Rugby A v Coventry A

Last night, Coventry A traveled to Rugby to play a rearranged KO match. Despite always being very evenly matched, our last 3 matches v Rugby have seen very decisive results, two victories for Rugby, and one for us. Therefore we may have been due a good win, if patterns should exist.
Not that our captain, Ed, was optimistic about the team's chances. Missing two of our regular players, Ed mentioned to myself about the prospect of us playing in the plate competition this year, which would have been a first ever for Cov A. Fortunately for us, Rugby were also missing two of their regular players by coincidence, so fate seemed determined to even up the chances.
As it turned out, we won by a convincing score, 3.5-0.5, so continuing the recent trend where we either win heavily, or Rugby does ! A summary of the games follows, based on my fleeting glances at the boards.

Dave Filer v John Hall 1-0

Dave, playing White on board 3, out graded John Hall, (admittedly not a regular Rugby A player), by 20 points. Therefore Dave probably started the game as a reasonable favourite, as so it proved. Winning a pawn, Dave looked to have the more active pieces, as well as a generally secure looking position. After about two hours play, Dave duly secured the first win of the match.

Dave Ireland v Bob Wildig 1-0

Unusually for me this season, I had the White pieces. In reply to 1.e4, Bob slightly surprised me by playing the Caro-Kann, as opposed to the expected French defense. Some interesting king side play resulted, where I was pressing and Bob was defending stoutly, but he had to expend a lot of time in order to find the moves. On move 29, in a somewhat unappealing position, Bob's flag fell ,

John Cox v Ed Goodwin 0.5-0.5

Despite studying the Sicilian some time ago, Ed has never looked likely to desert his beloved French defense. Once again, he employed it last night, although John obtained active play for his pieces. However, Ed had a battery of bishop and queen aimed at White's g2, and he had a tactical resource potentially at his disposal, which I assume John was forced to lose a pawn in order to avoid. Although a pawn up, Ed agreed to a draw in order to secure the match for us.

Pierrick Schreiber v John Conway 0-1

This was the final game to finish, and it featured two players who were both new to the respective teams. With the match now won for Coventry, the result of the game mattered only to the players themselves. Mr Schreiber had obtained a winning position with the White pieces, with lots of wood aimed at John's kingside. In fact, John was forced to sac the exchange just to avoid immediate disaster, with an apparent loss still looming. However, a mistake by White allowed John to win a rook and resignation immediately followed.

So a comfortable win ensures we avoid the plate competition for another year, and hopefully the pattern of alternate Coventry/Rugby wins will be broken next time we meet them !.