19 January 2022
Team A had a good night with a 4½ to ½ victory in their away match against West Leeds.
It helped of course that West Leeds had a no-show default at board 2 (so our Dan Hill had a wasted journey) but Limewood were clearly the stronger team. Won games from Paul Brencher, Paul May and Rob Lockwood together with a draw from Paul Johnson gave a welcome boost to the team’s standing in the Division 1 league table.
To add interest to the evening there were two interlopers who didn’t accept that West Leeds had actually booked the room. One was eventually persuaded to leave but the other insisted on remaining. At one point he offered his unsolicited advice to Paul Brencher, “I’d use the horsey”. Sportingly West Leeds didn’t cry ‘foul’.
Teams B and C had tougher assignments.
Man of the Match for Team B was Mick Carrigan. Out-graded 1450 to 1127 by his Rose Forgrove opponent, he brought home the team’s only win of the evening – arguably the Club’s best result of the round.
A draw from Holi was the team’s only other score,
End result: Team B 1½ : Rose Forgrove D 3½
Team C were truly out of luck in their away match at the West Riding. The Leeds B team was headed up by 2 highly experienced veterans – Tony Slinger (winner of the Norman Ellis Trophy in 1988 and 1989) and Bernie Hare (winner of said Trophy in 2003. This pair were backed up by a trio of ungraded newcomers who had gained their experience from extensive online play. One of them claims to have played over 37,000 online ‘bullet’ games. Which sure suggests a certain level of keen-ness. Our Steve Hodgson gave him a good game, though, and was doing well until disaster struck at move 26 ……..
End result: Team C 0 : Leeds B 5. By coincidence, the same result as when the teams met in October (though with mostly different players).
