From which you'll have guessed that one of our finalists triumphed and the other didn't! It was the Open KO Cup team which was successful - for the sixth successive time - while the U8750 team, sadly lacking captain and inspiration Ben who was away on business, fell at the final hurdle in its defence of the trophy it had won for the last two years.
I didn't see very much of the U8750 match, but it was clear from the outset that it was going to be a tough fight against a strong Banbury side, packed with former/current A team players. Our only victor was Steph on Board 5, already the hero for stepping in as a late replacement for Patrick, against the rapidly improving Banbury junior, Dylan Harvey. At the other end of the team, Paul secured an excellent draw against Paul Rowan on top board, but elsewhere the momentum seemed to be largely with Banbury for much of the evening. Phil lost on Board 2 to Nathan Manley and Dylan on 4 to Nick Martin. Which meant that even when Dan was still engaged in a heavyweight time scramble against Mal Waddell on Board 3, our fate was already sealed, as in the event of a tied match Banbury would have won on board elimination. But as Dan flagged, it actually ended as a 3.5-1.5 win for Banbury. So no hat trick for us!
But at the end of the evening, there was a double hat-trick for our Open KO Cup team, as we eventually powered to a 4.5-0.5 win over Leamington on a highly poignant evening, as it was Javier's last match for the club after three and a half seasons. Thankfully he ended his Kenilworth years with another win, taking his overall record to 39/51 (76.5%), mainly on board 1 and never playing below board 2. During this time he lost only 5 games, 3 of which were in the Coventry League and so don't really count! His final victim was Tom Darling after a game where Javi nursed an extra pawn for a long time before converting the advantage to an extra piece, and then neatly sacrificing his rook temporarily to exchange down into a winning king and pawn ending. Thanks for everything, amigo and buena suerte en Espana! (A fuller reflection on Javier's Kenilworth years will appear in due course.)
Despite the lop-sided final score line, this match was by no means a walk in the park. Indeed for much of the evening I thought we were in grave danger of losing, as it seemed to me that we were dead lost on two boards after less than an hour's play. This is the risk you face when Bruce and Josh are in the team, I guess! I was sat next to Joshua and watched in horror as he virtually forced Andy Collins to make a winning knight sacrifice on e6. I say sacrifice, but as Andy's next move was to capture an unprotected bishop with check, it was a very short-term sacrifice! Joshua was two pawns down with a totally busted - virtually unplayable - position. We'll leave it there for now - but we will return!
The other cause of worry was Bruce's encounter with Joshua Simpson on Board 3. (Meaning there were 2 Dylans in the U8750 match and 2 Joshuas in the Open final. Wonder what the odds of that were?) Already stamped with a very sketchy personal record in Cup Finals for us (I can immediately recall 2 disastrous efforts!), Bruce seemed hell-bent on adding to the roll of dishonour, quickly joining Joshua in the 2 pawns down camp. Now this time it was deliberate (or at least semi-deliberate!) as there were compensations and the position was very dynamic. The White king was stuck in the centre; Bruce's pieces were active; White had a bad bishop; there was a king-side pawn storm underway ...... But it was 2 pawns! I didn't believe it for one minute until I sensed a presence by my left shoulder and saw that Bruce was entering the result on the match score card on the table next to me. Of course he'd won. Never in doubt. Always plenty of compensation according to the engine. Blah-di-blah. Still looked highly dubious to me!
But with at least one crisis averted, things were much brighter. Javier duly won and then Andrew followed suit, after a rather unexciting game against Ben Egid which went into a slightly better ending that he somehow converted. Not much to see here. Move along please!
So the cup was secured well before I crawled my way to a highly unconvincing win over Tom Cockell on Board 4 where its eminently possible I was much worse/totally lost for some time. Though neither of us really knew for sure! After finding it very hard to get any kind of activity going, I eventually ended up with a pawn chain running from e3 to b6. Black still had a dark squared bishop and if it ever got to the e3 pawn it would then just start munching the rest of the chain, Pacman style. Alternatively, he might have sacrificed an exchange on e3 and then won the d4 pawn, when c5 and b6 pawns would also go. Somehow none of this happened, but it cost me lots of time to try and avoid these latent threats. However, I finally unravelled and managed to exchange both rooks leaving me with queen and knight against queen and bishop. But by this time I had got my act together and had managed to get my knight to f5 and my queen in on c7 targeting pawns at b7 and f7. Tom jumped out with his queen, but there was only one check and he found he couldn't do anything about my threat of Qxg7 mate. Probably a very lucky win.
However, that does leave one game unfinished. While I was suffering the tortures of the damned I happened to eventually glance over at the board 5 game and couldn't believe the transformation that had occurred! Joshua was still two pawns down, but the only material left on the board was a rook each and White pawns on a5 and h7. And to make matters worse, Andy's rook was stuck on h8 defending the advanced pawn. With Joshua's king perfectly placed on b7 to prevent the a pawn advancing there was no way for Andy to make progress, as his king could not escape checks whenever it approached the h7 pawn to try and free the rook from its defensive duties. Cue the music!
A Great Escape, indeed! I think even Josh was embarrassed by this, but it has to be said - he really is "as cunning as a fox who's just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University".
So one cup will be returning to Kenilworth to spend another year on display at Page Towers, but the other will disappear south down the M40. For those interested, the U1600 Cup was won by Leamington, who defeated Shirley 3-1.
With Javier's departure, this feels like the end of an era. We've won Division 1 and the cup in each of the 4 seasons he has played for us, and he also arrived just in time to help us win the Coventry League for the only time in 2023 (despite losing to Joshua in the decisive final match) before deciding to give that competition a wide berth. (Losing to Josh will do that!) I don't know how he'd like to sum up his Kenilworth years. Maybe like this?! 😄
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