Entertaining top of the League Bridge and out rated on three of boards it was always going to be a challenging task.
Early play was promising, with Michael Jenkinson going a piece up in his match on Board 4 and before too long he had converted his advantage into a win and Broadstairs were 1 – 0 up.
On Board 2 and now playing for Bridge was Gary Hilleard, the former Broadstairs chess player. Thoughts were also with his former teammate and Broadstairs player Mike Doyle who passed away a fortnight ago. Gary went one, then two and then three Pawns up, however his Broadstairs opponent playing white was benefiting from attacking counter play options which unfortunately never really materialised and soon the overall match result was 1 – 1.
Paul Verrall progressed through to the end game and with only his King left against his opponent’s King and Pawn could at best achieve a draw, which is what he achieved preventing his opponent from converting the extra Pawn to a Queen.
At all square the deciding match on Board 1 would determine the result. Things were looking good for Dominic playing Black he was managing his time excellently at what looked to many as a drawn end game although a pawn down. His opponent had less than 2 minutes on his clock against Dominic’s 10 minutes so Broadstairs could well win the match on time. Alas a late mistake from Dominic enabled his opponent to block and exchange Queens at which Dominic resigned as Patrick, his opponent, would have converted one of his remaining pawns to a Queen.
So, a very close overall match was converted by Bridge into a 2.5 v 1.5 win and guaranteed them the title of Steele Cup Champions.
| Broadstairs | Bridge | |
| Dominic Blundell 1630 | 0 – 1 | Patrick Burns 1908 |
| Andrew Flood 1590 | 0 – 1 | Gary Hilleard 1623 |
| Paul Verrall 1369 | 1/2 – 1/2 | Zach Stanier 1566 |
| Michael Jenkinson 1300 | 1 – 0 | Darren Coker 1300 |