MICK CROFT CUP Tuesday 5th October 2021 match report by Andrew Flood
At last! After an almost 20 months gap, Broadstairs chess club was able to field a team and play an over the board match against the newly formed Sandwich Chess Club (formerly Woodnesborough).
Out- rated (new terminology) on the majority of the 5 boards it was always going to be a difficult task to progress to the next round. Fredy, playing black was the first to finish finding it difficult against a very strong opponent on board 4. The match on board 2 saw the closely matched Blundell brothers battling it out against each other, with Dominic dictating the play, unfortunately a rook sacrifice, whilst forcing the play, proved inaccurate and resulted in victory for Kit and saw Sandwich taking a 2-0 lead. Broadstairs fought back on board 1 with Chris Stampe playing very solidly to beat and overcome a difficult and solid opponent.
With an outside chance of an overall win, Paul Verrall, making his debut on board 5, went right the way through to the end game with a slight disadvantage of being a pawn down, alas (a word we hope not to use much this year) some solid end game play from his Sandwich opponent meant that the game and tie was lost.
The middle board saw a solid match which was halved. It was the last game to finish and featured the most amazing move of the night when at the height of concentration, the Sandwich player with his A pawn not only took his opponent’s B pawn but followed through by then taking his own pawn!!
Great to be playing again, a loss but a most enjoyable evening and a chance to now concentrate on the league. Full results were.
| Sandwich | Broadstairs | |
| Harry Sharples 1780 | 0 – 1 | Chris Stampe 1818 |
| Kit Blundell 1675 | 1 – 0 | Dominic Blundell 1630 |
| John Thorley 1600 | ½ – ½ | Andrew Flood 1593 |
| Mark Towlson 1540 | 1 – 0 | Fredy Reber 1188 |
| Daniel Allen 1300 | 1 – 0 | Paul Verrall 1188 est |