"Chessmaze" NCCU U18 Inter-Association Championship (4th March 2007)
First of all a big thanks to every one of you who made the effort to support the team by playing for Lancashire against Yorkshire and Cheshire & North Wales at Frodsham. Unfortunately we had four strong players missing in the top six. This was to prove too big a handicap to overcome.
Round one was painful. Every game we looked like winning we drew, and every game we looked like drawing we lost, for various reasons. Claire Edhouse fell for a cheapo in the opening, made a game of it but finally succumbed. Tom Fielding and Dominic Rabbitte played excellent games but couldn't quite convert to a full point. Liam Rabbitte lost with his opponent's flag hanging by a thread. Paul Tinton played really well to reach a drawn ending, but unfortunately played quickly in his opponent's time trouble and made the crucial mistake. Nick Bishop lost on time in a winning position. Liam O'Rourke, Richard Carrington and Peter Cassell played well, made small structural errors and their positions fell apart. James McConnachie took a draw in a wild position. William Hart responded to my call to try to pull a point back for the team in a slightly better position but went wrong in the ending and lost. The only winner for us was Abigail Pritchard who played an excellent technical game. A sad return of 2.5 put of 12 was our poor total.
The team talk between rounds was very simple. The team were playing for pride now.
I can't say our luck changed any, but we did score 5.5/12. William Hart's game ended in defeat where the result could easily have been the other way round. Abigail blundered a piece, made a game of it but couldn't recover. Paul Tinton fell for a knight fork that he probably hasn't fallen for for many years now. Liam Rabbitte had played excellently, was clearly winning, fell to a simple trap to lose a rook but recovered to take the draw. Liam O'Rourke lost a central pawn and his game quickly fell apart, as did Nick Bishop's game in what had looked a closed position. However solid play netted wins for Tom Fielding, James McConnachie, Richard Carrington and Claire Edhouse and a draw for Peter Cassell. Perhaps our day was summed up when Dominic played superbly, had a won game but with his flag hanging had to take the draw.
The vital statistic was we took no points on boards 3 to 6, where the missing players would have played. A great pity - I believe we would have greatly reduced our deficit of 6 points behind joint winners Yorkshire and Cheshire & North Wales, and maybe would have taken the title.
Thanks again to all the players and their parents.
|
| YORKSHIRE | LANCASHIRE | CHESHIRE & NORTH WALES | ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Total | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Total | Rd 1 | Rd 2 | Total | ||||
| 1. | T. Whitaker | ½ | 0 | ½ | Dominic Rabbitte | ½ | ½ | 1 | S. Cloake | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 2. | J-L Weller | ½ | ½ | 1 | Liam Rabbitte | 0 | ½ | ½ | D. Groves | ½ | ½ | 1 |
| 3. | A. Littlewood | 1 | 1 | 2 | Paul Tinton | 0 | 0 | 0 | M. Brown | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 4. | T. Pitcher | 1 | 0 | 1 | Nick Bishop | 0 | 0 | 0 | J. Oxley | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 5. | M. Littlewood | 0 | 1 | 1 | Liam O'Rourke | 0 | 0 | 0 | C. Chadwick | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 6. | P. Weller | 1 | ½ | 1½ | William Hart | 0 | 0 | 0 | M. Burke | 1 | ½ | 1½ |
| 7. | R. Bowler | 1 | 1 | 2 | Tom Fielding | ½ | 1 | 1½ | T. Lloyd / O. Manley | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8. | E. Hollingworth | ½ | 1 | 1½ | Abigail Pritchard | 1 | 0 | 1 | T. Clements | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9. | J. Bowler | 1 | 0 | 1 | James McConnachie | ½ | 1 | 1½ | D. Menon | ½ | ½ | 1 |
| 10. | D. Coupe | 1 | ½ | 1½ | Peter Cassell | 0 | ½ | ½ | C. Gilman | 0 | ½ | ½ |
| 11. | R. Edwards | 1 | 0 | 1 | Richard Carrington | 0 | 1 | 1 | S. Jones | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| 12. | E. Coupe | 0 | 0 | 0 | Claire Edhouse | 0 | 1 | 1 | C. Brown | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 8½ | 5½ | 14 | 2½ | 5½ | 8 | 7 | 7 | 14 | |||
Bill O'Rourke
Lancashire U18 Manager