White: Bob Cronin Black: Bram Garner
(U100 County Championship Final 2014)
Broadstairs 3 Herne Bay 4
| 1 | David Faldon (170) | ½-½ | Gordon Botley (186) |
| 2 | Bob Page (141) | 0-1 | Stuart Williams (179) |
| 3 | Paul Carfrae (132) | ½-½ | Bob Pooley (147) |
| 4 | John Couzens (131) | ½-½ | Luke Kyte (139) |
| 5 | Andy Flood (e114) | 0-1 | Paul Arnold (125) |
| 6 | David Wheatley (106) | ½-½ | Rob Hamilton (113) |
| 7 | Bob Cronin (101) | 1-0 | Eddie Ridley (62) |
David Faldon writes:
Our fourth match, our fourth defeat, but things are looking up. This was a terrific match against strong opposition that twisted and turned and was only decided in the last few minutes. Everybody enjoyed themselves tremendously and if we can repeat that enthusiasm next time we might even win a match! Bob C on board 7 got us off to a great start with a quick win. Despite a dull opening which saw all the bishops and knights rapidly hoovered off the board, Bob C kept up the pressure and was rewarded when he got the chance for a snap mate. Boards 1 and 4 were next to finish, both games agreed drawn after initial fireworks fizzled out. Blame the damp weather not the football as when John and I got downstairs to the pub the Arsenal and Liverpool games were already over.
The other four games all lasted right up until closing time. The first result in was a defeat on board 5 when Andy had to resign after a long rearguard action. The next two games to finish ended in two draws, leaving the match poised at 3-3. Both of these games were incredibly tough. David W on board 6 dropped a couple of pawns in the middle game but fought back hard in a complicated queen and pawn ending. At the finish his opponent was relieved to be able to force a draw, despite still being two pawns up. The board 3 game was the twistiest game of all. Paul got tricked in the opening and lost a pawn but he cleverly turned the tables in the middle game, winning an exchange (rook for bishop). The resulting queen-and-rook-and-passed-pawns versus queen-and-bishop-and-passed-pawns ending was great fun to watch but must have been nerve-wracking to play. At one point Paul had his king trapped on the back rank and it looked like he might get mated but he survived by swapping queens. With time running out and one of Paul’s passed pawns starting to motor down the board the Herne Bay player threw in a sneaky draw offer, which was accepted. Both players looked exhausted at the end.
The last game to finish also tested both players to the limit. Bob P on board 2 got his king trapped in the corner, dead to a check down the h-file. For an hour or more Bob P resisted all of his highly-rated opponent’s attempts to get a queen or a rook to h3, but in the end his defending pieces got tied down. With both flags close to falling, the Herne Bay player managed to find a way to break through, winning a piece and the game. A shame for us all and especially for Bob P who’d played splendidly. Congratulations to Herne Bay on a hard-fought victory.
Bob Page writes:
The following statement was made recently by Brian Valentine, the ECF Manager of Grading. Make of it what you will but it goes some way to address the anomaly of having grades published mid-season.
“The Grading Team has decided to address two issues.
- The harmful effect of incorrectly reported dates. These occur chiefly, but not exclusively, in club championships where very often a single arbitrary date is assigned to every game in the competition. This places undue weight on the precise dates of games played around the 30-game cut-off point. The order in which two games were played can make a difference of 3 points or more to the player’s grade two years later.
- The need to indicate the strength of players as early as possible noting that a grade for ungraded players is already visible by referring to the games listed in their opponent’s database record.
In consequence there will be three changes introduced in the January 2015 grading list.
- At present category A grades are calculated by averaging the grading points from the most recent 30 games. Starting in January the averaging will be over all games in the previous two grading periods. This change will mean that category X will become redundant.
- At present, grades in categories lower than A are calculated over the most recent 30 games, assuming that the player has played more than 30 games in the last three years. In January we will revert to the system used till January 2011. There will no longer be a cut-off point part way through a grading period. Instead, the system will take as many games from each prior period as it needs in order to make 30 games, but they will use grading points for the average per game for the earliest period used.
- There will be a new grade category F, requiring only 5 games in the last 36 months (including at least 1 in the most recent period). Category F grades will be published like any other grade, but they will not be used in future calculations.
A further benefit of (1) and (2) is that they are expected to reduce “stretch” in the system. Testing suggests that they are neither inflationary nor deflationary.
Change (3) will increase the number of players with published grades (currently less than 12,000) to an estimated 13,600 or more.”
Broadstairs 2 Ramsgate 5
| 1 | David Faldon (170) | ½-½ | David Williams (152) |
| 2 | Alan Gosman (149) | 0-1 | Geoff Williams (148) |
| 3 | Paul Carfrae (132) | 0-1 | Steve Guy (139) |
| 4 | John Couzens (131) | 0-1 | Brian Westover (138) |
| 5 | Andy Flood (e114) | ½-½ | Malcolm Snashall (127) |
| 6 | David Wheatley (106) | 1-0 | Chris Wand (114) |
| 7 | Reg Pidduck (104) | 0-1 | Bob Wallace (96) |
David Faldon writes:
Our third match, our third defeat. Disappointing, because we usually beat our local rivals at home but this match was always going to be more difficult than usual. We were missing several of our best players and Ramsgate managed to bring six of their top seven. The match got off to a bad start for us when Alan, out of practice, dropped a piece right in the opening. He struggled on, however, and after 90 minutes or so we even took the lead when David on board 6 completed an excellent win. This was as good as it got, though. Andy on board 5 was next to finish. He had a great position for most of the game but he missed something in time pressure and had to agree a draw. Ramsgate then scored three times without reply on boards 2, 3 and 4 and we were 3½ to 1½ down with two to play. We had chances on boards 1 and 7 but despite pushing right to the last pawn our players were unable to come up with the two wins we needed. Reg on board 7 even managed to lose in the end when he snatched a very poisoned pawn. Congratulations to the Ramsgate team on a deserved victory. I hope we can put up more of a fight in the return fixture next March.
Congratulations to the Kent U100 squad that won the 2014 County Championship Finals and especially to our own Bob Cronin (second from left in the photo below) who played his part in every round and whose report on the campaign follows. Bob’s only regret is that with a new grade of 101 he will be unable to help defend the title this year.
Bob Cronin writes:
The Kent U100 team became SCCU Champions in February 2014, having come top of the group ahead of Essex and Surrey. I was the only Broadstairs player (graded 97) in the Kent squad and represented the county in three of the four group-stage matches, securing solid draws in all three games. Kent progressed to the draw for the knockout stages of the National County Finals for the first time in many years.
The National Quarter-Final draw paired Kent with Nottinghamshire. The match, over eleven instead of the usual twelve boards, was played on 17th May 2014 at the Open University Campus at Milton Keynes. Kent won comfortably 7-4. Playing black on board 4, I beat Malcolm Hargreaves (98) who resigned after move 20.
In the National Semi-Final Kent were drawn against Lancashire. The match took place on the 14th June 2014 at Syston Social Club near Coventry. Kent won a very exciting match 8-4, much closer than the score suggests. With white I beat George Harman (85), a young ‘rising star’ of the Lancashire side, on board 4. A draw offer was turned down and I went on to mate my opponent in 41 moves.
In the National County Final, played at the Trident Centre in Warwick on the 12th July 2014, Kent took on the home team, Warwickshire, who had defeated Norfolk in their semi-final. Playing white, I beat Bram Garner (97) on board 4 with a devastating attack that gave Kent their first point of the day and Kent went on to win the match 8.5-3.5. The non-playing captain, Doug Smith, was naturally delighted and collected the trophy on behalf of the new champions. Members of the team all received a trophy to take home with them.
Kent are now the ECF U100 National County Champions!