First League game Vs Shrewsbury

Ok just to fill in anyone reading this I play for the Priorslee Lions in the Shropshire chess League  were probably akin to Everton over the last few seasons at football, we sometimes finish higher in the Leauge than we should and other times were fighting relegation. This year I will be playing board one and although ive set myself a target of 50% im one of the lowest rated player in the league playing on one and would only make board 3 or 4 in other teams, so should give you some idea of the strength of our club too.

Right we kicked the season off at home which meant I was black we play 95minutes finish and have 5 players a team.

I dont normally try and find out openings but I knew who I would be playing so thought I'd have a look the only opening I had seen my opponent play was f4 and sure id seen him play d4 too while looking on the web I found another game that he had played f4, I was convinced it was going to be f4 or d4 obviously ive played against d4 often but f4 I thought id look it up. Got to the game expecting either and of course he played c4 my mind went completely blank "English" . I had got my mind so focused on remembering the tactics and responses to d4 or f4 that I was totally confused as what to play. I remembered bits of lines but only bits as it transpired bits is not good enough against a player who knows lines inside out. However a plus point after loosing the game my opponent did say he thought I knew it so must have played some moves correctly and bluffed my way so far, but bluffing against good players always results in defeat. I also mention I was expecting f4 and he told me it was either going to be c4 or f4 damn.

Overall though credit to Jamie he dictated the game from start to finish and forced me to play his type game not mine. I dont feel to dissappointed with the result because of this.

Plus point the result was'nt to bad for the team because after my loss the team were 2-0 down and loosing on 2 boards and up in one . the 2 that were loosing both won and the other drew so ended up a drawn match.

W Bates(167) 0 J Hopkins(181) 1

G Pugh(158) 1/2 F Best(170) 1/2

S Tarr(138) 1 D Everington (158) 0

A Tunks (139) 1 D Lockett(147) 0

G White(126) 0 M Best(118) 1

My game: