SNCL ROUNDS 3 AND 4, 25/11/2012

Today was the day when we could put some daylight between us and our main rivals. We were playing the team above and below us in our division. As with all our other best laid plans, we somehow managed to mess things up. 

First up we had a team of very good improving and under-graded juniors to play. A win on boards one and five, plus a point squeezed from the other boards would have done. We were nervous and the kids just back from the World Youth games were confident. We got the win on board 5, but only a draw on board 1. We also lost on boards 2 and 3, leaving just me and only a win would do. I had been better, until kids do what kids do and found a good tactic. The game was then a dead draw and I turned down 2 draw offers, as I had to win for us to draw the match. I would have been fine with the draw, if the team had accumulated half a point more. So I ended up gambling, it was like buying a lottery ticket hoping that I could win enough for some food. This did not pay off and he played very well. As usual pushing too hard in a drawn position results in nothing. So a 3.5-1.5 loss to start with. 

This afternoon was a simpler, as we only had to beat adults. Though to his credit my opponent despite being very out-graded, played very solidly and gave me few chances. In the end I had to soak up some pressure to get a draw. Gary on board 2 had the same issue and ended up drawing. The rest of the team with the odd small hiccup along the way, managed to win. So a 4-1 win to us and we are in clear 2nd place and we just need to stay ahead of the 3rd and 4th team 1 point behind us to get promoted to div 2. Nect time we should leave the bag of spanners at home.

Bd	Grade	North Ayrshire Crusaders	(1)	vs	(8)	Dunfermline Knights	Grade	Comments
1	1855	MacDonald, Paul H	½	-	½	Robertson, Ian C	2102	Draw
2	1715	Deary, David	1	-	0	Forbes, Garry	1837	Home Win
3	1619	McCusker, Andrew	1	-	0	Carpenter, Paul A	1833	Home Win
4	1649	Deary, Daniel	1	-	0	McBride, John	1858	Home Win
5	910	McCusker, Kirsty	0	-	1	Sneddon, Iain D	1835	Away Win
			3½	-	1½

Bd	Grade	Dunfermline Knights	(8)	vs	(3)	Forth Valley B	Grade	Comments
1	2102	Robertson, Ian C	1	-	0	Anderson, Graham C	1574	Home Win
2	1837	Forbes, Garry	½	-	½	Cook, William M	1575	Draw
3	1833	Carpenter, Paul A	1	-	0	Gray, William B	1527	Home Win
4	1858	McBride, John	½	-	½	Hanlon, Hugh	1459	Draw
5	1835	Sneddon, Iain D	1	-	0	Brodie, David	1281	Home Win
			4	-	1

								Boards
			Matches					Played			Defaults			Score
Pos	Team	Team Name	P	W	D	L	Pts	W	D	L	W	D	L	Boards	%
1	1	North Ayrshire Crusaders	4	3	1	0	7	10	5	4	1	0	0	13½	68
2	8	Dunfermline Knights	4	3	0	1	6	10	5	5	0	0	0	12½	63
3	5	Lanark	4	2	1	1	5	8	5	6	1	0	0	11½	58
4	6	Inverclyde	4	1	3	0	5	9	5	4	0	0	2	11½	58
5	3	Forth Valley B	4	2	0	2	4	7	5	8	0	0	0	9½	48
6	7	Oban	4	0	2	2	2	5	7	8	0	0	0	8½	43
7	2	Dumfries and District	4	1	0	3	2	4	8	8	0	0	0	8	40
8	4	Hamilton B	4	0	1	3	1	2	6	12	0	0	0	5	25
			32	12	8	12	32	55	46	55	2	0	2	81

SNCL Division 3 Crosstable

Team	Name	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	Plyd	Boards
1	North Ayrshire Crusaders	X	3½		4		2½		3½	4	13½
2	Dumfries and District	1½	X	2	3½		1			4	8
3	Forth Valley B		3	X	5	½			1	4	9½
4	Hamilton B	1	1½	0	X			2½		4	5
5	Lanark			4½		X	2½	3½	1	4	11½
6	Inverclyde	2½	4			2½	X	2½		4	11½
7	Oban				2½	1½	2½	X	2	4	8½
8	Dunfermline Knights	1½		4		4		3	X	4	12½

SNCL Division 3 Match Results

http://www.sncl.org.uk/div3.htm