Disaster Strikes At Syston

Disaster struck Fenton in the National Minor Club Championship Final at Syston this afternoon. When I say disaster, this was on a scale comparable to the Titanic. Unfortunately it was Rob Taylor who hit an iceberg in the form of his (Not Very Smart) phone. Despite being reminded to turn it off several times before the match he left it switched on and, after only 11 moves and being the exchange and a pawn up, his phone rang, costing him the game. Unfortunately it also cost us the match, although I shouldn't berate him too much as my blunder last year cost us that match. Mike Smith managed to get into a winning endgame position but then blundered a piece away. So with only an hour gone we were 2 - 0 down and needing both myself and Neal to win for Fenton to draw the match and win on the board elimination rule.  Neal was a piece up and looking like he was going to provide one of the life rafts. Unfortunately, despite staying on the bridge until the ship went down, I had to settle for a draw. At this point, with the match lost, Neal also agreed a draw. The last we saw of Rob he was muttering something about women and children last and abandoning ship on his own. The final score was 3 - 1 to Louth. You can click here to view the full score card. This was almost certainly our last chance to win this competition as the new grades mean that we will probably have to move up to the Intermediate Championship this year.