When our B team arrived at Carlisle, to play their final match of the season, Carlisle A, or CA4 as they’re known this season, had only one player, Ian Mackay. The rest of their team, thinking that it was an away match, were at the Crown. They soon realised their mistake and set off back to Carlisle so, as they had at least half an hour to kill, Ian, kindly, bought everyone a drink at the Boardroom, a nice pub just round the corner.
When the wanderers eventually arrived, the match began, albeit with a shorter time control of 90 minutes each rather than the usual 2 hours. Nathan, playing Tom Scott on board 1, had a good game but though he nearly drew the game, sadly it wasn’t to be.
On board 2, Richard outplayed Paul Rivers to win a piece quite early in the game. Had he offered a draw with that advantage, I’m certain Paul would have taken his hand off. Again sadly, Richard slipped up later in the game and Paul got a lucky win.
Mike too played a good game, against Ian Mackay on board 3, only to succumb to Ian’s constant pressure. Dave suffered a similar fate on board 4 against Johnny Robson but the shortened time control wouldn’t have done him any favours.
So, another 4-0 defeat for our C team but each of our players was playing, on average, an opponent rated 400 rating points higher than them. Both Paul and Ian said that the score line did not reflect the quality of the games. As if losing wasn’t bad enough, Dave discovered a parking ticket on his car. I had told him that Saturdays were free at West Walls car park so, understandably, he was quite annoyed at me until I asked where he’d parked. Somehow he thought that I’d said Castle car park is free on Saturdays. Oh well, it never rains but it pours.
At least we avoided the Wooden Spoon this year but CA4’s win knocks our A team down to 5th in the league. Table below:
