Ringwood A V Southbourne A

Another tight match

Once again this was a match that could have gone either way. First to finish was board 4 where Niall stood better, with Martin thinking a lot better. Both sides seemed happy with the draw. Kevin was in a manoeuvering battle with Steve and had won a pawn and looked like he was winning. With that in mind Peter offered James a draw in a level-ish position which James turned down as he too thought Kevin was winning. A few moves later Kevin made a couple of tactical mistakes and was a pawn down and possibly lost. Meanwhile Graham was in a very complicated double rook ending against Russell and eventually went down. A fair bit of post-game analysis seemed to indicate it might have been holdable but it certainly was not easy. Having turned the draw down and at some stage probably standing better, James kept pressing for a win but found himself in difficulties as the endgame progressed, with Peter eventually forcing a pawn through. That left Kevin fighting a pawn down in a rook and pawn ending that eventually came down to rook and one vs rook and an inevitable draw. A drawn match, played in great spirit, seemed a fair result at the end of the evening.

Peter Anderson

An exciting close match

Peter's comments accurately sum up the match and, overall, a fair result with both teams almost winning it. We would like to thank the Ringwood players for their kind hospitality and hot drinhs.

Martin J Simons