Broadstairs  5½         Margate 1½ 

David Faldon writes:

What seems a comfortable win actually wasn’t. We were 1-0 down for a long time, with several of the other games looking either dodgy or drawish. It was a relief when Shany converted his extra exchange into a win on board 3 and Bob secured a draw on board 4. All four of the remaining games went into the last half-hour when the time left on a player’s clock starts to be important. Richard was a couple of pawns up for not much compensation on board 6 and in the other three games the Margate players had much less time, so at last the situation began to look favourable. In the end we won all four games. Trefor’s game on board 2 looked the most interesting, a delicate knight versus bishop ending that is possibly a bit too long for a game of the week, with Shany’s tactical mess a close second. We’ll have to see what the webmaster decides. Well done to the team on our first Millar Cup win of the season, and congratulations to Margate on putting up such a tough fight despite the wide gap in ratings on most of the boards.

                                           Broadstairs  3½         Bridge   ½                                        

Andy Flood writes:

A new look Broadstairs Hargreaves team got of to a flying start against a strong Bridge side in the first Hargreaves game of the season. Chris Stampe on board 2 very early on won his debut Broadstairs game against his former club for Broadstairs to go 1–0 up. In a tight game on the top board, Richard Clement put in a solid performance to earn and agree a draw. Full points were secured when Gary Hilleard forced his opponent to resign in the middle game through the power and lining up of his rooks and queen. The last match to finish was John Couzens, who had taken a break from his holidays to play and exhibit excellent end game technique against Peter Blundell. On securing the smallest of a pawn positional advantage, John forced his opponent to give up a bishop to prevent a passed pawn from queening. He then sacrificed a knight to guarantee two passed pawns at which point his opponent resigned.  So a great start and result.

                                       Broadstairs  2½         Folkestone 4½ 

David Faldon writes:

Broadstairs were excited to land a whole netful of new members for the new season, and we took three of them to Folkestone for the first of our Millar Cup matches. Fielding the strongest team we’d ever raised in my time as captain, we were still outgraded by Folkestone on every board. Despite this overall (slight) mismatch, each individual game was closely fought with the match result in doubt until near the end of play. The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the board two clash where Trefor sacrificed his queen for two, three or four minor pieces (the situation was different every time I looked). Provided that Trefor hasn’t lost his scoresheet I expect to see his effort featured as Game of the Week on this website in the very near future. Look out for it! Most of the other games saw tricky tactics too, apart from the game on board four where the queens and all four rooks were hoovered off early. Still, endings can be fun too with the right attitude and Arnaud persevered and his patience was rewarded. Regrettably, most of the other games didn’t end so well for Broadstairs, but at least we gave it a real go this year. Many thanks to everyone who played and especially to those who drove such a long way. Congratulations to Folkestone on their victory. As usual, they made us feel very welcome and even provided tea, coffee and biscuits.