We were down to just 2 registered A team players amongst the quartet I had managed to assemble for this encounter, so were very much not at full strength. So it was a bit of a relief to discover that Stratford weren't either, as they were missing their regular Board 1, Ben Larkin, against whom Javier normally draws in about 10 minutes flat. Mind you, as I was giving him a lift, he would have been hanging around for some time if he'd tried that approach again!
Last season this fixture was interrupted by about 4 power cuts, but the National Grid seems to have got its act together as far as the supply to this part of Stratford is concerned, as the lights stayed on all night. (Well done, Ben!) But that didn't stop it getting very dark for our intrepid warriors at one point in the evening. This was when Mike managed to lose from what looked like an overwhelming position against Carl Hibbard on Board 4. This was quite a reverse for our prospects, as I'd mentally marked this up as 1-0 to us some time earlier and seeing it become 0-1 was very painful. Especially as the brutal reality of these 4 board matches meant we needed to score 2.5 points from the remaining 3 games to secure the points. Thankfully, that was when things turned in our favour.
Javier had played a very shaky opening on Board 1 against Richard McNally and there seemed to be a very simple queen exchange line that would have left Richard better and with almost zero risk. But Richard's style is generally never to exchange queens, which meant that the game continued with plenty of firepower on the board. Javi finally woke up and started taking pawns while Richard - of course! - went for a king attack. But White had no weaknesses and was able to transpose to a rook and opposite bishops ending with 2 extra pawns. However, the win may not have been trivial, except that Richard overlooked a rook check on the 6th rank which forked king and bishop and won a piece.
Another win came our way when I beat Alexander Roberts on Board 3. From a highly theoretical opening I got what I thought was zero advantage, though the engine gives a clear White edge. I decided to spice things up by sacking the exchange for a pawn and - in my dreams - chances of mate on g7 or h8 due to my control of the dark squares. All fiction, of course. The sac wasn't very good and the position was level-ish until Alex rather needlessly gave back the exchange and I was able to shove my passed d pawn down the board to force resignation. Somewhat fortuitous and probably undeserved.
Which meant we were ahead in the match and just needed a draw to secure the victory. Andrew had been pressing with Black against David Gardiner for most of the evening and would have played on had we needed the full point, but being a great team guy decided to take a draw to win the match. Very pragmatic and just what a hyper-nervous team captain likes to see. Other club members please take note!!
This win temporarily put us three points clear at the top of the table, but Warwick Uni's subsequent 3-1 away win at Banbury has brought the gap back to 1 point, though we have a game in hand.
If anybody thinks the Shakespeare references mean that this week's song is going to be David Essex singing "A Winter's Tale" they can think again. My wife likes him and the song, but she doesn't write these reports, I do! And I much prefer something like this!
Nothing to do with Shakespeare of course. Just the best rock instrumental song ever. God bless whoever invented the electric guitar, and God bless the truly brilliant Dickey Betts for the way he played it. Top Gear would have been a lot better if they'd used all of this awesome live version for the intro and slashed the time allocated to Jeremy Clarkson and his chums!
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