Division Two match reports

[IM Jack Rudd]

I am writing this season's Division Two match reports. Anything you can give in terms of annotated games, individual match reports, commentary et cetera will be gratefully received, and may be used (with proper attribution).

[Jonathan Rogers]

How about "Bristol had a terrible result and an excellent result but probably against the right teams"?

[IM Jack Rudd]

How about "Bristol had a terrible result and an excellent result but probably against the right teams"?

We did indeed. This is something I will be expanding on.

(They're only the right teams if we finish in the top half, of course. If we end up in the relegation pool, they're very much the wrong teams.)

[Anthony Higgs]

Well, if you're after swindles, check out Higgs-Hunt from round 2. My opponent practically forced me to play the winning moves...

Fun to kibitz on was Freeman-Smart from round 1, in which Black decides to develop his kingside on move 23. White lost on time, presumably bewildered that Black could get away with such a system of development...

[IM Jack Rudd]

Ah, Higgs-Hunt, yes. Do you want to annotate that or shall I?

[Ben Purton]

Sambuca Sharks reports

Sambuca Sharks 4.5-3.5 White Rose 2

Most of the blame for how close this result was lies with me and Ruston, who played total rubbish. I heard most people claim that White Rose claimed to be totally unlucky, which might be the case but when you factor in that Liam and Myself both top scorers from last season in division 1 , only scored 0.5/2 against lower rated opponents then their view is very subjective. Tom Rendle got offered the White side of the French, which he is an expert in and then destroyed UKIP representative Johnathan Arnott. Roberson and Williams had very solid draws. The real stars of the show were new signings James Adair and Selina Khoo who both crushed their opponents. In the bar later that night I overheard the Wessex captain asking their former de-registered star to a) not play against them next weekend and b) why did she leave them. I want to make it clear that I have asked this player to play 3 seasons in a row and also asked her Elder Sister years ago , both were far too loyal to leave Wessex, it was in fact not until they deregistered her for another female that she signed for me.

Barbican Youth 4NCL 4-4 Sambuca Sharks

This is a team who we outgraded but hardly expected to beat, they are young , ironically their average age is lower than us. But still they have more U18's. Despite Norm disputes when Sambuca Sharks(Formerly Slough) were a very strong division 1 team, Barbican are a team I had a lot of respect for due to the fact they were so strong and established despite not funding there team. So all in all I was very happy to draw 4 all. My Captains draw followed by 3 more draws by Rendle, Adair and Varnam left the match at 2-2, the star of Saturday Selina Khoo striked again by winning on bottom board leaving us at 3-2 but unclear on all 3 remaining boards, Ruston then Lost and Roberson then won leaving us at 4-3 and leaving Sam Williams playing White V Subin Sen, I was confident of us winning until I saw the position where Sam got totally destroyed leaving us at 4-4.

Well played to both sides at the weekend , we scrapped 3 match points this weekend , but will have to play better next weekend as we can't expect our new signings to get us out of trouble.

Kind regards

Ben Purton

[IM Jack Rudd]

Thanks for that, Ben. I think I'll remove the reference to Arnott's political views, but the rest is fine.

[Ben Purton]

is higher than us........Sorry Mr Rudd.........wouldnt be ironic if the youth were younger........

[Ola Winfridsson]

How about "Bristol had a terrible result and an excellent result but probably against the right teams"?

We did indeed. This is something I will be expanding on.

(They're only the right teams if we finish in the top half, of course. If we end up in the relegation pool, they're very much the wrong teams.)

Yes, and as Poisoned Pawns II lost e2e4org.uk on Sunday, we just have to hope that we'll be able to make our unexpected win against Bristol I count! Potentially we did exactly the opposite to Bristol, winning and losing against the wrong teams.

[Anthony Higgs]

Ah, Higgs-Hunt, yes. Do you want to annotate that or shall I?

You are welcome to Jack, I'm not sure I deserve to annotate it!

[Jonathan Rogers]

I've just enjoyed reading Jack's reports on the 4NCl website. We are very lucky to have free and speedy access to such high quality material.

I'm curious to see that that he quoted Ben's comments (above) on the match with Barbican 4NCL Youth verbatim, except for the bit where Ben (very generously) mentioned that he respected us because we had achieved our successes without having funded our teams. This is entirely true, and I wonder why the comment was edited. In case anyone has any doubts, we have not paid anyone anything (including "mere expenses") since the Club was formally founded in 1999, even when the temptation to do so has been great and when the consequences of declining to do so have been dire (including defaults and relegation).

[IM Jack Rudd]

I'm curious to see that that he quoted Ben's comments (above) on the match with Barbican 4NCL Youth verbatim, except for the bit where Ben (very generously) mentioned that he respected us because we had achieved our successes without having funded our teams. This is entirely true, and I wonder why the comment was edited.

I don't know why it was; I was not the one responsible for that edit. Apart from the UKIP reference, I have only edited Ben's text for grammatical reasons.

[Ben Purton]

I have to say I was annoyed by the edit Jack. The finance part is sort of recognition of 10 years of amateur success, I mean like is it 3 ECC? or even more , its around 2-3 in last 5 years I think.

It kind of now looks a bit stupid? the comment because there are plenty of established teams who are strong, but most have dabbled in the professional player pool. Even Bristol Jack . However Jan Werle appears to have improved no end from that experience(150 points or something).

[Jonathan Rogers]

Purely for the record we have played in the ECC four times: 2002, 2003, 2005 and 2008, though only in Rethymnon (2003) did we actually put in a performance which was, if you like, "super-amateur".

[Ben Purton]

I captained them once, in Fuegen Austria in 2006 , we performed very well relative to strength, with Gawain scoring a GM norm and Myself and Edgell Performing around 2300.

That was nice, @ 20 I was one of the youngest managers of a team ever.

By the way John , i think the article is going to be re edited.