11 April 2018
A player returned from the bar and called out. “Urgent message for Paul!”
Half the players in the room immediately leapt to their feet ………..
No, it didn’t happen but could have in the Forgrove B v Limewood A match, with so many Pauls on the team lists – 2 boards being exclusively populated by them.
All 3 Limewood teams were playing tonight and the result was a win, a lose and a draw.
The ‘A’ team drew with Rose Forgrove B, their rivals for top slot of Division 2. They were tantalisingly close to becoming Division Champions – a win would have levelled the two teams on points with Limewood leading on ‘goal difference’. But Limewood still gain promotion to the dizzy heights of Division 1.
Remember at the start of the season? The declared target for newly promoted Team A was simply to stay up in Division 2 and not get relegated back to Div 3. Well they did better than that: they got promoted again.
The core of the ‘A’ team was: Tom Leah, Paul A Johnson, Paul May, Robert Moneagle and Bob Maltby, supplemented as need be by Eric Brodie, Herbert Lockwood, Steve Whitehead, John Light, Howard Brears and Philip May. Congratulations to every one of them!
Down in Division 3, Team B are still in with a chance of promotion with a couple of matches still to go. They beat Rose Forgrove E by 3 points to 2, with wins from Howard Brears and John Light and draws from Eric Brodie and Philip May. They remain 1 point behind West Leeds (who had a walkover against a defaulting Moortown team) for the promotion slot.
Team C were up against the Division leaders, Pudsey B, who outgraded them by a total of 306 points (659 v 353, average difference 61). The overall result was no surprise but Steve Hodgson saved the team from a complete whitewash by a draw with Ken Marsden, in a game where no pawns were taken and the midfield became so clogged up that neither player could achieve anything. At Board 1 Phil Higgins (88), ‘Unflappable Phil’, held out against his 155-graded opponent until both players had only 10 minutes left on the clock – a remarkable achievement.
Team C remain in 8th place in the Division, only 18 points away from a promotion place.