Club Night and Approaching Cup Fixtures.

There will be a club night on Tuesday 14th June.
On Tuesday 21st, HA1 play in the Wylie at home against the Swallow Inn (Scraptoft Valley), and our second Birstall Cup side play at home to Kirby Castlers.
Our Harrod Cup team has been drawn against Syston 1 away. A date has not yet been agreed, but it will be on a Tuesday before the end of the month.

Colin.

A Ricketts Rarity - My Second Win of 2011, and my Fourth since the Start of 2010

As Colin notes, I won on Thursday night, although he rather bigged up the win with his description of a combination.

We were fairly level to Move 25, and then I over-pressed a lot to open up my opponent's King-side, and went 2 pawns down, and Paul also had a pawn on the 7th Rank. At this point Fritz was very down on me, having sprinkled my moves with a bunch of "??"s (collective noun - a disaster of "??"s?) and told me I was totally lost. In practice, I had doubled Rooks on the open h File, so still thought I had chances. In the end, under some time pressure, Paul blundered, and I won, collecting a ! on the way.

It's a bit worrying that, based on the last 18 months, I won't win again until early in 2012...

Club AGM and County Champs

Hi All,

The club AGM took place on Tuesday. Minutes will be circulated soon.

On Thursday in the County Champs, i lost to Matthew Wilson. Having prepared against his King's Indian Attack all week, he deviated on move 5. I went up a pawn for a while, but was outplayed.

Ray lost out to Toby Hoch.

Dave pulled off a very neat combination to finish off Paul Martin - i will let Dave fill in the details.

Well done everyone.

Club night at the Heathcote on Tuesday.

See you there,

Colin.

Harrod Cup, HA1 in the Chapman, and Championship Section of the Counties.

Harrod Cup

Michael was our hero of the day scoring a half point in his second game, having had chances in the first.
Gary's board was at the other side of the room, so we didn't see much of what was going on there. Dave and i did not do well.

24 May	Heathcote Arms 1		W - B	B - W	Wigston 1
			½ - 7½
1	102	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	0 - 1	Wilson, Matthew	135
2	98	Ricketts, Dave	0 - 1	0 - 1	Eastlake, Charles	125
3	80	Sanders, Gary	0 - 1	0 - 1	Winterton, Paul	102
4	60	Bubb, Michael	½ - ½	0 - 1	Vaughan, Ben	100

Chapman Cup

A strong Shepshed team narrowly took a win from our first Chapman Cup side.
Heathcote's chances in the Birstall Cup now look better.

24 May		Heathcote Arms 1		v	Shepshed 1		GD
				1 - 3			76
Handicap				1½ - 0
				2½ - 3
1	W	153	Booley, Graham	0 - 1	Toothill, Andrew	170	17
2	B	138	Harrison, Peter	0 - 1	Farrall, David	165	27
3	W	139	Ensor, Rob	½ - ½	McDermott, Patrick	164	25
4	B	122	Manger, John	½ - ½	Bennett, Kevin	129	7

Championship Section of the County Championships (Second Round)

Draws for both Grahams (leaving both on 1.5 points). Wins for Sean and Rajan (leaving both on 1 point).

1	Salisbury, Michael W	Braunstone	1.0	2087	Mladenov, Ilian	Loughborough	1.0	2194	0-1
2	Sharpe, Graham	Heathcote Arms	1.0	2186 *	Morley, Andy	Wigston	1.0	2074 *	½-½
3	Deacon, Paul	Scraptoft Valle	1.0	1922 *	Byron, Alan M	Wigston	1.0	2183	0-1
4	Burrows, Martin P	Wigston	1.0	2168	Colburn, Paul J	Braunstone	1.0	2003	½-½
5	Booley, Graham M	Heathcote Arms	1.0	1790	Horspool, Phil	Wigston	1.0	2138 *	½-½
6	Robinson, John K	Braunstone	0.0	2001	Harlow, Phil	Wigston	1.0	1810 *	½-½
7	Denton, John R	Melton Mowbray	0.0	2062	Farrall, David J	Shepshed Rooks	0.0	1869	1-0
8	Potter, Karl H	Spinney Hill WM	0.0	1899	Nwachukwu, Chino	Spinney Hill WM	0.0	1938 *	0-1
9	Hewitt, Sean D	Heathcote Arms	0.0	1923	Wilson, Matthew R	Wigston	0.0	0 *	1-0
10	Jimenez, Alfonso	Loughborough	0.0	1857	Ganger, Rajan	Heathcote Arms	0.0	1919	0-1

This week, our club AGM is on Tuesday (bring your cheque book), where there might be the chance of a few friendlies after the business of the evening, and the lower sections on the Counties will be at Wigston on Thursday.

Well done everyone,

Colin.

Hertfordshire v Leicestershire

Two Heathcote Players featured in the Minor Counties Quarter final against Hertfordshire:

MATCH : Hertfordshire v Leicestershire DATE : 21st MAY 2011

SECTION : Minor Counties Quarter Final VENUE : Bugbrooke

1 SIMON KNOTT 127688J 214 0 M. HEBDEN 112455K 242 1

2 STEVE SWANSON 119944E 204 0.5 A. BYRON 107857E 197 0.5

3 PHIL BONAFONT 174940H 195 0 I. MLADENOV 193 1

4 JEREMY FRASER-MITCHELL 110893B 192 1 M. BURROWS 125697L 190 0

5 JERRY RUDGE 118313J 188 1 P. HORSPOOL 113015J 186 0

6 PAUL BYWAY 107862J 187 0.5 G. SHARPE 118281J 192 0.5

7 STEVE LAW 114126A 184 0 A. MORLEY 115787F 178 1

8 PETER RICE 174755B 178 1 S. SHEAHAN 118836H 172 0

9 TARISAI SAVANHU 234993A 175 1 R. BURGESS 107674H 173 0

10 BARRY MORRIS 115807H 170 1 J. DENTON 109613J 177 0

11 CHRIS MAJER 114822K 165 0 J. ROBINSON 118096E 170 1

12 ANDY TINKER 120439H 165 0.5 P. MCDERMOTT 115247G 164 0.5

13 DAVID BOWER 107067J 164 0 J. MITCHELL 115634C 162 1

14 MACE CARNOCHAN 266747C 159 1 D. FARRALL 213110K 165 0

15 PAUL KENNING 234286J 150 0.5 S. HEWITT 112575J 156 0.5

16 ALAN GORE 170188F 149 0 J. PATTINSON 116818G 155 1

TOTAL 8 TOTAL 8

Wylie First Round

Graham B reports a 4-4 draw against Loughborough.

18 May	Loughborough 1		W - B	B - W	Heathcote Arms 1
			4 - 4
1	185	Sheahan, Sean	½ - ½	½ - ½	Sharpe, Graham	188
2	164	Mitchell, John	1 - 0	1 - 0	Hewitt, Sean	156
3	155	Eagleton, Greg	0 - 1	1 - 0	Cowley, Michael	153
4	118	Adcock, Terry	0 - 1	0 - 1	Booley, Graham	137

Chapman Cup Massacre

I think Wigston was expecting to play our first team.

On the night, our team was essentially HA3. The grade difference gave us the maximum handicap bonus. We therefore only needed a draw on one of the boards in order to win the match. Wigston won the toss and chose the white pieces on the even numbered boards.

We rarely, if ever, get to compete with players as strong as this, but we surprised ourselves at how long we are able to last. Unsurprisingly, against the County Champion, i was the first to bite the dust at around 9PM. We were 23 moves in and the outcome by then was obvious so rather than drag things out any further, i resigned. Alan was kind enough to talk me through the game afterwards and showed me lots of  ways that i could have hung on for longer, but still lost. This was really useful. Afterwards, Fritz was not able to tell me anything that Alan had not.

Michael, with the black pieces, pioneered the Bubb Gambit: 1 Nf3 e5, 2 Nxe5 f6, but after an interesting start was able to exert some real pressure with his major pieces down the kingside files forcing his opponent into some serious thought.

Ray was in a rook and minor piece endgame against Phil Harlow, and according to Alan, missed a win.

Dave, too, managed to get to the endgame even on material, but his bishop and king were hemmed in by his own pawns, and eventually his position crumbled.

17 May		Heathcote Arms 2		v	Wigston 1		GD
				0 - 4			199
Handicap				3½ - 0
				3½ - 4
1	W	102	Ross, Colin	0 - 1	Byron, Alan	197	50
2	B	99	Ricketts, Dave	0 - 1	Smith, Stephen	148	49
3	W	90	Beach, Ray	0 - 1	Harlow, Phil	145	50
4	B	60	Bubb, Michael	0 - 1	Wilson, Matthew	135	50

So, our second Chapman Cup team goes out in the first round. We have the consolation of being entered into the Birstall Cup as first round losers.

Well done everyone.

Tonight, HA1 play in the Wylie.

Next Tuesday, at the Arms, we have two home matches: a Harrod Cup match (against Wigston), and our first Chapman Cup team play against Shepshed.  

Colin.