Wiltshire v Devon - Jan 04

A depleted Wiltshire lost by the score predicted by the

relative team strengths, 4-12 against Devon on January

10th. Eight of the players that beat Somerset were not

available for Devon for various reasons. Tim and Fenella

Headlong had enjoyed the arrival of their son, Benjamin

Thomas Joseph, only a few days prior to the match.

Wiltshire were out-graded by a massive 44 point average

on the lower half. The expected return of just one draw on

these boards was achieved by Nicola Thomas, on her

debut, with a composed performance. Lewis Martin came

close to holding but Josh Hall, Robbie Dams, Dave Brown,

Richard Carver and Mike Walters were over-matched. In

the top half Nick Wingfield and David Tomboline obtained

creditable draws. Dan Hall and Gary Tanner battled hard

before finally going down. Richard Haydon's game was the

only one in the match where the balance was never really

disturbed. Richard did eventually gain a pawn, but with all

the remaining pawns being on the Kingside, his winning

chances were negligible. David Bareham obtained a

significant advantage in the opening and appeared to

be cruising to victory until he blundered. This misfortune

was balanced by events on Gordon Chapman's board. The

critical point arrived after Gordon played Q x Qb2 with

check. Not noticing the check his opponent tried to

interpolate Rd2 x Rd1 check, before re-capturing the

queen with axb2. Application of the touch-move law 4.3(a)

was made forcing black to play Rd2 x Qb2 after which

Gordon's pawn on d6 promoted first. On top board, Peter

Richmond playing in some discomfort from a leg infection,

produced a smooth attack which culminated in his winning

material. The full game together with Peter's instructive

annotation can be enjoyed by clicking the link below.

View the game:  P Richmond - M Cox

Thanks to Peter Richmond for the report.