Badgers Brook A 3.5-1.5 Stirling B

It was a close hard fought match against Stirling B. While the average ratings on the night were 1538.2 and 1509.8 that sounds like two evenly matched teams in reality the closest match in terms of ratings was on board 3 with a gap of 334 points. The matches were all a lot closer than the ratings would have suggested.

First to finish was on board 3 where Andrew won material fairly early on. Next to finish was board 4 where Bill Cook went a piece up early on and then was 2 pieces for 2 pawns up and duly converted the win. Next to finish was my game on board 1 where I misplayed the opening to end up a pawn down that left me quite worried heading into the middlegame but fortunately I was able to build up some initiative and managed to to find a tactic to win a piece for a pawn. I then got both rooks onto the seventh rank and was able to quickly get a mate. The last two games went more or less the full distance with Mark being up a piece for most of his game with Brad trying to get a mating attack going but he lacked enough pieces to deliver the killer blow that allowed Mark to exchange down to nullify the threats and then deliver his own mate.

Shortly afterwards as the match outcome was decided and as it was a rather equal position with neither side able to make much progress Peter and David agreed a draw.

Thanks to Stirling B who were friendly as always.

Below is the full results. Badgers Brook drew black on 1,4&5 and had white on 2&3