Our A team were at home to Freight o’ the Knights (Carlisle B) on Saturday, in what was meant to be a 4 board match but an hour before the match was to commence, captain James Ovens rang me to say that they might have only 3 players, though he was waiting to hear back from another. It was too late to cancel one of our players so I just hoped they’d turn up with 4 but alas, they didn’t. Though everyone on our A team offered to stand down, Steve graciously insisted that, as bottom board, he would drop out.
Board 1 was first past the post, with Holden winning a knight and pawns endgame against John Lydon. John did very well to get to the endgame, albeit a pawn down but against Holden, he had very little chance of winning it.
On board 2, Eggert came across one of the few responses to 1. e4 that he didn’t know inside out. Bill Burgess’ Alekhine Defence completely threw Eggert and Bill went a rook up quite early in the opening. Eggert battled on, even conjuring up an attack of his own but to no avail. Bill calmly defended and even won another piece which forced Eggert to resign.
Michael and James Ovens, on board 3, were in an epic battle which looked to favour Michael who had all of his pieces aimed at James’ king. James battled on but resigned when Michael found a knight fork that won a rook, the game and the match.
Our A team is now just 2 points behind leaders Maryport A and Penrith B. See the table below:
