Rawling's men ease past Courier

Hebden Bridge Chess Club hosted two Division 2 matches at the Trades Club on Monday night. The ‘C’ team took on Courier ‘B’ and the ‘D’ team faced Wheatley. I’ll get straight into the action with Pete Rawlings’ match report for the ‘C’ team.

We were lucky to acquire Martin Fairhurst on board 5 before he leaves the area. Everyone else moved up a board (in Terry Sullivan’s absence) and prospered on the challenge. Dave Sugden’s draw against the much higher rated John Morgan being particularly creditable.

This result continues the ‘C’ team’s best start to the season for years. At this rate we will be in danger of being offered promotion. Last season we avoided this threat by the narrowest of margins, namely one board point.

We must, I think, forgive Captain Rawlings for a slightly less exuberant match report than usual as I suspect he is still checking whether his nether regions are fully intact after Dave Wedge administered unto him a metaphorical kick in the groin of excruciating proportions in the Quarter Final of the Individual Knockout on Monday. We feel your pain Pete. Mr Wedge’s “Time Scramble Victim Support Group” grows in number with every passing week.

Anyway, here is the score card from Monday night’s match:

Hebden Bridge ‘C’ – Courier ‘B’

D.Sugden ½ – ½ J.Morgan

J.Blinkhorn 1 – 0 J.Smith

S.Priest 1 – 0 J.Whithead

N.Bamford 1 – 0 P.Jacobs

M.Fairhurst 0 – 1 R.Bottomley

3½ – 1½

Manager Rawlings is quite right to give recognition to Dave Sugden’s solid display against John Morgan. His draw was very straightforwardly achieved against a player rated 37 points higher than him. Dave told me afterwards that the game “was not particularly interesting”. That may be Mr Sugden but the result certainly was interesting and therefore the game justifies full publication!



I’m also going to publish Josh Blinkhorn’s nice attacking win on board two. He developed a very strong attack before his opponent simplified matters for him by making a serious error.



Now on to the ‘D’ team’s match against Wheatley who generously turned up with only three players! John Kerrane picks up the story.

The ‘D’ team did not fare so well, going down 2-3 to a weakened Wheatley side. The experienced players which the visitors did manage to field were just too strong for the members of Hebden Bridge’s development team.

The match card for this fixture was:

Hebden Bridge ‘D’ – Wheatley

D.Pugh 0 – 1 D.Loughenbury

J.Todd 0 – 1 B.Donkersley

B.Fearnley 1 – 0 DEFAULT

D.Crampton 0 – 1 G.Roper

P.Dearden 1 – 0 DEFAULT

2 – 3

If we need to search for a silver-lining in this result it is that the ‘D’ team have trebled their overall board score with this fixture. In addition and each member of our club’s team of fresher prospects will hopefully have gained some further valuable experience from this match.