Priorslee Lions V Telepost

Well we are still flying high and had given ourselves a 2 point gap at the top of the table, but no one in the team getting carried away with not even half the season completed it was time for the current reigning Champions.

Well they had already been weakened by the departure of their board 2 to Oswestry at the start of the season , but they were just starting to put a run of results together and currently sat in 3rd place and a win would have brought them just 1 point behind ourselves.

To our benefit things seem to conspire in our fav as John Bashall had cancelled late on and left the away side 1-0 down before a piece had even been moved, once again Phil Zabrocki current board 2 was absent. Giving us a huge advantage.

Although we had struggled against other weakened sides tonight was a different story altogether.

Adrian on one with the toughest task was playing a type line I felt resonably sure would yeild no sucess for his opponent , I was playing Mathew Clark a dangerous tactical player who can't be written off even with his lowish grade, however I never felt he could beat me even with his best play. Glyn I thought was a sure winner and Steve in fine form against an out of form player surely would do the trick.

Well it was a case of me sitting on my hands for what seemed hours spending nearly all my time watching the other games. trying to balance my play from being overly aggressive until i was sure how  the other games were panning out. Glyn on 3 had sneaked a pawn advantage and looked certain to win then fell for a cheap trick gave it back and in the process made his position worse so looked drawish, Adrian on 1 was a pawn down but with opposite coloured bishops I was sure he could hold it but with Nigel you can never be 100% and I could see Steve's board he was an exchange down but with alot of compensation and afew pawns to boot. It got to move 13 and I had seen a sharp line for my opponent and he had seen it too and I thought maybe I was playing to his strengths rather than my own. I virtually stopped playing and just sat watching board 3 as Glyn marched his King forward in pawning race that only he could win. 2-0 on the night, I contemplated offering a draw by about 20 moves but my ego said I couldn't lose play on, Adrain had offered a draw and had it rejected but I was still sure it was a draw with even less material now on the board. Again I was forced to sit on my hands when I reached move 29, I had 2 ideas give up the exchange to try and force a  win or not and play safer but still have chances. Finally the thumbs went up to signal Steve on 4 was definately won 3-0 and made absolutely no difference to the result what I did . I chose the safe option I knew it was heading to a certain draw , my opponent set up a forced mate in one , but left me with a certain repetition which i enforced because if my opponent misplayed left me with a winning advantage. However my opponent was having none of it and I happily agreed the draw and board one followed giving the team a very impressive 4-1 win. Even if it was a weakened team we faced, things don't always go so easily.