OTB Recap - League Games Autumn 2017
Hi all,
In this post, I will recap the games I played in the Lancaster, Morecambe and District league in the autumn of 2017. This year, 7 teams contested the league: Uni A and B, Lancaster A, Dragons (in effect Lancaster B), Morecambe, Kendal and Bare Village. We (Uni A) had the strongest team on paper, although not by much; and with just 4 board matches the potential for upsets is huge!
Morecambe Bay from Lancaster.
Our first match of the year was against Dragons on Halloween. I think I remember some members of my team threatening to turn up to the match in costume ready to go out afterwards, although I don't think any did in the end!
I will present my game on Board 1 almost without comment, except to remind that we can all have an off day.
The other thing I remember about this match was Nick Evans' game against Lawrence Bland on board 2. Nick played a typically nice game to transition into a better ending, but somehow Lawrence dug in in the ending and starting finding incredible only-moves. A couple of times, I thought Nick was just winning easily, until Lawrence made an unexpected reply and proved us wrong. Frustrated, Nick even allowed Lawrence a win late on, but Lawrence missed it going straight for the draw. We won the match handily, though!
The 2nd match was the clash of the Uni teams. It's a fixture that has seen trash talking, beer drinking and arguments over whether a default time was reached spilling over via email to the league secretary (looking at you Kshitij and Alkis). So always a hilarious one, and I don't mind taking a game less seriously occasionally!
This is what a Uni A vs. B match can look like
On board 1 I faced our society president Stan, who is always good fun to play, although this was our first graded game. I was definitely trash talking for this one and trying to get into his head; it may have affected the quality of the moves from us both ...
We managed to see off the B team 3-1 in the end, though they were quite proud of that scoreline. If Stan had found Qb2, it might have been 2-2!
The 3rd match was perhaps our most important of the season, away at Morecambe who often win the league title. The thing with Morecambe is that you never know if they will field their strongest possible side. On this occasion they were missing FM Glenn House, but did have 160-ish rated players on all boards. So, on top board with White, I was under some pressure to get the job done. It didn't go smoothly.
This is one of my favourite swindles that I have played; moreover, the reversal meant that we won the match 3-1, which was pivotal for the season. I remember Nick on board 2 going down to an aggressive King's Gambit by John Lyth, but we were comfortable enough on the bottom 2 boards.
Finally, our last match before Christmas saw us host Kendal. It was my turn to slip up:
Kind of a strange game with a lot of dodgy moves from us both; the finish was quite harrowing when I analysed it later.
All in all a slightly dodgy selection of games! Fine in results terms, but masking some deficiencies in my play which would become more apparent in 2018 - as we shall see in future blogs. Thanks for reading!
