The 'B' team beat Newcastle by 2.5 - 1.5 last night, to remain neck and neck with Crewe 'D' at the top of the Division 2 table. We are level on points, and have played the same number of matches, but have a slightly superior Game Points difference.
We looked to be getting off to a flier on board 1, where Petru was all over his opponent like a cheap suit. He was a Knight up and threatening mate when an unexplicable schoolboy error saw him mated on the back rank. Ray pulled us back into the match with a win on board 4, closely followed by win on board 3 for Kas, to put us 2-1 in the lead. Steve Hill's game on board 2 was looking very drawish, but he only had just over a minute left on his clock. He then had the opportunity to win a Pawn and give himself a passed Queen side Pawn but, with time running out, he took the draw to ensure that we won the match.
The full match score card can be viewed here - https://ecflms.org.uk/lms/node/190078.
This concludes our 'B' team fixtures for 2023. Ourselves and Crewe 'D' are 5 points clear at the top of the table. However, they have their last match of 2023 next week and are likely to pull ahead of us before the end of the year.