Dunfermline B 4-1 Stirling B 19/03/18

Dunfermline B vs Stirling B, 19/3/18

Calum Smith 1581  ½-½  Dave Hewitt (c) 1584

Andy Forbes 1541  ½-½  Richard Warcup e1500

Fred Ossowski 1553  1-0  Tony Pitson 1469

Peter Horne (c) 1370  1-0  Craig Manson 1455

Douglas Rew 1452  1-0  Brad Duthie 1428

Dunfermline B 4-1 Stirling B

Stirling had white on boards 1, 4 and 5.

Congratulations to Dunfermline B, who clinched division 2 for the

third season in a row and for the eighth season in the last ten with a

convincing 4-1 win over their nearest rivals. Dunfermline take the

title with a match to spare, being three points ahead of Stirling

after a very solid season which has seen them win eight of their nine

matches and lose just one.

There was a bit of rejigging at the start tonight as Stewart Brisbane

didn't appear for Dunfermline and after a few minutes Ian Robertson

checked his phone and found a text from Stewart saying he was in

hospital. Calum and I paused our clock and I joined Ian, Peter and

Craig outside in the corridor to work out what to do, and of course

given the circumstances it was no problem to slot in a replacement. So

Peter (who had intended being the non-playing captain) took over on

board 4 with a ten-minute deficit which didn't seem to hinder him as

he won an interesting game in due course.

Things had looked quite good for Stirling for a while (a win on the

night would have seen them travel to Badgers in April needing a draw

for the title), with Brad in particular having launched a huge early

attack which flushed out Doug's K and made for a very strange and

exciting-looking position. Brad was probably winning but then had a

calamity: he played a Q check where the Q was under threat from a

pinned N, and once Doug moved his K out of the pin Brad forgot that

his Q wasn't now immune and left it there, allowing Doug to lop it off

with the N for free. Craig went a piece down versus Peter soon after

that, with Peter's pieces swarming all around his K, so that was

another win for Dunfermline. I'd already declined a draw offer from

Calum but with our position fairly blocked and the match effectively

gone (neither of the other two boards looked like turning into wins

for Stirling), I offered a draw back which Calum accepted. The other

games went on for quite a while but Tony eventually lost a pawn-down

ending against Fred, after which Richard and Andy shook hands on a

draw with Andy having a promising-looking K-side attack with heavy

pieces and an advanced pawn.

Well played Dunfermline - an excellent performance throughout the

season from a good group of players well captained by Peter. Here's to

next season's campaign - and here's hoping that Stewart is out of

hospital and playing again soon.

(I believe it was not too serious and that Stewart is now out of hospital)