Broadstairs  1½         Bridge B   5½ 

1 David Faldon (174) 0-1   Vishnu Singh (205 )
2 Paul Carfrae (133) ½ -½   Richard Eales (195)
3 John Couzens (116) 1-0   Alan Atkinson (173)
4 Reg Pidduck (107) 0-1   Robert Collopy (156)
5 Andy Flood (106) 0-1   Emily Green (156)
6 Bob Cronin (104) 0-1   Bill Tracey (125)
7 Michael Doyle (81) 0-1   Graeme Boxall (99)

David Faldon writes:

You had to be there at the end. If you weren’t … it was great! Yes, we were already 0-4 down after being steamrollered on the bottom four boards, but the last hour or so was brilliant. John on board three survived a somewhat dodgy position (2 pawns down for not much?) by counterattacking in his usual hyper-aggressive style. He got a pawn to the seventh rank, then his highly-rated opponent began a desperate pawn rush of his own. Would John work out how to defuse the rush? Of course he could, and we had a point on the board. Paul’s game on board two was almost as spectacular, in a completely different way. His almost-200-rated opponent put the pressure on early and got a passed pawn on the sixth rank, supported by bishop, rook and queen. Paul had to go into total defence mode, but it worked. His opponent could find no way through and as time ran down, a draw was agreed. The board one game was an anti-climax after John and Paul’s games, but it was fun while it lasted. I sacrificed for a huge attack, but my opponent held on for a hard-fought win. A 1½-5½ loss might sound bad, but just look at the grades of our opponents compared with ours. Many thanks to everyone that played, and especially to our two heroes, Paul and John, who drove the team to the match.

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