There was late panic for the captain ahead of last night's A team match away at Leamington, when Jude had to withdraw from the team after catching a nasty dose of the dreaded lurgi. (Get well soon, Jude!) But the captain himself was available to step into the breach (after a suitable change of board order) and a full complement eventually assembled at the Leamington Tennis Club. Despite the considerable down-grading of our playing strength with my inclusion, we found Leamington were also afflicted by absences, and as the match started we were clear rating favourites - with just an average 250 points superiority per board! We may not have made full use of this, but the team still got the job done by coming away with a 3-1 victory. Though as always, there was plenty of excitement along the way.
Bruce was the last to arrive (SatNav confusions) and the first to finish. Having just turned down a draw offer from Ben Egid on Board 2 (despite standing worse according to my untutored eye) he then returned the offer just a few minutes later, having realised his bravado in playing on was probably misplaced. His position hadn't improved at all and I suspect he was well pleased when Ben accepted. Especially as he was immediately able to adjourn to the bar for the post-mortem (and to watch the Arsenal game on TV!)
My new found habit of quick games then showed itself again, when in a very complex position Christopher Ward (no, not that one!) made a massive oversight and walked into a pin of his queen by my bishop. This had been a very interesting game where I had been relying on my knowledge of a 1956 game of Paul Keres to justify an early pawn sac. Needless to say, by memory/knowledge ran out almost immediately and my calculation when left to my own devices then left quite a bit to be desired. But who needs good moves when you are on a lucky streak? Game won in 24 moves!
Mike then wrapped up his victory against Shrisha Tarihalkar on Board 4. Shrisha, against whom I had played a training game only the week before, is yet another highly talented junior to emerge from Paul's CCA conveyor belt and will soon be heading to Crete for the European Youth Chess Championships to play in the Girls U-10 tournament. Against a grizzled veteran like Mike, though, this was a tough task for Shrisha and he soon built up a strong initiative with lots of play against White's king which was stranded in the centre. The win of material eventually followed and although the game continued until mate it was never in doubt.
Which I thought could also have been said about the top board game, where Andrew (on his first appearance of the season) was in play against Tom Darling. Not a lot seemed to happen for some tme, but when I finally got a good look at procedings it was clear that Andrew was in total control, with a rook and two bishops against two rooks, despite Tom also having a pair of connected kingside passed pawns. The bishops were absolutely rampant and were just about to bring home the full point, when Andrew had a complete aberration. Thinking he was setting up a mating threat (which he was) he moved his king into danger and lost one of his proud bishops to a rook skewer. I thought he was probably now losing, but with both players short of time Tom produced another surprise by offering a draw, despite being the exchange up. It may have been a draw, but I doubt Black would have risked much by playing on.
A workmanlike performance by our lads, but the KCC machine is clearly not quite firing on all cylinders. But never mind, as Jude's late withdrawal has at least given me a good excuse for both this week's title and song! Siilver lining or what??
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