The Carnival is Over

Played at the Navigation last evening -

Marple 1            V        Chorlton 1 : Manchester Lge. Div. One : 21/05/2015

1 J Reed          0.5/0.5  D Lee
2 S Tranter     1-0       RA Doney
3 G Trueman  0.5/0.5  S Foulkes
4 P Kirby        1-0       A Elliott
5 N Livesey     0-1       H Hughes
6 A Jenkins    1-0        G Jackson
7 C Baker       1-0        D Fault 

                        5-2

Marple completed all their fixtures for the 2014-2015 season with what looks at first glance a comfortable victory. In truth it was anything but and the final scoreline could have been 5-2 to Chorlton. Chorlton have a large squad of players and I was slightly surprised when Stan told me he had found it difficult to round up seven players for this fixture with sadly Miss Dee Fault making a (non)-appearance on board seven, leaving Chris with no opponent. From a Marple point of view we were of course one up before the start of play (1-0), but it does show just how difficult it is to  get chess players to commit once we get towards summer.Our team  was also a long way short of being our highest graded line up.
Andy was first to finish with a convincing victory. I had been slightly concened when he voluntarily swapped of his Bishop on g2 but he knew exactly what he was doing  and Mr Jackson soon resigned (2-0).
With hindsight John and my games were a taste of things to come. We both managed to somehow secure draws as Black against strong opposition despite at times having some rather dubious positions.(3-1). I didn't see how Board 5 finished as I was busy post-mortemening(?)  but I learned that Nigel had lost a piece to a clever trap and ended up with a lost position.(3-2) This was a shame as Nigels record in the Manchester League this season has been outstanding and even with this result included has still performed well above his grading.
So we were one up with two to play and we had White in both these games. However when I looked at the games I concluded we were losing on both boards. Steve had a terrible pawn structure in a double Rook ending and with a massively experienced player like Ron on the Black side I decided Chorlton would definitely be getting the full point. If anything Pauls position was even worse, not only was he a clear passed pawn down, his Bishop was a very poor prelate, totally hemmed him by pawns on the same colour.
What happened over the next twenty minutes was truly remarkable. Steve conducted the Rook ending like Akiba Rubinstein on a good day, finding  one tremendous move after another.The memory of how he played will stay with me for a long time. Ron must have gone wrong somewhere but it was not apparent to me where and incredibly Steve emerged with a clearly won position. Ron resigned and we had won the match!. (4-2).
On board four Austin had been winning for a long time but it was one of those endings where making progress is not so easy when the clock is ticking. Austin played the wrong line and ultimately allowed his beautiful Knight to be taken with check preventing his seventh rank pawn from promoting.Chess can be a very cruel game sometimes but you do have to credit Paul for never giving up, particularly when he was suffering from a very nasty virus. We had won this game as well - (5-2).
So three wins from our last three matches in the Manchester League have propelled us to mid-table respectability with even a marginally positive final score ( +4=1-4 Points Difference+2).Only Leicester City have achieved anything similar. At the risk of sounding smug we have achieved all the goals I set at the  start of the season - Winning the Stockport League & Cup and surviving in the Manchester League. As I'm sure Nigel Pearson would say though it's all down to the players (and the drivers!) so thanks to all of you who have contributed to this seasons successes.
Looking ahead with the promotion of a very strong 3C's 2 team and a reinvigorated Blue Club the first division of the Manchester League will next season be one of the very strongest chess leagues in the whole of England. This is just one of the new challenges that await us......