08 June 2016

 

A dissappointing 18 players turned up for this event. The organisers insisted on keeping two sections, so I had to shift two players down from the Open to the Major to make up the numbers. The beginning of the tournament was quite eventful. One player, driving down from Hereford, had an accident on the way, but he ‘Kept Calm and Carried On’, and arrived in time for round 3. He was fine but his car was rather knocked about. Another arrived at the venue at 9.30am, but thinking that the start time was 11am (it was 10), he sat in his car reading his paper. I didn’t know he was there, so he missed the first round.

In the Open section (10 players) Patryk Krzyzanowski kept the main prize ‘in house’ by winning with 5½ out of 6, closely followed by Lewis Martin (University) with 5. In the Major (8 players), it was a close run thing to the end. Eventually, the last game to finish was a draw between the two exiles from the Open, namely Duncan Macarthur of Keynsham and Adrian Champion of Cabot, and their draw meant that Duncan won with 4½, while Adrian was one of four players joint second with 4. The other three were Nick Fuller, who lives in Spain, Dorota Pacion (South Bristol) and Richard Porter (University). In the final round of the Major section, Tournament Director announced that there was no legal pairing, so I had to pair it by hand, and Richard Porter played the same opponent he had played in the previous round. I must remember not to rely on the computer program when there are 8 players in a 6 round tournament.

 

Graham Mill-Wilson