Weekend 4 of the 4NCL provided a welcome chance to make amends for weekend 3 when Castell Nedd contrived to lose both matches, before half the team managed to get lost on the way home.
The weekend got off to a great start when Josh confidently predicted a “perfect 8-0” weekend from the 12 games.
Thanks to the previous weekend, an on-paper easier fixture awaited in round 7 against one of the league’s weaker teams, ‘She Plays to Win Kestrels’. Unfortunately this did mean playing a team of 6 quite young opponents and a potentially difficult evening out for anyone who failed to convert his grading advantage into a full point! It also meant the opponents’ grades were a bit of a lottery. Fortunately, most of the games were won without incident. Dale won a piece early in a trap we had actually been discussing on the car journey. Andrew got a bit lucky after missing a detail. Steve survived time trouble in yet another French and was very relieved with the score at 5-0 that his opponent eventually cracked. The opponents had played well but all eventually succumbed. Our 2nd 6-0 of the season made the curry taste even better, followed by some celebratory light refreshments!
Sunday was a tougher match agaisnt the home team—Probably ‘Peterborough United’ hadn’t had to travel 4 hours to get to get there. Andrew Di-Vetta survived a dodgy opening to make it a very impressive 5 wins in a row! Jordan generously punted a pawn on board 6, perhaps underestimating his young opponent, but escaped with a draw. Sam was really putting the squeeze on his opponent on top board, dominating on the board and opening up a huge time advantage. Steve was suffering on 2, getting a bit stuck in the middlegame as his own time advantage evaporated. Dale also looked to be in serious trouble on 3, down a pawn but still fighting. Josh was apparently steady on 5. As the time ticked down, Dale managed to trick his opponent with opposite bishops, giving him a very well earned draw. Sam’s opponent had somehow survived and was forcing Sam to calculate lines. On 2, with both players in time trouble, Steve survived a missed tactic, and got a winning position, when with just seconds left he nearly caused a major incident by pointing out that you do actually have to record your moves before making more of them and you can’t just force your opponent to do it all on his time. The arbiter was called, which seemed to enrage their board 1 who repeatedly complained of being distracted (Me too! Not my fault!). Shortly after, Sam put him out of his misery. Steve then converted on 2, convinced their board 4 was now trying to distract him as he had, according peripheral vision at least, decided to sit down next to the board and start grinning and waving. Josh then decided a draw was enough for him on 5, and that was that. 4.5-1.5 to us. 2 matches, 2 wins, nobody lost a game, and nobody got lost on the way home! Bring on the final weekend! Andrew is still convinced all the good teams will get docked points for FFP.
P.S. Steve and Josh only found out at the services that they were wearing basically the same t-shirt and neither was going to change. The girls we played appeared to find this as amusing as I did.
