Bouncebackability

After winning their first two matches of the season, Redditch's Division Four team in the Birmingham League saw this streak ended as the succumbed 4-2 against a strong Warley Quinborne sidelast Thursday. Redditch acquitted themselves very well with draws against higher graded players on the top four boards, particularly Kevin Day taking a draw on Board 2 against Stephen Moxley - a player graded 24 points higher. Steve Crockett, Michele Clack and Giles Stanton were also able to claim draws as underdogs but that trend was unfortunately unable to be continued on the bottom two boards. Ian Clack fell to John Lewis on Board 5 and David Smith tried an exchange sacrifice that would ultimatley prove fuitless in his league debut for Redditch.

However, the team was able to demonstrate 'bouncebackability' in their match on Tuesday as they swept aside Birmingham with a 5-1 victory. Birmingham were admittedly fielding four ungraded players but the matches still had to be won. Redditch were gifted a headstart on Board 2 when Kevin Day's opponent was unable to attend, resulting in a default win. This was followed up with a win for Giles Stanton on Board 5 against Greg Henson before B B Sundaram lost track of time on Board 6 against Derek Abraham, although Derek felt he was likely to win anyway. Benson Headley acquitted himself well with a solid against Peter Seeley's kingside attack on Board 3 and neutralised it to the point where it looked like Peter would have to surrender a pawn whilst gifting Benson a supported passed pawn. Fortunately for Peter, Benson elected to swap these two pawns off. The game remained roughly equal with Peter possibly having a slight edge with an active knight against a blocked bishop in an endgame where all six major pieces were still on the board. However, a slip by Benson allowed a tactic that resulted in Peter emerging a rook and pawn up. Benson's resignation left Redditch 4-0 up with two matches still to play. Birmingham's Bill Cole seemed to have an edge against Michele Clack from an early stage on Board 4 with a supported passed pawn but was unable to find a winning continuation against Michele's defence. Marek Schroeder felt he had some potential traps against Steve Crockett on Board 1 but, with the outcome already decided, both games were agreed drawn.

Redditch's Division Four team commences its Barrington Trophy campaign against Westminster 6 next Tuesday. With the team unable to defend the Townshed Trophy from last season, the aim will now be to regain this trophy from two years ago. The Division Two side commence their Homer Trophy (for first round losers in the Terrill Trophy) campaign with a trip to Shirley & Wythall 3 next Thursday where players from both teams will need to be at their very best to overcome handicaps as a result of being in a team from a higher division.


Closing thought: "Look at Garry Kasparov. After he loses, invariably he wins the next game. He just kills the guy. That's something we have to learn to be able to do." - Maurice Ashley