It's not easy writing a match report when you left the venue after only one hour of play, but as I'd just flown back from Croatia that morning after 9 successive days of chess, I was in no fit state to stay any longer. Thank goodness I did, as apparently it got rather tense at the end of the evening, and it might well have proved too much for me in my weakened condition!
I was very pessimistic when I went home, as I was already sure that Keatan was losing to Georgs Vikanis on Board 2, and Jude was faced with the most difficult task in Leamington League chess - Black against IM James Jackson on top board. With a tied match being decided by board elimination, starting on Board 5, we could already have been looking at having to win all the remaining 3 boards to avoid defeat. The good news was that Andrew (v Gary Jackson), Dave (v Tom Day) and Joshua (v Paul Rowan) all seemed to me to have some advantage. But none was remotely decisive and we clearly couldn't afford even a single accident, so it looked for all the world as though our run of five successive cup triumphs was going to end at the first hurdle.
But I was reckoning without the Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half!
As I discovered when I went online the following morning to read the inevitable news of our defeat. Except we hadn't lost. We had actually won - and on tie break, which had seemed an impossibility to me the night before. My reading of events was shown to be absolutely dreadful, since only one game - a win for Andrew on Board 3 - had turned out the way I expected. Far from winning on the bottom two boards, both Dave and Joshua had managed to lose and somehow Keatan, despite not being in the best of health, had bravely turned round his dreadful looking position to secure a draw.
However, the mathematically advanced amongst you will have worked out that this left us trailing 2.5-1.5, with only the top board game remaining. But there the result quite clear showed a win for Jude - yes, our new FM had beaten Banbury's long standing IM, in what was possibly the highest level game ever played in the Leamington League. And so by levelling the scores, Jude had secured victory for us on tie-break. Probably the most dramatic conclusion to a KCC match since Paul beat Phil Holt on Board 1 in the 2017 Cup Final (after Phil had turned down Paul's draw offer that would have won the Cup for Olton!) to secure a 2.5-2.5 draw and a Kenilworth win on tie break!
So there you have it - some new legends are born! The Kenilworth Famous Two and a Half, who won the day against all the odds. An amazing effort by our top three boards, who have all now officially been inducted to the KCC Pantheon of Heroes, spearheaded by Jude's brilliant win. It would be quite a blow if we didn't make it 6 Cup triumphs in a row after such an epic performance. We owe it to our Heroes!
No more heroes? Oh yes there are!
