DCL3 : PooleB vs HighcliffeB

The season finale! A draw would be enough for Poole to win the league. On paper I fancied our chances with four good value players: Tim, Dragi Steve, and myself.

B4: Steve (b) vs Joshua Richards looked promising for Steve from the start with a good structure and an extra pawn. A long struggle looked probable, but, sadly for Steve, he left his queen en prise and had to resign immediately. Steve was not best pleased.

B1: David (w) vs Rob Halse saw a Scandinavian with White enjoying more space and active pieces: pawns on c4, d4, f4 and Ne5, followed by g5. But, to be honest, I was looking across at Tim and Dragi, who both looked much better.

B2: Tim (b) vs Thomas Trach saw Tim under early pressure in an Open Sicilian with White castling long. With just one tempo spare, Tim was able to play Bh6+ allowing 0-0 and a consolidated advantage.

B3: Dragi (w) vs Bryan Lose was a typical Dragi game (when aren’t they?). A nice blocked up position, except in this case, open a and b files but with Dragi having an additional a-pawn. Very handy.

It was at this point that I looked up and saw that Tim had a tactic to win a rook and the game, and that Dragi ‘couldn’t lose’. ‘Ah well’, my internal dialogue went, ‘I nice draw here and Dragi will simply need to bring the result home with an easy draw’. Bloody internal dialogues! What do they know anyway?

So I offered Rob a draw, which he quickly accepted. Tim then executed the simple tactic winning the rook with a mating attack, which Thomas graciously allowed to complete with a nice mate.

So just Dragi left needing that draw. Bryan knew what was required and sacced a piece to stir up trouble. I couldn’t watch. Afterwards Dragi confirmed that he had everything under control, probably from the first move. You, dear reader, can draw your own conclusion as to that claim but I will believe Dragi this one time because he did play the Captain’s role well to secure victory on his board and the match.

Highcliffe have had a poor season by their standards and perhaps deserved some success on this occasion, but Poole were just a little too strong during the last three matches. This was discussed immediately, in some detail, along with global politics, at the Walkford. Dragi and RichardU both bought rounds. Result!

Match Score: Poole B 2.5 – 1.5 Highcliffe B

So DCL League 3 champions. Well done Dragi for excellent captaincy this season. Well played to all the other teams who made for a competitive season. See you all next year.

DF

David Fuller
June 8, 2023