by John Richards
Bristol 1 and 2 were faced with tough matches on
the Saturday. The first team were to play Wood Green, league leaders
and studded with star players, while the second team met promotion
favourites, Barbican 2. With little chance of beating either,
I decided to bolster the second team with Chris Beaumont and Simon
Buckley to see if we could get something from the second division
match.
| Bristol 1 | Wood Green 1 | |||
| Simon Ansell | Alex Baburin | |||
| Graham Burgess | John Emms | |||
| James Sherwin | Chris Ward | |||
| Charles Cobb | Jon Levitt | |||
| David Ledger | Malcolm Pein | |||
| David Collier | Paul Littlewood | |||
| Robert McFarland | P Sowray | |||
| Melanie Buckley | Sheila Jackson | |||
This is the expected outcome when you are outrated by 200 points per board, but there were some highlights for Bristol such as the draws. New signing, IM James Sherwin, had some chances and was annoyed at himself for losing.
| Bristol 2 | Barbican 2 | |||
| Chris Beaumont | Craig Pritchett | |||
| Simon Buckley | Richard Palliser | |||
| Nick Jakubovics | Chris Duncan | |||
| Tyson Mordue | A Mack | |||
| Jack Rudd | M Twyble | |||
| Alex Easton | Lorin D'Costa | |||
| Duncan Grossett | D Sands | |||
| Sophie Tidman | Heather Lang | |||
Meanwhile, everything was coming unstuck in the second team. Jack
Rudd got an impressive position in no time at all and then threw
it away. Simon Buckley had a horrible position where he could
not develop his queenside pieces. Tyson and Chalks had good wins,
but it never looked like we were going to get anything from this
one.
| Bristol 1 | Wood Green 2 | |||
| Chris Beaumont | Jon Levitt | |||
| Simon Ansell | Tim Wall | |||
| James Sherwin | A Norris | |||
| Graham Burgess | Andrew Law | |||
| Simon Buckley | Richard Pert | |||
| Charles Cobb | A Yastrebov | |||
| David Ledger | Desmond Tan | |||
| Melanie Buckley | Z Lazhevskaya | |||
Wood Green seconds was high on our list of Teams We Have To Beat To Stay Up, so Bristol 1sts were back to full strength for this match. Similarly, Wood Green's manager had Bristol on his hit-list and we knew they'd pull out all the stops. GM Jon Levitt got his second match against Bristol in two days as he was drafted in to strengthen Wood Green seconds. Levitt had prepared carefully for Simon Ansell, but we wrongfooted the North Londoners by switching Chris Beaumont back in on top board. (Dave Collier wryly noted on Saturday he was three boards above Beaumont, on Sunday he was thirteen boards below!). The strategy was a great success; Melanie Buckley's win was particularly fine. Brother Simon was last to finish as Pert made him play through nearly every drawn rook and pawn position in the book before finally conceding the half point.
| Bristol 2 | Poisoned Pawns | |||
| Robert McFarland | S Swanson | |||
| Tyson Mordue | A Hammond | |||
| Nick Jakubovics | Daniel Rosen | |||
| Alex Easton | Stephen Ledger | |||
| Jack Rudd | Gerald Moore | |||
| David Collier | Hans-Peter Hansen | |||
| Duncan Grossett | Steve James | |||
| Sophie Tidman | Syringa Turvey | |||
Oh dear! After four hours this match was in the bag. Robert McFarland
was going to win and even if Alex Easton lost, surely Sophie would
make sure of the match. Robert missed a win and had to take the
draw, but Alex got a half point we were not expecting. Disaster
struck in the seventh hour when Sophie lost the plot and had to
resign.
Earlier, Jack Rudd had proved how easy it is to get a lost game having spent practically no time on the clock. Duncan Grossett recovered from a lost position to salvage a draw. Not impressive overall, and the second team finished with just one match point from the weekend. A better performance will be needed in January.
| Division 1 | P | W | D | L | GP | Pts |
| Slough | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 24 | 8 |
| Wood Green | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 21.5 | 7 |
| IKHH | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 18.5 | 7 |
| Bigwood | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 5 |
| Richmond | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 5 |
| Bristol | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 14.5 | 4 |
| Barbican 4NCL | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 16 | 3 |
| Guildford ADC | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 15 | 2 |
| Silvine White Rose | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 12.5 | 2 |
| The ADs | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 12.5 | 2 |
| North West Eagles | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 2 |
| Wood Green 2 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 11.5 | 1 |
| Division 2 - top 14 | P | W | D | L | GP | Pts |
| South Wales Dragons | 4 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 21.5 | 8 |
| Barbican 4NCL 2 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 19 | 6 |
| Perceptron Youth | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 17.5 | 6 |
| Poisoned Pawns | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17.5 | 5 |
| Slough 2 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 16.5 | 5 |
| Bigwood 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 19.5 | 4 |
| Bristol 2 | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 18 | 4 |
| Wessex | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16.5 | 4 |
| BCCA | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16.5 | 4 |
| Levy Gee 3C's | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 4 |
| Kings Head | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 15.5 | 4 |
| Witney & Swindon | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 14.5 | 4 |
| IKHH 2 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 13 | 4 |
| Guildford-ADC 2 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 15.5 | 3 |
| 1 | Oct 9 | Bristol 1 | 5-3 | North West Eagles | Bristol 2 | 4-4 | TB White Rose 2 |
| 2 | Oct 10 | Richmond | 6-2 | Bristol 1 | I.K.H.H. 2 | ½-7½ | Bristol 2 |
| 3 | Nov 20 | Bristol 1 | 2-6 | Wood Green 1 | Bristol 2 | 2½-5½ | Barbican 2 |
| 4 | Nov 21 | Wood Green 2 | 2½-5½ | Bristol 1 | Poisoned Pawns | 4-4 | Bristol 2 |
| 5 | Jan 22 | Slough 1 | v | Bristol 1 | Nidum Knights | v | Bristol 2 |
| 6 | Jan 23 | Bristol 1 | v | Guildford ADC | Bristol 2 | v | S.C.S. |
| 7 | Mar 25 | Bristol 1 | v | The AD's | |||
| 8 | Mar 26 | Barbican 1 | v | Bristol 1 | |||
| 9 | Apr 29 | Bristol 1 | v | I.K.H.H. 1 | |||
| 10 | Apr 30 | Bristol 1 | v | Bigwood 1 | |||
| 11 | May 1 | Silvine White Rose | v | Bristol 1 |
In Division 2, Swiss pairings will be used for the last two weekends. Teams which have already met will NOT meet again. Pairings for the fourth weekend (rounds 7 & 8) will be based on league positions after round 6. Pairings for the final weekend (rounds 9 to 11) will be based on league positions after round 8.