Keverel Chess

Posts Tagged ‘Exmouth Club’

This was the key match in this year’s Newman Cup, Devon’s RapidPlay League. As last year, it was a 3-way tie between Tiverton, Exmouth and Seaton, with home and away matches. Earlier in the season, Exmouth, the current holders, drew 2-2 away to Tiverton, and needed a result in this home leg, to stand any chance of retaining the cup.

The visitors were a little shy of the maximum permitted team grade total of 599, Exmouth gambling on playing a low-graded player on Bd. 4 in order to fit in their best 3 players. In this respect, Grist’s two losses were the key to the eventual win.

Stephens, playing Black in Rd. 1. got his last pieces trapped behind his own pawns, and lost, but he hit back in the next game, forcing a mate in the corner. Shaw always seemed to have a solid position in both games, tempering the creation of threats with a solid defence. Wensley, also, was never seriously threatened by Aldwin, but was always behind on the clock and needed to be careful to keep time in hand.

The 5-3 win gives Exmouth a good chance of retaining the trophy, though they still have to play Seaton twice.

The match gets under way - Shaw vs Annetts nearest.

Grist VS Knowles nearest.

Hewson Vs Stephens (l) & Shaw Vs Annetts.

Alison is not interested in the match but is reading a chess book.

A look at the team lists before the match started would suggest that Exmouth could anticipate being in for a relatively easy afternoon. A look at the completed result chart would suggest that that is exactly how it turned out, especially after John Stephens on Bd. 1 had a quick, 18 move win, to put the visitors 1-0 up.

How wrong can one be. The remaining 5 games were all tense affairs right up to the fourth hour of play, and at one stage it looked as if Exmouth could lose the match. The Gorodi-Hurst match was unclear for most of the time until Hurst finally broke through, while Wensley never had any advantage against Peter Halmkin and went on to lose his last piece and with it the game. Norman Tidy had much freedon in the centre of the board to deploy his queen and rooks, and Shaw had to defend very carefully. Eventually Shaw broke through to record a hard-earned point.

Ariss played in his usual aggressive way, and Gosling countered well, but used much time to find the right moves which put the pressure on. With a minute or two left on White’s clock a draw was agreed, securing the necessary 3.5 points for an Exmouth win.

Meanwhile, Abbott had entered a long endgame with Q+N vs Q+R, but found a clever resource to win the exchange back. But Black’s queen had many checks available and drove his opponent’s king to the opposite side of the board. With seconds of extra time left, Abbott managed to force the queens off, leaving him with c. 25 seconds to queen his 2 pawns and mate his opponent. He managed it with 5 seconds left.

It was all very hard work, especially watching it from the sidelines.

All 6 games here ▼

http://www.chessdevon.co.uk/HTML/News/dcca/exvte/base.html

General view of the match.

Abbott vs Ingham (nearest) & Brusey vs Stephens

Wensley vs Halmkin (nearest) & Gorodi vs Hurst.

Gosling vs Ariss (nearest) & Tidy vs Shaw.

The Exmouth team travelled to Seaton knowing they had already secured the Newman Cup for the RapidPlay League with this match to spare; the only question was whether this would lull them into a sense of  anti-climax leading to a meaningless  loss – or inspire them to a final flourish, winning like true champions.

With the first round almost over, it certainly looked like the former case, as Exmouth trailed 3-0 and Belt left with a double-edged game to complete. He managed to force the win, leaving Seaton, during the break, contemplating gaining their first-ever win in a DCCA tournament.

However, in Rd. 2, Stone blundered again in the opening; instead of 2 pawns as in game 1, it was a whole piece, and Jones was determined not to blunder the game back a second time and ran out a winner. Shaw also made amends, winning a piece in the endgame, leaving him with R+N vs R plus pawns each. Against Wensley, Steve Dean ran short of time and blundered his last piece, leaving him a rook down. Belt and Dowse were again involved in a double-edged game in which Belt sacrificed a piece in order to break open the enemy king’s position, eventually getting a pawn to the 7th rank, which won the game. A 4-0 win in Rd. 2 gave them the match 3-5. Seaton were understandably disappointed to lose the match after such a promising start, but it was only Belt’s double win that was the difference and both of those games were very finely-balanced. Exmouth had snatched victory from the jaws of defeat, but it was a close-run thing.

The Town Hall home of the Seaton Club.

Wensley vs Dean on Bd. 1 as Martyn Adams looks on.

Malcolm Belt, the only double-winner, vs Alan Dowse.

Exmouth travelled to Teignmouth for their 2nd match in the Mamhead Cup (Devon’s division 2), fielding their secret weapon, Mike Redman, in what may be his only match for the club this season.

The first game ended when Jones coolly and quickly placed a rook en prise, with no compensation whatsoever. However, Teignmouth are nothing if not even-handed, and Bill Ingham marooned his last rook, leaving Murray to pick it up at leisure, levelling the scores. Gosling got short of time in what might have been a slightly better position, and he accepted the offer of a draw. This left everyone to gather around the top board game, as fortunes swung to and fro.

In the middlegame, Redman seemed to have a positional bind and merely needed to open the centre and exploit his advantage. However, he inadvertantly placed a piece on a bad square and Brusey could counter-attack. He went 2 pawns up and seemed sure to win himself. Material came off and with minutes to go, they were in a knight+pawns endgame. Redman’s knight perfomed minor miracles, winning  3 pawns and threatening to queen. From nursing a loss, to looking drawn, he was suddenly sniffing a win again. With the last seconds running out on the digital clocks, both sides queened and after a flurry of checks a draw was agreed. Nerves frayed all round, but honours even.

Bds 1 & 2 get down to action.

Gosling (l) vs Halmkin.

Gorodi (l)vs Jones.

Tense knight and pawns ending reaches a climax.

The first time the ECF have introduced a new grading list half-way through the season has produced this result.

Most grades are slightly up and Obie Ebanks has his first-ever OTB grade. Kevin Hurst, who has recently re-joined the Club is unchanged at 186.

Exmouth’s first Devon League match of the season was in Division 2 (Mamhead Cup) when they entertained Tiverton in what promised to be a close match. Tiverton’s team total grade was at the maximum permitted, while Exmouth was not far behind.

Approaching the 1st time control, Duckham and Gosling agreed a draw after a tense game. Minutes later, Jones had to concede defeat to give the visitors a clear edge.  Jones had played conventionally against a Sicilian Defence and was always mindful that he should try and prevent Black getting in d5, which is always Black’s aim. However, in spite of White having set up a sort of Maroczy Bind position with pawns on c4 & e4 in order to deter this very eventuality, Atkins succeeded and brought pressure to bear through the open centre. His killing move came right on the time control at move 40.

The other two games both went to the last minute of extra time, Murray defending an endgame with R vs R+2. This he managed to do with great skill for many moves until time almost ran out. It was felt afterwards that the ending of K+R vs K+ R + f & g pawns could be a theoretical draw with best defensive play, but actually finding those moves when the clock’s ticking is another matter. The Board 1 game ran to the final seconds, and Hurst was unable to exploit several very small advantages that he felt he had earlier in the game, and Hewson played out the final minute very coolly.

Hewson plays his usual 1.c4 to get the match started.

Hurst, Murray and Gosling all achieved draws.

Tiverton's Brian Hewson and Simon Bartlett.

 Exmouth Club Championship 2011 - 2012. 

Rate of moves: 36 moves in 75 minutes + 15 minutes thereafter for the rest of the game.

Each player may play another with both black & white.

The 1^st space in each cell is for the white result, and the second is for a black result.

Please ensure all your results are entered a.s.a.p. onto the chart in the Club Handbook.

Exmouth U-125 Tournament :: 2011 – 12

Rate of moves: 36 moves in 75 minutes + 15 minutes for the rest of the game.

Toss to determine colours in the 1st game between any two players and reverse colours thereafter.

Exmouth Knockout Tournament :: Walton’s Cup :: 2011 – 12

This section contains news specifically about Exmouth’s Chess Club.

Currently, it meets at Age Concern, 8, New Street, Exmouth. EX8 1RT, on Wednesday evenings from 6 p.m.

The club welcomes new members who are keen to make the most of their chess skills by playing real opponents, face to face. Queries should be addressed to the Club Secretary via e-mail. jones_r53@sky.com.

Above: Look for the Age Concern sign.

Below: The door to the club premises.

After a couple of clubnights playing skittles chess and making preparations for the new competitions, members got down to the more serious business of the club championship. Steve Murray played new member Mike Redman in the Championship itself, while Tom Badlan and Fred Hodge tried their luck in the U-125 tournament. Both White losses.

Murray (l) & Redman get the new season under way with a handshake.

Redman essays the Sicilian while Badlan (l) faces Hodge in the background.

Cycling has been on the up in Exmouth for several years now, since the development of a cycling track alongside the railway track up the Exe estuary. The track has proved as popular as it is spectacular and cycling shops are springing up around the town to service this interest.

This rose to unprecedented heights today when the Tour of Britain finally came to Exmouth, with an exciting finish along the sea front.

Stage 5 was, for the first time, to be contained solely within Devon, starting in Exeter and finishing 110 miles later on Exmouth sea front, taking on much of Dartmoor in between.

Stage 5 route from the official programme.

Below: The programme also features the new cycle track, funded by a grant to Transcan. Keverel Lodge is tucked away below the near ridge just above the blue cyclist’s helmet.

On the cycle track looking back towards Exmouth.

Grandchildren Florence, Freddie and Sophie, with Emma Jones on the cycle track excitedly awaiting a train.

Meanwhile, back on the seafront, crowds were building up all morning and by 1 o’clock were filling most of the best viewing spots alongside the final 200 m leading to the finishing line. A repechage match had been oprganised between teams of 4 riders from local primary schools. I was just in time to see, Otterton Primary School, my old school (I was HT there for 25 years), beat their larger neighbours, St. Peter’s, Budleigh Salterton. Otterton then went on to meet one of the town schools, Littleham, to decide 5th and 6th places, which Otterton won again – they always were good at cycling. Pleasingly, the whole match was won by Otterton’s twin village school, Drake’s School, East Budleigh who beat Withycome Raleigh.

The Otterton repechage team on the road to victory.

General view of the finishing line next to the Clock Tower. The deckchairs spell the word Exmouth.

Not all cyclists were actually in the race.

The compere/announcer did an excellent job for nearly 2 hours whipping the crowd up into a state of great excitement and anticipation, with occasional reports from Hugh Porter, the Channel 4 presenter, on how near the race was getting, who was in the lead and how far ahead of the peleton etc.  Yet at the last minute, no announcement was made about the fact that they were actually heading at 30 mph along the promenade. There was no sound of cheers from the crowds further along the sea front, no clues - and then suddenly they were whizzing past us, heading for the line in near silence, compared to what had gone on earlier. Everyone was taken by complete surprise, and within seconds it was all over. A friend of mine was positioned just across the road from me and told me later that as the finish was drawing near, he spotted the helicopter circling high above the sea front and guessed the riders should be very close. When he looked down they had just whizzed past and the race was already over.

There was excellent coverage on TV in the evening, with every metre of the final 6k shown. It was clear that in the final 200m Mark Cavendish held back a little allowing his team-mate to come in first while he was happy to take 2nd on this occasion.

Not that Cavendish needed to worry – he won the final two stages, and a few days later became World Road Race Champion in Copenhagen – the first time a Brit has won it since Tommy Simpson in 1965. He returned to newspaper headlines  such as “Cavendish Joins The Greats“; “Cavendish Untouchable as he Strikes Gold” and “We should accept that here is a very great Briton indeed”.

It was great to have been a little part of that in Exmouth that afternoon

Follow My leader over the last 100 metres.

Part of the chasing peleton.

Stage winner salutes the crowd.

Police outriders, finished for the day, gather together and swap notes on how it went for them.