Our last match of the summer league was played at the Navigation Inn on the 4th of September.
Marple 1 V Altrincham
1 I Lentzos 0-1 Y Kolodiy
2 G Trueman 1-0 M Whalley
3N Livesey 0.5 -0.5 N Lowe
4 T Kay 0-1 T Tomkins
5 D Preen 0.5-0.5 A Lane
6 J Barlow 1-0 S Ward
3 - 3
With Alex and Sarah away I was asked to captain the team in what was our first match at the refurbished and well lit Navigation Inn. I also had the pleasant task of presenting Ioannis with the Eric Harrison trophy.
Only a win could prevent us from finishing bottom of this league and whilst we failed to do this it was by the narrowest possible margin in a very entertaining match that was played in excellent spirit.
Being engrossed in my game I really saw very little of what happened on other boards so any other comments/games would be welcome.
Tony came to grief after allowing an invasion on d2. Jeff then won to maintain his impressive record of recent months. David drew what looked like an interesting game. Apparently Ioannis went wrong when just out of the opening and was slowly ground down by Yaroslav. In my game I had the pleasant experience of being able to seek the advantage on both sides of the board and eventually I broke through.
Nigel had been struggling for a long time but in a frantic time struggle he did tremendously well to turn the situation around. Eventually a draw was agreed with Nigel having, I think, seven seconds left to his opponents eleven.
Many thanks to all who have played in the summer league this season and to Alex, Sarah and Neil for captaining the teams.
