Ringwood Waifs & Strays V Southbourne Seagulls

Press / Admin Comment

I was delighted to welcome Nikki and her "fledglings" for the evening. Things started on time in both matches on tonight. Things were going so well in the Bacchus match I wandered off to the "casual" room to have a quick game before returning to make and deliver refreshments. I'm pretty sure at that point all the matches were still in play. However, when I next returned, after another quick game, we had lost the top three boards! A quick look suggested we should win the remaining games. This was part realised when Samuel playing his first game for the club on board 5 won his game.. That left Tim and Will still playing as 9 O'clock was passed. Tim was a bishop up but Will did have threats of a back rank mate or a perpetual as his queen was very active. However Tim handled the position very well, calmly improving the position of his pieces and establishing a bolt hole for his King and only then setting about forcing the promotion of a passed pawn. It was a long but very sportingly played game and both players deserve credit for entertaining the on-lookers. The Seagulls deserved their victory butr we look forward to the return :-)

Martin Joseph Clancy

Great start to the Bacchus League season

Many thanks to Martin and Ringwood for a great evening of chess. Wonderful to see so many new players. We had five new players who had never played in the league before or been to Ringwood Chess Club, so their first challenge was to find Greyfriars. After a few circuits of Ringwood suburbs and some dodgy parking, everyone arrived on time and ready to play. All games were close and there were no quick or easy wins. Games on boards 1 and 2 were slow and careful with very few pieces coming off initially. On board 3, Ringwood’s junior Matthew played well until he made a slight blunder and Ken capitalised. Eli and Will’s dad went home and returned about an hour later expecting them both to be finished. Both were still playing and he had to wait nearly another hour before Will’s game concluded. Not sure that my pre-match advice to our two juniors to tell them that they had an hour on the clock and so should play slowly, had been needed. They played like pros. Many thanks to Tim for his support and encouragement in his match against Will.

Nikki Forster