Malcolm Clarke reports on the completely drawn Chandler’s Ford ‘A’ vs Winchester ‘A’ Robertson Plate match on 19th February, plus the unusual pairing in the Winchester ‘A’ vs Fareham ‘A’ match…

Chandlers Ford A and Winchester A drew their Robertson Plate match played over four boards 2-2 and with all four games drawn will have to replay at Winchester.  If any of the four games had produced a definite result then board count and failing that bottom board elimination would have come into the equation.  However with all four boards being drawn then this method would have not separated the teams.

With both teams finding it difficult to find a fifth player although Chandlers Ford certainly if pushed would have been able to it was agreed to restrict the number of boards to four.

Graham Stuart and Rob Sims both playing with the black pieces against Alan Dyos and Robin Atkins respectively were the first Chandlers Ford players to agree draws, while Winchester’s Bob Cleave was a pawn up against Chandlers Ford’s Dick Meredith, but Meredith had sufficient compensation for the pawn which left the game between Chandlers Ford’s Rob Bird and Winchester’s Mike White which although it went the full distance was even throughout.

Winchester A lost 3-2 to Fareham A despite Graham Payne obtaining an excellent win against a higher graded player.  A feature of this match was Fareham’s Ted Black beating Winchester’s Mike White although Black played with the white pieces and White with the black pieces.

Winchester B lost 3.5-1.5 to University B in Division 3 with Robin Atkins, Mike White and Graham Payne obtaining draws.

Chandlers Ford B were due to play their cup match at Hamble on Wednesday 20th February and are at home to University C on the following Tuesday.