Devon beat Yorkshire 9-7 despite being marginally outgraded. At 1.15pm we only had 4 players but all their team was there. At the start we were 3 players short but eventually the Exeter 2 and later Mark Abbott arrived. This did not help my blood pressure and concentration!
Yorkshire averaged 169.5 per player and Devon 166.4, so both sides had good teams out hence the match was quite tight for a long time.
Devon started with a draw from Jonathan Underwood who was suffering from jetlag having flown in from New York and then driven from Heathrow to Worcester - that is true dedication!
I presented Bill Ingham with the Best Board Trophy before the match and he duly responded with a fine win to put us one up. A few draws and a defeat for Paul Brooks, whose piece sacrifice didn't come off, left us all square. A few more solid draws but wins from David Toms and Charlie Howard, and an excellent win from Mark Abbot put us 3 up with 4 to play, just needing 2 draws to win. Denis Cowley drew and Brian Gosling won to give us the match. Alan Brusey failed to hold out. I had a winning combination on move 26 but was too concerned about the counterpunch to follow my plan through and settled for winning a pawn but then let the game drift, got into a mating web, got out of it costing a piece for pawn, missed a stalemate/draw swindle and lost.
Yet again County National Stages proved exciting for all involved.
My thanks go out to all those who made the effort to travel so far for this match but I am sure it was worth it.

Brian Hewson reports on the Devon v Warwick  Under 180 Quarter-Final

Devon won 8.5-7.5 and play the winners of Yorkshire v Cambridgeshire in the Semi Final
 
In the picturesque historical village of Frampton-on-Severn, the teams were evenly balanced on grade and the match turned out to be as close and as gripping as we expected.

After quick draws by Ivor and myself that were not going to make any progress, there were a few hours before the next game finished. Jon Duckham, Dave Regis and Paul Brooks agreed solid draws, Bill Ingham lost and Andrew Kinder won a lost game (a piece down from a sacrifice) when his opponent decided to self mate! Trefor Thynne, Alex Billings and Alan Brusey succumbed to pressure from reasonable positions. Jonathan Underwood had a good win and Mark Abbott (like last year) narrowly failed to push home an advantage after good defence.

That set the the scene with Devon 5-7 down with 4 to play and the room was buzzing with excitement. David Toms and Robert Thompson duly pushed home victories with clinical accuracy, levelling the scores and with Phil Kennedy agreeing a draw having fought off a strong sacrificial attack, that left Brian Gosling the last man standing. It was 7.5-7.5 and a draw would give Devon the win by elimination rule, as board count would be level. Brian had a position where both players had pawns on the seventh and kings in the open and a rook and bishop each. Any inaccuracy could have led to any of the three results. But Brian played superbly, moving his king up the board out of trouble, promoting his pawn for a knight!! This was check and two forced checks later he picked up the danger pawn leaving him a piece up. A volley of moves followed at rapid pace until his opponent lost on time but Brian was winning a pawn and knight v King (the wrong side of the pawn). The players from both sides spontaneously broke out in applause.

PETER ROOKE CUP FINAL    EXETER v NEWTON ABBOT

Played at Exeter 17.4.11

Match Report:

    Newton Abbot Chess Club travelled to Exeter  on a summer-like day hoping  to repeat their cliff-hanging win over Tiverton in last year’s final. This competition is for teams of 8 players with a total team grade under 1120. This usually makes for testing team-selection decisions and two broad but differing selection policies have been noted in the past: either play a couple of strong (170-180) players at the top and hope to find some good-value members at 80-100 at the bottom end or aim for a team grouped much more around the median 140 figure.  Your correspondent favours the former if only because in the event of a 4-4 draw (as in 2010) board count decides and wins at the top count for more.

  The two teams looked well-matched with Newton Abbot having a slight but probably insignificant grade advantage of 25 points. As it turned out the visitors never really looked like repeating their 2010 success as things started to go wrong after a couple of hours play.

 On board 3 Charlie Howard was at least equal against Piet Dobber  on the Black side of a Sicilian Defence but blundered a piece away in the late middle-game (Newton Abbot 0 Exeter 1).

 On board 7 Brian Aldwin and John Doidge had traded blows for over 60 moves and the ending of R+B v R+N may well have been drawn. However the fact that Brian had been moving twice as fast  put John under time pressure at the second control and he lost a piece. (N.A. 0 Ex 2).

The board 2 game between Andrew Kinder and Sean Pope had looked destined for a draw from an early stage as an open centre led to an exchange of many pieces. A dead drawn opposite colour bishop ending was soon reached.   (N.A.0.5 Ex. 2.5)

The board 5 game was looking favourable for William Marjoram against John Allen as he had d-file pressure and a good outpost on d5. However he overreached himself and John struck back well to win a Bishop and the game.   (N.A.1.5 Ex 2.5)

The decisive turning point in the match came in the top-board clash between Robert Thomson and Tim Paulden. Paulden as White tried a Polish (Orang-Outang) with b4 and gained considerable pressure on the a and b files with Black having a rather rigid central pawn structure which limited counter-play. White was able to force Black’s capitulation by pushing a pawn all the way to a8.  (N.A. 1.5 Ex 3.5).

Newton Abbot struck back with a rather fortunate win by 13 year-old John Fraser against Richard Scholes who was certainly winning comfortably at one stage but managed to drop a piece. John did not give him a chance to recover and converted efficiently.  (N.A. 2.5 Ex 3.5).

On board 6 it looked for a long time as though Freddie Sugden’s energetic play in a Danish Gambit would bring another point for the visitors. John Maloney’s stubborn defence a pawn down enabled him to channel the game into a knight and pawn ending in which the defending knight would be able to sacrifice itself for the remaining enemy pawns, quite a common theme in such endings.   (N.A. 3 Exeter 4).

 The last game to finish did not however promise any late salvation for the visitors as Wilf Taylor had lost a piece in a tense middle-game against Chris Southall and though he struggled on into the endgame he had to resign.   (Final score: Newton Abbot 3 Exeter 5).

 So Exeter triumphed on the day in a most enjoyable match played in the best of spirits at  the Exeter club’s new venue in Heavitree. Excellent refreshments were provided by Dave Regis, the non-playing Exeter captain.

More Devon clubs should consider entering  the Peter Rooke Cup  as it provides an opportunity for clubs to field teams representative of their whole membership rather than just a narrow grade band. It is a cup which fosters  good club spirit as it is  played over a larger number of boards than any other DCCA competition.

Reported by:

Trefor Thynne

(Non –playing captain, NACC)  

Photographs courtesy of Trefor Thynne

Click photo for larger image.

COMPETITION                                    WINNERS                        RUNNERS-UP

Bremridge Cup                                   Newton Abbot               Exeter

Schofield Cup                                       Teignmouth                    Newton Abbot

Mamhead Cup                                     Exmouth                          Newton Abbot

Moyle Cup                                             Tiverton                           Exeter

Newman Cup                                       Tiverton                           Exeter

Peter Rooke Cup                                 Exeter                               Newton Abbot

Bloodworth Cup                                  TBGS                                 Newton Abbot/Exeter Juniors

INDIVIDUAL COMPETITONS

Winter-Wood Cup                                         Not completed                               

Intermediate Championship              Andrew Kinder       Paul Brooks

Minor Championship                              Geoff Rosser,          Tony Tatam / John Ariss

Brian Hewson, the Devon County Captain comments on the match v's Somerset played on 12th February.  See News/WECU for full details.

Having been thrashed by Hants 12.5-3.5 in the previous match, we were well beaten 11-5 against Somerset yesterday. Unlike past seasons, it is becoming increasingly difficult to field our strongest team. Both Hants and Somerset have new people getting their players out and purposefully putting their strongest teams against Devon. So hopefully, next season, Devon players will make a note of the County dates in their diaries at the beginning of the season and keep the date free.

Brian Hewson

13th February 2011.

DCCA Inter-Area Jamboree

w

6