the game I am unable to report - even though I only needed to turn around in my chair to get a good view of events. That will tell you what kind of time trouble I was in!

Our progress towards the match victory was temporarily halted when Javi went down to defeat on Board 1 against Ben Larkin. It all seemed to be going nicely to begin with, but at some point Javi's kingside pawn advance came to a halt and Ben seemed to jump in down the c file with a rook to stress the White queenside, and the next thing I knew it was all over. This was probably a very well played game by Ben.

But fear not readers, for on Board 2 I had reached a position against Richard McNally which was impossible for me to lose. Wait, did I really just write that? After my recent performances, I am clearly capable of losing any position. Especially when I was well below one minute on the clock for about the last 20 moves. Luckily I was in the driving seat, but the game was too difficult for the two players. When Richard moved the evaluation would swing in my favour, but as soon as I replied it was back to equal. The position was, in fact, drawn, as despite an extra passed pawn, and the presence of rooks, opposite bishops basically meant I couldn't make any progress. But instead of sitting tight, Richard went for counterplay (that's his style, after all!) and I won his bishop at the cost of two pawns. Now it was rook, bishop and 2 against rook and 3. Mistakes were swapped, and instead of liquidating all the pawns and forcing me to try and win R+B v R, Richard self-cheapoed himself and ended up giving one of his pawns away, while simultaneously letting me keep my last pawn which then couldn't be stopped.

So the ball is now back on the B team's side of the net, ahead of the match against Shirley A next Monday. Which could just be a warm-up for the mother of all internal battles on December 18th, when its the second A v B match of the season. At least that means one of our teams will be top of the league at Xmas. The only question is which one?!

And talking of Xmas, how about this for a suitably seasonal song? I believe that this is the last time Clarence Clemons played with the E Street Band before his tragically early passing and, poignantly, it also features a surprising guest appearance on fiddle by David Lindley, who we sadly lost earlier this year. A Blue Christmas, indeed.