Once again, the competitiveness of the Thames Valley Division 1 has been emphasized. Fresh from beating the champions, Ealing, we found ourselves going down to a good Harrow side. Just as Ealing found against us, you simply can’t afford to be many players away from your best team if you want to do well in this league.

It has to be said that the lead up to the match was not auspicious for us. Having agreed a 3 hour session to honour the desire of the majority of the league’s teams to play more moves in a night we found ourselves squarely up against the clock when battling across the very heavy London traffic that always seems to be there on a Thursday night (Presumably most people commute to the country on Thursday and take Friday off? This might explain the UK's recent lacklustre economic performance!). So, when the clocks started, we had four players at the board and four staring at brake lights somewhere between Hounslow and Harrow. The story board by board:-

Mark Josse on Board 1 played an active game against IM, Colin Crouch. On about move 20 Mark gave Colin a tempting line that would have led to an unbalanced game. Colin refused the bait and the game remained level and was the first to finish with a peace pact. Well played Mark.

On Board 2 Nick played a really good, powerful, game against the dangerous Habib. Nick got lots of play on the centre and via a queenside expansion and won the exchange along the way. I had the pleasure of playing through the game with Harrow’s captain although the pretext was counting the moves against the score-sheets. Habib’s flag had fallen before he had managed to complete his final move before the time control. Great game, Nick!

On Board 3 Edgar, who was 15 minutes down when he arrived at the board, was presented with an unusual opening line by Neville and he looked to be getting the upper hand. Edgar reports that he made some inaccuracies in the middle game that allowed Neville to create counter-play by advancing his f-pawn. The game was balanced at the point the draw was agreed. Well played Edgar.

On Board 4 Stef also had a 15 minute deficit to make up. He played solidly and held the draw well. Well played Stef.

On Board 5 was the captain. 20 minutes down and with by far the worst record of any of our team this season. Oddly, being behind on the clock was strangely liberating and I played a pretty decent game. I was helped a bit by Parvez who also played quickly, presumably to keep his time advantage in tact, but not very accurately. I got a strong attack that I should have taken to a very destructive conclusion by winning decisive amounts of material. Instead I settled for a very solid pawn up in a bishop and rook vs knight and rook ending which allowed me to scoot to the time control reasonably comfortably. The adjudication went my way.

On Board 6 Heiko, playing Black, seemed to be doing fine in a hedgehog type structure. Sadly, towards the end of the session, I glanced at his board and the players were nowhere to be seen. I then observed a White bishop skewering Black rooks on c7 and d8. Unlucky, Heiko.

Board 7 was the one that really suffered due to the traffic. Malcolm eventually appeared at 8:25pm, just avoiding an automatic default. With 35 minutes to play 42 moves he actually played pretty well and could have held a draw. Unfortunately Malcolm chose to defend his c3 pawn with the wrong rook, allowing a cheapo which won the pawn due to back-rank mating threats. After that, with limited time, it was very tough to defend. Unlucky, Malcolm.

On Board 8 was Rob. I confess I did not see much of his game due to my own late appearance. My main recollection being that, after about 2 hours play, Rob seemed to playing with one less piece than Nigel. Oh well, these things happen! Unlucky, Rob.

Paul Shepherd 10 March 2011