Stirling Bruce 2½ - 13½ Dunfermline Minnows 24/10/16

Congratulations to Dunfermline Minnows, who inflicted an absolute
gubbing on Stirling Bruce tonight. The Bruce team is lacking two of
its regulars this season and is under reconstruction as it were, but
even so a scoreline of this sort wasn't anticipated. It's the first
time in five seasons that Minnows have won this fixture, and almost
certainly the heaviest-ever defeat suffered by Bruce. Funnily enough,
amid it all, one of the two Bruce wins was by Graham against Ian -
courtesy of a fine swindle in a lost position, but a win against their
main man all the same.

Calum racked up a fine 4/4 score for Minnows, while young Carl played
the first two rounds for Bruce (and didn't disgrace himself by any
means) before going off at half time. It almost goes without saying
that Minnows were much the better team on the night. There have been
bigger wins in the league, but not many.

Stirling Bruce vs Dunfermline Minnows, 24/10/16

r1
Graham Anderson 1689  0-1  Jim Webster 1756
Bill Cook 1567  0-1  Calum Smith 1584
Robert Leckie 1250  1-0  George Webb 1466
Carl Zihan Kang 803  0-1  Ian Robertson (c) 2179
1-3

r2
Anderson  1-0  Robertson
Cook  0-1  Webster
Leckie  0-1  Smith
Kang  0-1  Webb
1-3 / 2-6

r3
Anderson  0-1  Webb
Cook  0-1  Robertson
Leckie  0-1  Webster
Dave Hewitt (c) 1516 0-1  Smith
0-4 / 2-10

r4
Anderson  0-1  Smith
Cook  0-1  Webb
Leckie  0-1  Robertson
Hewitt  ½-½  Webster
½-3½ / 2½-13½

Minnows had white in rounds 1 and 3

Individual scores -
Bruce: Anderson 1/4, Leckie 1/4, Hewitt ½/2, Cook 0/4, Kang 0/2
Minnows: Smith 4/4, Webster 3½/4, Robertson 3/4, Webb 3/4

Dunfermline A 1½-3½ Grangemouth A 10/10/16

1.       Ian Robertson 0-1 Uby Archibong

2.       Michael Roy ½ - ½ Alan Bell

3.       Stuart Black 0-1 Graeme Hamilton

4.       Jamie O’C0nnor 0-1 Dougie Will

5.       Fred Ossowski 1-0 John Smith

I was clearly better out the opening but went for too much too soon and Uby gradually took over the initiative. There was still never much in it but shortage of time proved a killer.  Michael and Alan was a bit of a see-saw with Michael comfortable but then got done tactically only for him to do the same to win Alan’s queen for a couple of pieces but offered a draw which may have been a time consideration or perhaps thinking he would not be able to break though.  Stuart looked fine for a long time but Graeme eventually got at the weakened king position.  Jamie said he felt good after the opening moves but got a bit negative after Dougie’s inevitable aggression and went down quickly.  Fred was not trying to do much but found a nice way to win queen side pawns after John dithered over where to put his pieces.      

Cumbernauld A 3 v 2 Dunfermline A 6/10/16

Sadly we went down when Michael lost having been winning earlier. All credit to David who sacrificed a piece for awkward counterplay which caused confusion and then he found a neat trick as Michael’s time dwindled.  Stuart held the draw after his opponent missed a neat way to win a pawn and probably the game. Once that chance went all the pawns got eliminated for the draw.  Fred said he got nothing out the opening and could not find any sensible way to continue after the forced exchange of queens so accepted the offer of a draw.  I felt under pressure throughout but apparently I was pretty much ok and perhaps a tad better at the end but having survived having to make my last 3 moves with only 4 seconds left on the clock I was relieved to just accept the draw.  I thought John was in trouble with all that pressure against the king so well done for surviving.

1 Stephen Kelly   =  Ian Robertson

2 Ralph Stirrat  =  John McBride

3 David Johnston 1-0 Michael Roy

4 Mark Monaghan  =  Stuart Black

5 George Thomson  =  Fred Ossowski