Counties Chess
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2014-15 Season
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Published 25 October 2014
Worcestershire - Warwickshire
Played on 24 October 2014 at StStephen's Church Hall, Worcester. Warwickshire players had white on odd-numbered boards. Match reported by Ray Collett.
| Board | ECF Code | Grade | Worcestershire | Score | Score | Warwickshire | Grade | ECF Code |
| 1 | 287190H | 199 | Besedin, Pavel | 1 | 0 | Hynes, Tony | 186 | 113334C |
| 2 | 110076C | 186 | Edge, John A | 1 | 0 | Hickey, Tony | 184 | 112599A |
| 3 | 230883G | 182 | Mellor, Stephen D | 1 | 0 | Page, Mark | 182 | 247591B |
| 4 | 259447L | 178 | Lambourne, Daniel M | 1 | 0 | Pink, Joshua | 178 | 266464B |
| 5 | 165392B | 176 | Towers, Nigel S | 1 | 0 | Bull, Phil | 177 | 230857F |
| 6 | 127645B | 176 | Kitson, Peter R | 1 | 0 | Smith, Simon | 175 | 156634K |
| 7 | 129898H | 172 | Hurney, Kevin | 0 | 1 | Cundy, Mark | 172 | 109211L |
| 8 | 120670K | 170 | Turner, Brian | 1 | 0 | Default | - | - |
| 9 | 110004L | 168 | Dyett, Greg F | ½ | ½ | Smyth, Martin | 165 | 119386H |
| 10 | 275633L | 165 | Friar, Joseph D | ½ | ½ | Mildenhall, John | 163 | 115500D |
| 11 | 274840L | 160 | Cox, Glenn | ½ | ½ | Robinson, Tom | 160 | 187492F |
| 12 | 106812L | 157 | Bissell, Maurice D | ½ | ½ | Hope, Gary | 158 | 183305E |
| 13 | 137850J | 156 | Roberts, David L | ½ | ½ | Lawrence, Roy | 155 | 179054H |
| 14 | 127661L | 149 | Knee, John P | 0 | 1 | Thomas, Keith | 154 | 120270E |
| 15 | 160573C | 149 | Hadley, Mike | 1 | 0 | Wallman, Rob | 153 | 121042H |
| 16 | 108621C | 149 | Collett, Ray A | 0 | 1 | Byrne, Nigel | 149 | 154571B |
| Mean | Result | 10½ | 5½ | Mean |
Match report by Ray Collett. Worcestershire were looking to avenge their narrow defeat last year by neighbours Warwickshire. On paper, both sides looked evenly matched, but the home team prevailed with style dominating the top boards. Board 13 finished first with a draw, but Worcs were assured of going ahead when Warks conceded the default on board 8. Keith Thomas equalised for Warks on board 14 very soon after. After nearly 2 hours play on board 1, Pavel Besedin put Worcs into the lead, but Warks countered with Nigel Byrne's win on board 16. Worcs then followed up with hammer blows with wins on board 6 and 3 from Kitson and Mellor making the home team 3 points clear at the half-way stage. Warks stabilised with their players defending difficult endings to draw on boards 9, 11 and 12, until Worcestershire's new player from Gloucestershire, Dan Lambourne, won on board 4 to secure the match for the home team. John Mildenhall pulled off an unexpected draw in a rook and pawn ending against his young opponent and Mark Cundy ground out a win with rook, bishop, knight and pawn against two rooks, mating his opponent's king in the corner. Board 5 continued nearly to the end of the session. Nigel Towers was the exchange up for a pawn with queen and rook against queen and knight and both kings were vulnerable to incursions from enemy pieces. Initially pawns blocked the centre. Only after Nigel's opponent had captured more pawns was Towers able to co-ordinate his pieces to attack the enemy king without allowing interminable queen checks or further loss of material. Worcestershire left the hall well satisfied with a clear win against local rivals and their first victory since December 2011.