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Witney 2's early hopes that
Cowley 2 would need to work hard to achieve the
4:2 win required for them to advance to the
semi-finals of the Frank Wood Shield were
somewhat dampened by Mark Hannon's late
withdrawal and by the news on arriving at the
Cowley 2 venue that not only Gerard O'Reilly
(ECF grade 190) but also Andy Walden (ECF grade
197) would be playing. Some small consolation
was provided by Heather Lang's and Maria Lang's
absence, but even so Witney 2 faced an uphill
task.
The match in fact proved to
be a real thriller, and it was a shame that one
team had to exit the competition. I offered an
early draw after Andy misplayed the opening
somewhat; at the end I had a small advantage and
could have played on, but on looking at the
state of play in the other games I reckoned that
a bird in the hand was worth two in the bush.
Patrick was the next to get a half point,
accepting Maria's draw in a position where he
definitely had winning chances; but, like me, he
decided that getting another half point on the
scoreboard was more important. By this stage,
however, the match position had taken a distinct
turn for the worse. Although Pavel's and Alan's
games were evenly balanced with chances for both
sides, Howard had dropped two pawns and was
struggling badly and Derek was also a pawn down,
although not without compensation. So Cowley 2
were on course for the 4:2 win they needed.
Enter centre stage Howard and
Pavel, the heroes of the evening. Howard
wriggled magnificently to reach a blockade which
Bob, still two clear pawns up, was unable to
breach. So with three games still to play we
needed one more point, which Pavel provided in
magnificent style. In a double-edged middle game
Pavel managed to find a resource which
complicated things wonderfully just as Gerard
was running short of time, and when Gerard made
a couple of inaccuracies Pavel managed to
simplify the position and mop up two pawns at
the same time, leaving him with a trivially won
rook ending. I believe Gerard is the highest
graded player that Pavel has beaten, and I very
much hope that he will be letting us have the
game for publication on the website.
So in the end the last two
games didn't matter, as we had the 2½ points we
needed to progress. Alan went wrong after
sacrificing a pawn, allowing Rod to establish a
huge knight in his vitals (well, on c6, but you
know what I mean - and if I'm not allowed a few
literary purple patches after a fine result like
this, when am I?), and Derek allowed a snap mate
in one in a rook ending in which Robin, although
clearly winning over the board, had only 23
seconds left on his clock and would in all
likelihood have lost on time. It would have been
the icing on the cake if Derek had drawn or even
won, but in the end it didn't take the gloss off
a fine performance by Witney 2.
Cowley 2's captain,
'Gentleman' Gerard, and indeed the whole team,
were as magnanimous in defeat as they are
gracious in victory. It's a pleasure to play
against a team as sporting as Cowley 2 (unlike
another OCA team that I could mention, but
won't). In all likelihood Witney 2 will play
City 1 in the semi-final, and if we can get Mark
back in the team there is no reason why we
shouldn't do as well against City 1 as we did
against Cowley 2.
1 Walden,
Andrew (197) ½-½
Truran, Michael (188)
2 O'Reilly,
Gerard (190) 0-1 Asenov, Pavel
(147)
3 Nixon, Rod
(178)
1-0 Gentry, Alan (152)
4 Waugh, Bob
(-)
½-½ Searle, Howard AJ (147)
5 Wang, Anna
(169)
½-½ Moss, Patrick (154)
6 Nandi, Robin
J (154) 1-0
Edwards, Derek F (143)
3½-2½ away win
- played on 13 Jan 2014.
- Mike.
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