4NCL Round 1

Another 4NCL season is upon us.  This year, with more players wanting to play we have stretched to three teams.  Although this is a push, especially for the first round at Sunningdale it has been made possible by one or two players volunteering to help out in the first weekend.  The first team has been strengthened with the inclusion of FMs Andy Smith and Manuel Weeks, as well as British Major Open winner John Sugden and should be real promotion candidates this season, if only we could ever win two matches in a row!  The draw pitted

 

FCA Solutions 2 v Littlethorpe 2

Warwickshire Select 2 v Littlethorpe 1

Bristol 2 v Littlethorpe 3

 

As it turned out, the first team heavily outrated their opponents, the seconds were evenly matched and the thirds were outgunned.  The results were

 

RD 1		FCA SOLUTIONS 2	2017	v	LITTLETHORPE 2	1999
1	w	Smith, Graham	2085	1 - 0	Compton, Alistair	2088
2	b	Kendall, Paul S N	2062	½ - ½	Jackson, James P	2017
3	w	Elwin, Adrian G	2015	½ - ½	Jones, Christopher M	1947
4	b	Valentine, Brian J	1995	0 - 1	Gibson, Christopher A	1949
5	w	Adebajo, Femi	2014	1 - 0	Jaszkiwskyj, Peter	2020
6	b	Matthews, Adrian	1928	0 - 1	Stokes, Paul	1975
				3 - 3

 

RD 1		WARWICKSHIRE SELECT 2	1977	v	LITTLETHORPE 1	2165
1	w	Webster, Paul	2095	½ - ½	Smith, Andrew P	2191
2	b	Fallowfield, Nicholas	2060	½ - ½	Byron, Alan M	2204
3	w	Fallowfield, Jeremy	2006	½ - ½	Weeks, Manuel	2174
4	b	Stepanyan, Henrik	1975	0 - 1	Sugden, John N	2173
5	w	Weaving, Richard	1950	½ - ½	Mansson, James C	2160
6	b	Stepanyan, Astghik (F)	1775	0 - 1	Edwards, Alan	2085
				2 - 4

 

RD 1		BRISTOL 2	2006	v	LITTLETHORPE 3	1854
1	w	Dilleigh, Stephen P	2147	1 - 0	Hewitt, Sean D	1995
2	b	Humphreys, Jerry	2067	1 - 0	Turvey, Steven	1915
3	w	Bass, John W	2099	1 - 0	Farrall, David J	1818
4	b	Littlejohns, David P	2066	½ - ½	van der Westhuizen, Charles	1795
5	w	Varley, Ed	1910	½ - ½	Rajeswaran, Kiruthika (F)	1850
6	b	Jennings, Michael	1745	0 - 1	Hewitt, Graham	1750
				4 - 2

The first team wussed out big style, leaving it to John and Alan to bring home the points.  Special mention must be made of Graham Hewitt.  Playing due to illness to another player, he showed great endgame technique to win a tricky rook and pawn endgame.  And it wasnt just me who thought that - Steady Eddie said so, so it must be true!