Preston 2 V Poulton 1

Press / Admin Comment

A very tight battle ended in a drawn match when Peter Garrett drew with Paul O'Mara. Poulton outgraded Preston 2 on the three middle boards and the home side did well to get draws in all three games. Clifford looked in reasonable position throughout against Barry Hymer, Paul O'Mara did well against Peter Garrett and was about to Queen a Pawn when Peter managed to force a draw by perpetual check. Graham Dobson built up a good position against Phil Taylor on board three and looked likely to go on and win, however, Phil managed to drum up an attack on Grahams King which very nearly forced a win of material. Graham found the best defence, which was the trading of Queen and Rook and resulted in an opposite coloured Bishop and Pawn ending where Graham could not win despite being two Pawns up. Peter Jowett kept up his recent fine form in beating Oleg Cukovs. Peter tells me that his active Bishop pair gave him the edge, in what to me looked a fairly even position. On board four a young Ben Fearnhead impressed for Poulton where he beat Bill Moffatt. Ben was material up quite early and never looked like losing his grip on the position. Playing very well to force a win. All in all a fair result on the night with both team slightly weakened with the absence of a couple of regular players each.

Phil Taylor