ECA 0 - 6 Stockport A

Last match of the season - we had to win to avoid relegation but instead we came across a very classy Stockport team.  We battled hard and still had 4 boards playing at 10.00 but the word of the night was "squeeze", we all seemed to end up in a collective zugzwang and got squeezed out with the inevitable pawns dropping late on.

Geoff  0 - 1  Alex Longson (221)
Geoff battled really hard in a Scandinavian and was the last man standing before an extra pawn became decisive.

Jim  0 - 1  Allan Beardsworth (215)
Another long game before being squeezed out and an eventual piece sac led to an unstoppable pawn.

Kev  0 - 1  Sarah Longson (200)
To be fair to Kev he is trying to extend his already extensive opening repertoire and learnt a bit more about the French Tarrasch last night.  He ended up taking aggressive action to avoid being squeezed but his sac turned out to be faulty.  At least he castled without incident (thank God for that!).

Tudor  0 - 1  Andy Reeve (203)
Tudor put up a really good show and even had a nice time advantage before the inevitable squeeze late on.

Paul  0 - 1  Mike Taylor (165)
I managed to throw some pieces at his King and then later he was worried about his Q being trapped but he defended skillfully and then came up with some nice tactical threats before picking me off.

Nick  0 - 1  Mike Tunstall (156)
Nck unfortunately developed an eye infection just before the game and was playing virtually blindfolded and did well to compete as well as he did in the circumstances.

So there we have it, it's Division 2 for us next season and after last night that's not such a bad thing!