Penrith were beaten in the Eden Trophy by the narrowest of margins by Carlisle. The match was actually drawn at 4½ points each but after eliminating the 9th board result, Carlisle won.
Penrith got off to a great start after 9 year old Teo, on board 9, checkmated his 9 year old opponent, Dylan. Carlisle then evened the score when Carlisle captain, Bill Hardwick, capitalised on a slight mistake by Cameron on board 6. Penrith pulled ahead again thanks to Dave’s excellent smothered mate against Alan Little on board 8 but Carlisle drew level again with a win by James Ovens against Oli on board 7. There then followed a couple of draws on boards 4 and 5 and then a win on board 1 by Jacob when Paul Rivers played a knight fork on Jacob’s queen and rook and promptly resigned. Us mere mortals could only speculate as to why Paul resigned but the computer announced a forced mate for Jacob in 11 moves. A loss for Lewis on board 3 against a former 2 times Cumbria champion, Stephen Barnes, made the score even again at 4 points each and the deciding game on board 2 between Eggert and his nemesis, Dave Siddall, ended in a draw despite every effort by both players to win. However, a draw was all Dave Siddall required as, after the tie-breaker (elimination of lower boards until a winner is decided), Carlisle won by 4½ – 3½.
Carlisle have now won the Eden Trophy 8 times to Penrith’s 3, though 3 of their wins were on tie-break.