Ringwood A V Southbourne A

Press / Admin Comment

A hard-fought match between the two sides. On board 1, Peter came up against an in form Declan who is sweeping all before him at the moment. Declan proved just how well he is playing with another victory. He sacrificed a pawn to open up Peter's king position and soon enough came crashing through with rooks, knight, bishop and queen all bearing down on the exposed king. As the first game to finish (Declan had 64 minutes left on his clock!) the score was 1-0 to Southbourne. My game was next to finish on board 4, with a solid if unspectacular win against Jon. I'm not sure if Jon was initially up for the fight, offering a draw on a number of occasions, but things did get interesting when he sacrificed a pawn for an attack. Ultimately however, the queen and rook doubled up on the h-file weren't sufficient on their own to bring home the bacon, and when the queen's were exchanged, my rooks were able to get the job done on the other side of the board. On board 2, Martin came up against Russell and played a very nice game, winning a piece and opening up the kingside. The position did seem to have the potential to go wrong if not played carefully, but Martin found the winning path, despite the nerves, bringing with it Russell's resignation. A pretty finish, and fully in keeping with Martin's style! 2-1 to Ringwood. On board 3, Martin took control early on with a bind on the e5 square and steadily built a winning advantage. Graham persevered gamefully however and presented Martin with some tricky problems that with the clock ticking down put him under pressure. Martin ultimately handled it well enough - there will surely have been a quicker way to the goal - and brought home the deserved point. All in all, a good match and a fair result.

Niall Woodger

A hard fought match

Thank you Niall for an excellent and accurate report. Ringwood played well on all boards. Unfortunately there appears to be no stopping the Declan tidal wave machine! Thought his pawn sacrifice on e6 followed by his rook sacrifice on f6 were excellent - not sure many titled players would have seen all of these tactics. The other games were much quieter 'normal' affairs and Ringwood fully deserved at least a draw from the match. On behalf of the Southbourne team, I would like to thank the Ringwood team for their kind hospitality and sportsmanship.

Martin J Simons