Tuesday 12 April 2016

Allegro League Showdown-11/04/15

Even with only the 3 final games of the season still running any one of Stirling Bruce, Grangemouth Tigers or Dunfermline Minnows could still win the league.  Tigers top 3 rated players were against Minnows 2,3 and 4 rated but Tigers needed to win all 3 games.  Minnows needed to score 1.5 from 3 while other scores favoured Bruce.

The first result was for Matthew who got a quick win over out of sorts Bill and thereby eliminated Tigers. Uby then overcame John leaving the title in the outcome of the Calum v Ian game.  After the usual ups and downs Calum emerged with an extra piece but the crucial factor was time.  When both players got to around 30 seconds each left Ian opted for a rook sacrifice forcing perpetual check.  That half was enough for Minnows who win the league by half a game point.

It was unfortunate that Tigers were missing a player for such an occasion though even without Hugh it still looked like Tigers had sufficient talent to get the 6.5 points they required. However this time the thrills and spills of individual games generally favoured the Minnows players and thereby enabled a successful defence of the title in the most dramatic finish we have had to the allegro league.

Minnows 11- 5

Round 1
Ian Robertson 1-0 Ubong Archibong
John McBride 1-0 Ian Mason
Calum Smith 1/2 Bill Gray
Matthew Stewart 1-0 default

Round 2
Ian Robertson 1-0 Ian Mason
John McBride 1-0 Bill Gray
Calum Smith 1-0 default
Matthew Stewart 0-1 Ubong Archibong

Round 3
Ian Robertson 1-0 Bill Gray
John McBride 1-0 default
Calum Smith 0-1 Ubong Archibong
Matthew Stewart 0-1 Ian Mason

Round 4
Ian Robertson 1-0 default
John McBride 0-1 Ubong Archibong
Calum Smith 1/2 Ian Mason
Matthew Stewart 1-0 Bill Gray