Broadstairs     5½                Margate     1½ 

1	David Faldon (175)	1-0	Peter McGill  (157)
2	David Horton (167)	1-0	Harry Sharples (156)
3	Bob Page (145)	½-½	Colin Gregory (114)
4	Paul Carfrae (131)	1-0	Leon Garfield (104)
5	John Couzens (118)	1-0	John Clarke (90)
6	Bob Cronin (112)	0-1	Roy Dawson (72)
7	Tom Lovegrove (92)	1-0	Don Richards (52)

David Faldon writes:

As usual we outgraded our local rivals by a considerable margin (the team’s average grades were 134 and 106) but also as usual Margate put up a great fight. They even took an early lead when something went spectacularly wrong with Bob C’s all-in attack with white on board 6. At that point most of the other games were pretty level so the fate of the match was in the balance. It wasn’t until about 9.30 that things turned in our favour. First, David H converted a nice position into a mating attack on board 2 and then Paul and John both took pawns in for touchdowns on boards 4 and 5 and suddenly we were 3-1 up. Tom on board 7 provided the most spectacular game of the evening – an early piece sacrifice for 2 pawns led to a long slow mating attack. 4-1. The final two games finished about 10.30 leaving us a precious few minutes to celebrate in the pub. To end, a question. Which board saw the game begin 1.e4 e6 2.d3 d5 3.Nd2 Nc6 4.Ngf3 g5? Answer – board 1, with David F to thank/blame for the outrageous/awful 4…g5. It seemed like a good idea at the time.

Broadstairs     1½                Folkestone     5½ 

1	David Faldon (175)	0-1	Jim Bayford  (197)
2	Alan Gosman (151)	0-1	Leon Wooldridge (188)
3	Bob Page (145)	0-1	Jo Schultz (186)
4	Paul Carfrae (131)	0-1	John Atherton (167)
5	Bob Cronin (112)	0-1	Matthew Cussens (138)
6	Andy Flood (111)	½-½	David Erwee (108)
7	Tom Lovegrove (92)	1-0	Chris Siebert (102)

David Faldon writes:

Our second match of the new season got off to a bad start at about 7.15 when Folkestone turned up, sealing our fate. They’d brought a very strong team, which I guess we should take as a compliment. The board 5 game was over in a flash and board 4 didn’t last much longer: 0-2. All of the other games were very hard fought but in every case (bar board 7) the Broadstairs players were on the defensive for the most part. The third result came in on board 6 where Andy got a draw rather against the run of play. After that normal service was resumed. At about 10.30 Folkestone took a decisive four point lead when Alan on board 2 missed a nasty fork trick after holding his own with great determination for three hours. Tom’s well-deserved win on board 7 made no serious dent in Folkestone’s lead and the board 1 game finished just in time for the team to adjourn to the pub to drown our sorrows. Actually, we weren’t that down afterwards. A 30 to 40 grading point gap is huge in terms of expected results and most of the games were much closer than would have been expected. We’ll get them next time. Until then, many congratulations to Folkestone on their victory.

Broadstairs  2½       Herne Bay  1½

1.	Bob Cronin   (112)	1-0	Ronnie Melhuish (103)
2.	Andy Flood   (111)	0-1	Brian Humble (98)
3.	Reg Pidduck  (106)	½-½	Jamie Dawson (76)
4.	Michael Doyle (89)	1-0	John Heath  (e70)

Reg Pidduck writes:

With the grades to our advantage, it should have been easier than it was but the Herne Bay team gave us a fright.

BOARD 4 . STILL OUR SUPERSUB. Michael’s was a fairly early finish. After winning a rook for nothing, he was always in control.  1-0 to us.

BOARD 3 . DOUBLE CRAMP. This was unusual as after fifteen minutes Jamie got leg cramp and had to get up from the board for five minutes. Blow me down, after about an hour I got the same but mine lasted about ten minutes – so strange. Anyway back to the game. I got the better of Jamie’s French Defence and won a pawn, he got it back but left an isolated pawn in the middle. He stoutly defended it and twice offered a draw which I declined as boards 1 and 2 were unclear at this time. After 20 minutes of trying unsuccessfully to get an advantage I looked again at boards 1 and 2. Bob was two pawns up with rooks left on the board and was looking good, while Andy was fending off an attack. I then took a draw with Jamie. 1½-½ to us

BOARD 2 . BRIAN’S KING SIDE ATTACK. Andy’s fending off Brian’s attack lasted a good dozen moves but in the end Andy resigned. 1½-1½ – a cliffhanger.

BOARD 1 . THE PASSED PAWN. With his two pawn advantage Bob finally got a passed one, but it wasn’t easy as Ronnie used his two rooks cleverly, but Bob came up with his own scheme to get one home, and won us the match.

A  2½-1½ victory – well done team!

Broadstairs       1                Bridge A       6 

1	David Faldon (175)	1-0	Michael Green  (179)
2	Bob Page (145)	0-1	Shany Rezvany (168)
3	Paul Carfrae (131)	0-1	David Shire (161)
4	John Couzens (118)	0-1	James Essinger (154)
5	Bob Cronin (112)	0-1	Mark Mortimer (146)
6	Andy Flood (111)	0-1	Emily Green (142)
7	Tom Lovegrove (92)	0-1	Joe Mooney (e120)

David Faldon writes:

It looks bad, doesn’t it? I guess it was, but as usual the bare results don’t tell the full story. With a bit of luck we might well have left with 2½ points. Yes, some of the games were a bit one-sided, but to be fair to our guys on the middle boards the Bridge players on boards 3 to 6 are considerably stronger than their grades suggest. Our nearly-men were Bob Page on board 2 and Tom Lovegrove on board 7. Tom found a great trick in the middle-game to swap off into a “winning” bishop versus knight ending but then something went wrong (I was too busy with my own game to see exactly what) and Tom lost all of his pawns and the game. Bob P played really well (with black) for three hours but just when it looked like his efforts would be rewarded with a draw he dropped his queen and that was that. Our solitary success was a hard-fought struggle on board 1 that lasted until 11.15. Many thanks to John for waiting around to give me a lift home afterwards and apologies to John’s other passengers who also had a long wait. Here’s looking forward to our next Millar Cup match (at home on the 28th) against Folkestone.