Mega Monday – Wins for Poole B, C and D

Monday had three matches:

Poole D vs Bournemouth D

You may have already read the excellent report on Poole D by Joe which details a fantastic 4-0 victory to start the night off in style.

Highcliffe A vs Poole B

Over in Highcliffe, Poole B started off in trouble by playing a D team player from the 4th division up to the 1st division. It didn’t go well for your author. Well, I held my own until I didn’t, but the rest of the B team more than made up for my inaccuracies.

Martin got into an excellent position with opposite coloured bishops – his holding down all his pawns, his opponents struggling to find a home, and two rooks – his controlling the game, getting down to the 7th rank and forcing the win. As the first win of the night it eased things. My loss leveled things up again.

Chip managed to get a good game against Bruce, forcing doubled isolated pawns. But in Bruce had control of the C file locking down the position until a draw was agreed. All down to Sergiu.

Whenever I looked at Sergiu’s game it looked even to the untrained eye (I’m still at the counting how many pieces each player has left on the board – not taken, on the board, then you spot any extra queens! I figured that one out myself). I drove home but had to pull over halfway to whoop with delight as word came through the ether that Sergiu had sealed a win for the B team, launching them up the table from bottom to second behind Poole A (albeit played one game more), this just shows how tight the division is looking with 3 points between top and bottom.

Poole C vs Bournemouth B

Poole C were having a more dramatic night in the…..theater of dreams? Or is that taken? hall of dreams? ……Centre of Chaos? Den of Dubious moves? Pasture of Poole’s Patzers? I don’t know, we need to find a good name for our venue, our home, our fortress!

I was receiving worrying reports from my eyes in the eaves that things were not well.

Andy started off the results with a Scandinavian that went south once it had reached the endgame.

But the reports reported that results were really not going to be improving.

Woe betide he who would doubt Zander. A couple of pawns down in a rook and pawn endgame usually spells disaster, but Zander wasn’t going to give up and hassled his opponent into a draw – excellent battling!

With this the reports changed to “They can’t can they?”

Ellis was making the club proud with sacrificing pieces to gain a pawn swarm which looks impressive when it comes off. Ellis forced a promotion to make it look impressive.

This, as always, leaves Tim. The last game. The result resting upon his shoulders. Seconds on the clock. Complicated end game. Every time he plays he seems to be the last game, with the result resting upon his shoulders, with seconds on the clock and a complicated end game. Luckily this means that he has had the practice with the pressure of what was no doubt most of the remaining players crowded round the board and gasping at every move and flinching at every 5 second countdown on the clock – the joy of increments is you can half many of these, and they don’t get less dramatic.

So, Tim managed to get the pawn (or two) advantage and convert the game. 2.5 – 1.5

Some impressive results across all three matches, congratulations to all involved. Thank you to Bournemouth and Bournemouth for making the journey down, thank you to Highcliffe for hosting.

The League Standings

The league tables make impressive reading which is worth a screenshot or two:

(for those struggling to read the image) Div 1 has Poole A and Poole B in top and second. Div 3 has Poole C top. Div 4 has Poole D top. Dorset Div 1 has Poole A top. Baccchus League has Poole top.

Poole E is currently being our development squad with people playing up from the Bacchus, and Dorset Poole B are currently on 100% but haven’t played as many games as others in the division so are crouching behind cover ready to spring.

Coming Up

Next week, Poole E are in action at home and Highcliffe A are now having to play our Dorset League A team, hopefully I won’t be drafted in to that one!

Well done to all who played in this fine showcase, and good luck to all those playing next week.

Tarik
January 11, 2023