The Armstrong and the BEA A both recorded big wins in the last week, while the Bodley South suffered a quick reverse against Dún Laoghaire – not helped by the fact that half their team got called up to the BEA at short notice!
Last week we had the BEA A and Bodley B both at home, to Bray/Greystones and Dún Laoghaire respectively. The BEA were looking to recover from a disastrous trip to Kilkenny – but in the hour before the game got underway, we had two dropouts from an otherwise full team. This meant we had no option but to bump up two subs from the Bodley and trust that two other players would arrive on the club night to take their places.
So Venkat and Karel unexpectedly found themselves playing up a division. The pressure was on the As as the Bs had beaten the same team 5-0 earlier in the season – and they didn’t disappoint, as Ben, Danny, Fearghal plus subs all won to pick up the club’s fourth whitewash win of the season. The win keeps the team in the bottom half of the table, though with a match in hand which could bring them back up to the edges of the promotion race yet.
It was a similar story for the Bodley in a way – they were up against a Dún Laoghaire side who had beaten our As 4-1 earlier in the season, and 4-1 was also the score against the Bs here. “Sub” Wenle – not really a sub at all; just the player who had been sitting out the match before withdrawals – was the only one to pick up a win. Finn, Martin and Taylor all had relatively quick defeats – although for Martin and Finn in particular, who had played just one league game between them before this match – it was as much a learning experience as anything else. Ryan was the fifth player, subbing up from the Bs, but though his game was far more competitive, the result was the same in the end. Next up for the Bs is a tricky trip to Gonzaga.
Last night was the Armstrong’s turn, with the side looking to extend their three-match winning run at home against Elm Mount. We could call on a secret weapon for this one, with Constantin back for his league match since capturing the 2016/17 Heidenfeld (he has of course played in two European Cups for us since!), while we had the psychological edge on board 8, where Kavin was making his debut for the first team (though his Armstrong debut actually came last year).
Three games were over relatively quickly – for the Armstrong anyway – as Stephen won a N+4 v B+3 ending against Shane Melaugh on 1, while Tim drew on 5 and Kevin lost on 4, not helped by having to arrive 45 minutes late. But then we went on a winning run – Brendan got a pawn to f6 and queen to h6, which was fatal against a king on g8. Gerry ground out a R+5 v R+3 ending where all eight pawns were potentially weak and there was plenty of scope for going wrong. Constantin was a passed pawn up, then won a piece and the game followed shortly after. On 8, Kavin had been an exchange and pawn up, but his opponent had a protected passed pawn on c3 and a few checks, so the win wasn’t straightforward at all. It was past the four-hour mark when the game finally ended, with Kavin having pushed a pawn to open up his opponent’s king, and a brief king hunt ended with him winning a piece. Zdravko beside him had had a B+4 v B+3 position with the pawns all on the one side, but just as he had done the hard work in translating that into a won B+2 v B+1 ending, he moved his king to the wrong square and hung his pawn for an immediate draw.
Still, 6-2 is an excellent result which, temporarily at least, lifts us up to second in the table. That’s deceptive because we still have to play Gonzaga A while Gonzaga B have a match in hand. But still, having effectively lost two 2000 players at the start of the season and having been flirting with relegation after the first four matches, we’ll certainly take second place for now! The next match is that biggie against Gonzaga A; if we can take a decent score out of the match – at least 3½ – then a top-three finish could yet be attainable.