Great Night For The 'A' Team

Last night was one of those nights when everything went right for us. A 2.5 - 1.5 win against fellow Division 3 title challengers Cheddleton 'F' was made even better when Meir 'A' were beaten 3 - 1 by bottom of the table Cheddleton 'H'. The upshot of this is that we are now top of the table on our own - 2 points ahead of Meir 'A' and with only 2 matches left to play, one of which is against Meir. So it's all in our own hands now - we just have to keep our nerve. Cheddleton 'F' still have 2 matches in hand of us but we are now 5 points in front of them. They still have to play Meir as well so points will be dropped by one or both of them and it might only take 2 more points for us to take the title. Last night started well with Rob winning fairly quickly on board 2 and Stuart, acting on instructions from yours truly, took a draw on board 4 while a pawn up and with possible winning chances. This started to look like a risky call as Mike was losing on board 3 after losing a Rook in the opening. He soldiered on until near the end of the evening but there was only ever going to be one winner - and it wasn't him !! It was then left to Ray to play an excellent middle game against John Yee on board 1 and squeeze us home to the win - the second time that Ray has beaten him this season. I'll be publishing this game on the website in the next few days. You can click here to view the full score card from last night's match.