Oswestry A V Priorslee Lions

Well I missed the debacle against Shrewsbury A when the team lost 3.5-1.5 2 players blundering rooks and turning what should have been a won match into a defeat, but alas I was back for the match if not in the mood to play. Oswestry had a weakish looking team out on paper from board 3 downwards so it was time to try and prove it. Glyn had opted to play Adrian on board 1 a sensible decision as he only lost last time to his opponent in time scramble, however it also meant yet another meeting of Glyn v Richard and as expected a French winawer. Well after only afew minutes it became apparent that board 3 and 5 were the ones to watch , on 5 Gary's opponent was playing blitz against him and in my game I felt it was near enough over straight away as clearly Graham had got himself into a right mess. Well with board 1,2 and 4 all pretty much plodding along evenly , I was sure my game was won it was just how long Graham was taking to come up with his moves. Gary was playing slowly in his game and came up with a clever combination to win a piece. He had already been and seen the fireworks on my board and in disbelief returned to his game. To my dissapointment it was Gary who finished first after winning the piece his opponent still blitzing moves fell apart and quickly crumbled using just 7 minutes for the entire game. While Gary was watching me finish off Graham I made a foolish blunder, I got up and said there was a mate there wasn't there he nodded, gutted I knew I had missed something obvious as I sat down my chess blindness had gone and I realised it was something I had planned on playing in the game, fortunately for me Graham who had been under severe pressure had a rush of blood and just blundered straight into checkmate, it was easier to avoid than do. Match score now 2-0 Steve on 4 had made in roads and was bishop for 2 pawns up , I just made sure Adrian was aware of the score ,though his posistion complicated felt like he was better, I didn't even try and understand what was going on with Glyn on 2 because Richard had launched pawns on f5,g5,h5 and he castled kingside. Well it seemed an absolute age before anything happened, I heard Adrian offer a draw, both me and Gary thought no chance, especially when his opponent went and looked at the other boards , with an unlikely but outside chance of a draw on 4 which was now rook, bishop and 2 pawns against rook and 3 pawns , but pawns where all blocked . He took the draw and in my opion resigned the match because outside chance of a draw was never going to turn into a win for them. After about an hour of Steve playing it all wrong he suddenly stumbled on the way to play the ending in the mean time Glyn was pieces and pawns down resigned 2.5-1.5 then came the final result a win for Steve and the 3.5-1.5 scoreline.

 previous match .