ECA 2 Holmes Chapel 4

ECA continued their tricky start to the season with a home fixture against Holmes Chapel last week. I unfortunately could not make it so here is David Taylor's report:

We were soundly beaten by Holmes Chapel who fielded a strong team with only one player below 158. Fate was also a bit unkind, because by 7:45 we only had three players and the Newells were faced with a substantial time deficit when they eventually got through the traffic gridlock, even though their opponents voluntarily delayed starting their clocks until 7.45. At one stage Dave Newell had less than 10 sec on his clock, yet he still played another twenty moves or more, and got a draw. Apparently both the Newells had expected their opponents to play the King's Indian and had prepared accordingly, only to find different openings when they eventually started.

I lost first, after Ian Bates sacrificed on h7 to open up my Fort Knox King's position mercilessly, having seen one move further ahead than me. The same opening had earned me a draw against Altrincham’s Reg Clucas (155) the previous evening. Tudor won so easily he could afford to ignore the offer of a Rook at one stage, unable to believe that it was safe to take it (or not seeing the offer at all?) Kieran and Geoff were steadily ground down and in spite of surviving until nearly 10.45 pm were faced with overwhelming pawn majorities. Steve considered himself lucky to obtain the draw, but to the onlookers he seemed to have it all under control.

We eventually closed the club at 11 pm!!

East Cheshire A            Homes Chapel
S. Tranter        0.5        0.5        J. Turner (190)
K. Newell        0            1        P. Bennett (170)
G. Brindle        0            1        M. Hancock (175)
D. Newell        0.5        0.5        B. Scattergood (170)
D.R.Taylor        0            1        I. Bates (158)
T. Rickards        1            0        G. Scattergood (120)

East Cheshire  2                Holmes Chapel 4