Lancaster 'A' V Dragons

First league match in our new club surroundings

Barry and Danny stood aside for Lancaster A in their match against their club teammates, and their replacements played creditably - as befitting our new surroundings. Richard returned to form with a fine win against the breakout find of our season, young Niko, converting his two rooks and a couple of pawns vs a queen fairly comfortably, giving Niko no chance to mix things up. Lawrence proved that age shall not wither them, with a devastating and quite unLawrencelike expansion and aggression against Iain, who had no chance to complete his development and break out of the crush. Michael had an up and down and exciting battle against another valued new member playing his first game for the club, Dan Holden. Both players had arguably won positions at different times, but Dan held his nerve to secure a perpetual against Mike's queenside passer in a pawn and queen ending. And David played superbly to reach a near-decisive middlegame position, before losing the thread a bit, and Jonathan capitalised brutally thereafter. All in all, a good result for the Dragons but even better to see new players getting their first taste of league competition. I hope this can be extended in future matches.

Barry Hymer