Poole The Other One V Yeovil

Press / Admin Comment

Honestly, this was closer than it looked! We expected to be heavily out-graded tonight, but not by this much; this meant Yeovil only needed 1 point to progress. I'd instructed my team to eat some raw steak and listen to some gangster rap music to psyche themselves up for a tough battle against a higher graded opponent, and go all-out on the attack Bazball style to give themselves a puncher's chance of a streaky knock-out. I even threatened to force them to down some shots if I felt they were playing too passively. Whether or not they listened I'm not sure, but after half an hour there were some exciting battles on nearly every board and some nervous looking Poole players. The grading difference was too much on 5, where Poole won quickly; 6 looked spicy with both players racing to queen their pawns but again Poole held on. I didn't take my own advice on 1, had a decent opening but was comprehensively outplayed in the middle game; I blundered a piece under pressure but I think I was crumbling anyway. Well played Nick, again! Darren didn't seem to get my memo about all-out attack and looked to be under the cosh all game before finally succumbing. Nigel gave John a scare with what looked a royal fist-fight in an open position before one error cost the game. This just left Binoy on 4, who was 2 pawns up and looking comfortable; could he produce the win of his life and see us through? Sadly not, as he blundered a piece from nowhere in time pressure late in the evening and gifted his opponent the point. Good fun all round, and the defeat was softened by the Poole players all being such thoroughly nice chaps; gracious and humble in victory and full of praise for their opponents, it was a pleasure to get thoroughly spanked by you. See you in the league! Adam.

Adam Batson