Broadstairs 2½ Bridge A 4½
| 1 | David Faldon (175) | 1-0 | Michael Green (179) |
| 2 | Bob Page (145) | 1-0 | Arnaud Wisman (173) |
| 3 | Paul Carfrae (131) | 0-1 | Alan Atkinson (173) |
| 4 | John Couzens (118) | 0-1 | David Shire (161) |
| 5 | Bob Cronin (112) | 0-1 | James Essinger (154) |
| 6 | Andy Flood (111) | 0-1 | Chris Stampe (139) |
| 7 | Reg Pidduck (106) | ½-½ | Shahid Sahi (115) |
David Faldon writes:
This was a very close-fought match despite the fact that we were outgraded all the way down, and heavily so on boards 2 to 6. After an hour and a half it would have been hard for an outsider to guess the higher-graded team, which is a big compliment to all of our guys on the middle boards. Eventually, though, things began to turn against us as the pieces got swapped off and the clocks ran down. The first game to finish was on board 5, where James got his king in amongst Bob C’s pawns and there was no defence. Reg on board 7 was close to equalizing the match but Shahid managed to find a neat perpetual check to force a draw. The next to finish was board 4. John pressed long and hard with the white pieces but a huge tactical scrummage swapped down to an ending with just kings and pawns. Unfortunately David S emerged from the scrum with one extra pawn which got home for a touchdown. This left the score Broadstairs ½ Bridge 2½ but all was not lost. Two wins and two draws would have levelled the match. For a time this looked quite possible but it wasn’t to be, despite Bob P crashing through for a great win on board 2 against a tremendously strong opponent. In the end Paul on board 3 and then Andy on board 6 both had to concede defeat after more than three hours of heroic defence and the match was lost. The final win for us on board 1 was a case of too little, too late, but it was great fun to play as both players sacrificed and counter-sacrificed while their clocks ran down to zero.