Ealing 4.5 - Athenaeum 3.5
: Created:21 Jan 2008 , byI'm catching up with my postings and in the style of the film - Memento - I present them in reverse. Are you concentrating?
Back in November our opening fixture in the first division of the Middlesex League against Athenaeum had a touch of controversary about it. On Thursday 17th January 2008 we reversed our narrow loss at their clubhouse with victory at the Harvester by an equally thin margin, 4.5 to 3.5.
On the scoreboard our heroes on the night were Sainbayar Tserendorj and John Quinn and indeed they both played splendidly but before deserved enthusiasm for their victories, I play tribute to the rugged efforts of the other six players in Ealing's team.
On board one Martin Smith showed composure in the middlegame to blunt his opponent's advances and achieve a satisfactory exchange of pieces. A good draw. Veljko Stanisic, a little under the weather on the night sensibly drew early on and both I and Mark Winterbotham, the latter in a fascinating struggle, followed his example. The draw that, so to speak, gave us victory was accomplished by Adrian Ociepka who entered a queen and pawn ending a pawn down. Playing with great sang-froid in the quickplay, Adrian checked his opponent's king remorselessly and his opponent could not find a way out of sharing the points.
Our early advantage was thanks to Sainbayar Tserendorj who completely outplayed his foe in the middlegame and later John showed true international class to impress the watchers with one precise move after another to trap his opponent's king.
I could not resist a whoop of joy at the end when the win was confirmed and while mighty King's Head will not attract a single Betfair wager against them retaining the league title, Ealing could aspire to a top four place.