A cold night in Clevedon

Clevedon A 3.5 – Horfield B 2.5

(1) David Egginton (170) 0.5-0.5 Dominic Tunks (203)

(2) David Painter-Kooiman (170) 0-1 Mike Harris (185)

(3) Max Walker (160) 1-0 Peter Kirby (181)

(4) Chris Strong (152) 1-0 John Richards (171)

(5) James Beardwood (134) 0-1 Bob Radford (152)

(6) Paul Spiller (167) 1-0 Default

Horfield B were white on odd boards

We lost to Clevedon in the home fixture, so were looking forward to redeeming ourselves this time. But it all started to go wrong at lunchtime, when Roger had to pull out with a hip injury. The A’s, C’s and D’s all have fixtures this week, and some were already playing twice, so it was going to be hard to find a last-minute replacement. I tried at least eight players in the afternoon – no joy.

So, five go on an adventure to Clevedon. The opponents’ grades suggested we were still in with a good chance of winning it. Dominic was first to finish with a draw, but I couldn’t work out what was happening elsewhere except Bob seemed to be doing okay. I was playing Chris Strong who is something of a bete noire for me. I lost to him in 14 moves eight years ago in a very painful way and still remember it. I felt I need to win to level the match and tried too hard, blundering on move 51. 0.5-2.5.

Peter lost to a horrible kingside mauling by queen and rooks and that was it for the match. Bob won nicely to reduce the deficit to 1.5-3.5. Mike and DPK slugged it out till both were short of time. In a complicated position with Mike material down, DPK offered a draw and Mike declined. At the time, I was surprised, but Mike had a lot more confidence in his attack and crashed through to make the score more respectable.

John Richards