Pentland Hills 1.5 vs 4.5 Badgers Brook

After about 20 minutes from the start of the match I was very concerned for our team as we looked to be in difficulty on most boards, despite outgrading the opposition by quite a margin.

David Marshall was down material fairly early on and never recovered.  I was down a piece after blundering in the opening and the other games appeared tight at best with Dave McGilvary looking the only one with a fairly solid advantage.

The night was to get better though.  Steven took advantage of a mistake by his opponent to secure a back rank mating pattern and a full point.  My game was next to finish and fighting hard to keep my opponent's material advantage back I managed to salvage a draw in a fairly sluggish game.  Peter went up material and then converted the full point with a checkmate after forking the mating square and the opponen't Queen with a protected pawn.  Dave McGilvary was next, nicely executing a Knight manaeuver that saw him win a clean Rook to add to his already overwhelming material advantage.  Graham Kerr was next to win.  In what appeared to be a fairly even game, Graham was up a pawn but there was no obvious way to win easily.  His opponent then blundered a Rook, followed quickly by blundering a Queen and then resigned, sealing victory for Graham and a solid win under difficult circumstances for the team as a whole.

Well done all.