Southbourne V Highcliffe

Exciting match in unusual playing conditions!

On an evening where the dark clouds were looming in the distance, we took the risk of playing outdoors under a very large canopy / umbrella knowing that showers were forecast at 9.15pm. Both captains had settled on an 8 board match beforehand. On the evening 10 Highcliffe players turned up along with one extra junior player for Southbourne. It was agreed that the 8 board match would still go ahead as planned but Bruce Jenks would play a simultaneous versus his fellow club player, Thomas Trach and Southbourne's junior, Michal Orszulak, also whilst eating fish and chips! As expected the rain did arrive, perhaps a little earlier than expected, when the score was 3 - 1 to Highcliffe (good wins for Tim Jones, Dan Ursell & Joshua Richards for Highcliffe whilst Chris Lane had won well for Southbourne). Further wins achieved by Anton Vann and Finn Schell then levelled the scores but Highcliffe soon took the lead again with a well played game by Richard Ursell. This left James Forster and Christian Westrap battling not only against each other but also the tides on the chess board. We had become a little concerned that the adverse weather conditions may impact the operation of the digital chess clocks but after moving the chess board and clock to a more central position under the umbrella, the match was completed with James converting a Q+P ending a pawn up. So a draw means that Southbourne cannot now win the Summer league but it keeps Highcliffe in prime position. Good luck to Highcliffe in their final match.

Martin J Simons