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Published 25 October 2014

Worcestershire - Warwickshire

Played on 24 October 2014 at StStephen's Church Hall, Worcester. Warwickshire players had white on odd-numbered boards. Match reported by Ray Collett.

 

Board ECF Code Grade Worcestershire Score Score Warwickshire Grade ECF Code
1 287190H 199 Besedin, Pavel 1 0 Hynes, Tony 186 113334C
2 110076C 186 Edge, John A 1 0 Hickey, Tony 184 112599A
3 230883G 182 Mellor, Stephen D 1 0 Page, Mark 182 247591B
4 259447L 178 Lambourne, Daniel M 1 0 Pink, Joshua 178 266464B
5 165392B 176 Towers, Nigel S 1 0 Bull, Phil 177 230857F
6 127645B 176 Kitson, Peter R 1 0 Smith, Simon 175 156634K
7 129898H 172 Hurney, Kevin 0 1 Cundy, Mark 172 109211L
8 120670K 170 Turner, Brian 1 0 Default - -
9 110004L 168 Dyett, Greg F ½ ½ Smyth, Martin 165 119386H
10 275633L 165 Friar, Joseph D ½ ½ Mildenhall, John 163 115500D
11 274840L 160 Cox, Glenn ½ ½ Robinson, Tom 160 187492F
12 106812L 157 Bissell, Maurice D ½ ½ Hope,  Gary 158 183305E
13 137850J 156 Roberts, David L ½ ½ Lawrence, Roy 155 179054H
14 127661L 149 Knee, John P 0 1 Thomas, Keith 154 120270E
15 160573C 149 Hadley, Mike 1 0 Wallman, Rob 153 121042H
16 108621C 149 Collett, Ray A 0 1 Byrne, Nigel 149 154571B
  Mean   Result 10½ Mean    

 

Match report by Ray Collett. Worcestershire were looking to avenge their narrow defeat last year by neighbours Warwickshire. On paper, both sides looked evenly matched, but the home team prevailed with style dominating the top boards. Board 13 finished first with a draw, but Worcs were assured of going ahead when Warks conceded the default on board 8. Keith Thomas equalised for Warks on board 14 very soon after. After nearly 2 hours play on board 1, Pavel Besedin put Worcs into the lead, but Warks countered with Nigel Byrne's win on board 16. Worcs then followed up with hammer blows with wins on board 6 and 3 from Kitson and Mellor making the home team 3 points clear at the half-way stage. Warks stabilised with their players defending difficult endings to draw on boards 9, 11 and 12, until Worcestershire's new player from Gloucestershire, Dan Lambourne, won on board 4 to secure the match for the home team. John Mildenhall pulled off an unexpected draw in a rook and pawn ending against his young opponent and Mark Cundy ground out a win with rook, bishop, knight and pawn against two rooks, mating his opponent's king in the corner. Board 5 continued nearly to the end of the session. Nigel Towers was the exchange up for a pawn with queen and rook against queen and knight and both kings were vulnerable to incursions from enemy pieces. Initially pawns blocked the centre. Only after Nigel's opponent had captured more pawns was Towers able to co-ordinate his pieces to attack the enemy king without allowing interminable queen checks or further loss of material. Worcestershire left the hall well satisfied with a clear win against local rivals and their first victory since December 2011.