Monday 24th January

Captain's Corner

According to the BBC News, January 24th is officially the worst day of the year. And for the Nomads A-team, it was! Going into the match, we knew that victory for either side would make them strong favourites for the Trophy, so the importance of this fixture was clear. But as the evening progressed, the scales gradually tipped in Woodseats' favour. By the closing stages, they were 3-2 up, leaving us with the unpleasant task of having to attain 2 points out of the 3 remaining games to avoid going home empty handed. The only slight problem was that we were losing on all 3 boards! Very soon it was all over: Mursal went down in a king and pawn ending (no joy this time), Chris got the Wei Sin Tan torture treatment (a pawn down in a queen and pawn ending), and Jon's queen turned out to be no match for the opponent's 3 pieces (check this game out for an intriguing Q v B+B+N struggle!). The final result was a depressing 2-6, but in retrospect it wasn't surprising - Woodseats had obviously pulled out the stops against their closest rivals, fielding 3 of the top-10 graded players in Yorkshire (let alone Sheffield!), and outgrading us on almost every board. This week's special mention goes to Ken for being the only player to win! Better luck next time folks...

Paul Cumbers