Tiger Feet

Played at the Navigation last evening -

Marple   A                   V           Chorlton A       Stockport Lge Div One    05/01/2017

1 G Trueman          0.5/0.5       M Carpenter
2 P Kirby                   0-1           R Doney
3 C Baker                   0-1          S Foulkes
4 A Hall                      1-0          D Kierman
5 T Doust                   0-1           N Barnes
6 N Dainty                0.5/0.5       R Nurse

                                    2-4


When we lost both our board one and two to illness immediately prior to this match I feared the worse. With  the  arrival of the Chorlton team  however it  became clear that they too were very much under full strength. However they were still massive favourites. Chorlton outgraded Marple on every single board, the average disparity being 22 points.
Against such odds the result was perhaps inevitable, yet everyone put up a real fight with no quick losses at all. Alan had a fine win in a position where both Kings were vulnerable to mating threats and Neil achieved a terrific and very solid draw against an opponent graded 51 points higher. Your Correspondent was being positionally crushed by Martin Carpenter and was also over 30 minutes adrift on the clock when with only a few seconds remaining found a tactical resource/swindle  that resulted in a drawn position. It could have come from Simon Webbs seminal work although I would be the first to admit that I was very,very lucky. It does perhaps show that it is important not to resign too soon, no matter how hopeless the situation appears.
Many thanks to all who played, particularly Neil and Tony who both agreed to play at very short notice and Alan and Paul who were both still suffering from the after effects of flu. It's a curious fact that virtually all of our first team regulars have been very ill over the last few weeks with the exception of Chris. What I would give for his immune system!