Keverel Chess

While Devon II were playing Dorset at Luppit on Saturday (see previous blog report), Cornwall were playing Gloucestershire at Exminster and Ian George has kindly forwarded details. Cornwall is finding it increasingly difficult to get players to turn out for county matches in spite of the great improvements recently made to the A30. The fact is that it’s 260 miles from Penzance to Gloucester, and 111 miles to Exeter, and one has to be very keen to undertake a 220 mile round trip for a single game. So this season, Cornwall have opted to field a slimmed-down team of 12 players instead of the usual 16. This match was played at Cornwall’s usual county match venue in Exminster, near Exeter.

The fact that the result was a 6-6 draw was mainly down to a stirling effort by the Cornish bottom 3 boards who scored 50% in spite of being heavily outgraded. Boards 1 - 9 were much more evenly matched and finished up all-square.