24 February 2016
Paul May saved the Club’s collective blushes by salvaging a hard-fought draw against Alwoodley’s John Hipshon. He was the only member of either of our two Mini League teams to score at all against the tough opponents. But with the additional benefit of 2 handicap points (under the Mini League rules) his draw meant that our M2 team drew the match against Alwoodley M1 and stay (precariously) at the top of the Mini League table.
Paul had a helter-skelter of a game. First he was winning. Then he was losing and looked a goner. But he pulled himself back into the game and skilfully wore his opponent’s advantage down to zero. When it looked as though the 2 kings would be all that was left on the board a draw was declared.
Paul’s team-mates on the M2 squad (which is theoretically our second-string team but let’s skirt round that) acquitted themselves well against much higher-graded players, even though they eventually lost. Steve Kelley was quite pleased with how he played in his game against Pete Brennan. Khadar Shaik was playing his first game this season – and against an opponent, Abdul Mughal, graded nearly 100 points higher (15 v 112!). Yet he survived till after the first time control.
Our other team, M1, did not fare well, defaulting on one board and losing on both the others, admittedly against much stronger opponents. The team remain in what would be the relegation zone if there was anywhere to be relegated to.
An item of good news: we welcome a new member, Renji Kombarakaran. Renji is a keen cricketer. So stand by for cricketing allusions in reports of his games. You could say he is quite a catch.