Penrith A were expecting a good result, at home to Maryport C, on Saturday but at our scheduled start time, Cameron was nowhere to be seen. Cameron was supposed to finish work at 12:30 pm but then he had to travel from Carlisle, so we arranged a 1:30 pm start to allow Cameron to get to the match on time. As everyone else was ready to play, I told James Todd, Cameron’s opponent, to start without him.
Cameron eventually turned up half an hour late but soon began to pull back some time. Meanwhile, on board 4, Steve had a strong attack on Dennis Renney’s king’s position. Dennis’ opening wasn’t bad but he did little to prevent Steve from occupying the optimal squares for attack and when the final piece clicked into place, it was soon all over. 1-0 to Penrith A.
Most of the games weren’t easy for our A team, Dave S, on board 2, was struggling to make headway against solid play by Andy Pringle, so much so that he offered Andy a draw which was hastily accepted.
On board 3, Cameron’s game against James Todd, finished next. Cameron had made up quite a bit of time on his clock and at the same time, gained a positional advantage that he was able to convert into a win.
Last to finish was board 1. Eggert was playing Leo Woning, who at 1673 ECF, was quite a strong player for a C team. Eggert had a slight material and a big time advantage but Leo was threatening his weak king’s position whilst, at the same time, preventing Eggert from mounting an attack of his own. Eggert held his position together admirably and after an oversight by Leo, now in time trouble, wrapped the game and the match, up.
Another good result for our A team who won 3½ – ½. This result puts our A team level with our B team at the top of the table.
While our A team were playing Maryport’s C team, their A team was playing our C team. Our C team had a harder task than theirs, in that their players, on average, were over 500 ECF points higher than ours.
All our players put up stiff resistance with the games lasting into the third hour but gradually, Maryport A got the upper hand and won on boards 1, Grigorij against Greg Millar; 3, Dan against Matthew Haworth and 4, Dave H against Neil Jones. Board 2 was the biggest surprise as Richard managed to draw his game against Roger Hart (1901 ECF) a remarkable achievement.
We lost ½ -3½ but at least we managed to avoid a whitewash and we actually took more rating points off them than they did us!
The current League Table looks like this:
