Tuesday 20 May 2014

Surprise! Cumbernauld A 2 ½ - 2 ½ Dunfermline A 19/05/2014

Cumbernauld A 2 ½ - 2 ½ Dunfermline A

S Kelly ½ - ½  I Robertson
R Stirrat ½ - ½ A W Forbes
D Johnstone 1-0 P Horne
G Thomson ½ - ½ G Webb
S Monaghan 0-1 T Russell

The “surprise” was that Cumbernauld had said they would be fielding mainly second team players.  However no-one informed the 4 Cumbernauld first team players who turned up to play!   I might not have got anyone stronger from Dunfermline in any event for a match with nothing at stake but it was most odd for Cumbernauld to say one thing and do another.   I should say there was also surprise from the Cumbernauld players that I had been told this and Steven did apologise on their behalf.


In the match there were 3 quick draws though Ian was a bit better placed on board 1.  On board 2 Andy played his first competitive game for more than a decade but kept it simple for an early draw.  The Georges’ repeated position after Cumbernauld’s George did not notice he had a choice of squares. Dunfermline won on 5 after Steven dropped a rook in what till then had been a tight game.  Peter lost a drawn endgame after getting bored repeating the drawing pattern and played a more adventurous rook move ‘just for something different’ which unfortunately gave David the one tempo he needed to get out of the bind.

Div 2 result-Grangemouth B 3 v Stirling C 2 14/05/2014

Grangemouth B 3 v Stirling C 2

Details:
1. B Gray 1/2  G Allcock 1/2
2. H Hanlon 1  C Manson  0
3. C Welsh  1 M Bloor 0
4. R Heenan 1/2  R Togneri 1/2
5. D Fowler 0 D Brodie 1

Tuesday 13 May 2014

Dunfermline won the U1500 KO final V Cumbernauld on board count 12/05/2014

Although the team visited Cumbernauld with only 4 players an inspired board order of Bryan, Tom, Peter, George put 2 of Dunfermline’s more active players on 3 and 4.  With only 20 grading points separating boards 2-4 it made sense to ‘sacrifice’ Tom against one of their stronger players. Nice bit of captaincy!

Regarding the title of this message, Dunfermline lost on board 2 and defaulted 5 but had won on boards 1 and 4 when surprisingly the Cumbernauld board 3 offered a draw.  Peter checked with George to make sure he had his sums right then accepted for a board count victory. When Peter was still considering the draw offer, the Cumbernauld player realised his error and politely asked if he could withdraw the offer!  Nice try but no.


Amazingly, even though the match started later at 7.30 the Dunfermline team were back in the pub in Dunfermline by just after 10.00pm to celebrate.  The match itself must have taken less than two hours

Thursday 8 May 2014

Dunfermline V Badgers Brook KO Final 07/05-2014


A strong Badgers Brook team were taken the distance before winning on board count.  Dunfermline went 2-0 up early following an unwise pawn snatch by Martin on board 2 and Kenny A putting several pieces in the firing line of George’s bishop on board 7.  Badgers fought back by outplaying their opponents on boards 3 and 4.  On board 5 Kenny M felt his team were under pressure and went all out for the win only for Michael to out-calculate him in the ending.  It looked good for Dunfermline at that point but alas on board 6 Bryan blundered a piece. On top board Ian missed a win in a time scramble but Fabio did well to set up a perpetual check for the match win.
Dunfermline
Team
Badgers Brook




Board
Name
Grade
Result
Name
Grade
Colour
1
Ian Robertson
2149
½-½
Fabio Biancalana
1927
B
2
John McBride
1785
1-0
Martin Clancy
1904
B
3
Gavin Saxton
1738
0-1
Mark Cooke
1942
B
4
Fred Ossowski
1662
0-1
Andrew McHarg
1792
W
5
Michael Roy
1630
1-0
Kenny McGeoch
1776
W
6
Bryan O'Rourke
1474
0-1
Graham Kerr
1629
W
7
George Webb
1321
1-0
Kenny Aiston
1448
W


TOTAL
3½-3½




Match was settled on the first tie-breaker (board count) Dunfermline 14 - 13 Badgers Brook

A night that was Dunfermline's slipped away in the space of seconds near the end of the match. Board one below before the things went wrong.