Wednesday 10th January
| Nomads II | 2-4 | Clay Cross |
| Ken Dewhurst | 0-1 | D Hartley |
| Stuart Crosthwaite | 1-0 | K Myhill |
| Ian Barwick | 0-1 | P Kelman |
| Kevin Marshall | 0-1 | P Williams |
| Phil Ford | 0-1 | B Redhead |
| Peter Carden | 1-0 | A Webster |
Captain's Corner
I got to The Gardeners about an hour into the match. Kieran let me know Kev had just hung a piece and over the course of the evening things didn't really improve very much. Ken, Ian, and Phil were slowly, painfully, and miserably deprived of space, moves, material, and eventually the game. An impressive display by the Clay Cross players who, once they got in front didn't give us a chance. There were some highlights though...Stuart won what looked like a very complex and interesting game, while Peter sacced material for a great attack and overran his bewildered opponent. Two entertaining games in a bad night for Nomads II.
Congratulations to Clay Cross, who have prised our fingers from the trophy, and Good Luck to them in the next round.
Paul B
Wednesday 11th October
| Nomads II | 0-6 | Nomads I |
| Graham Harrison | 0-1 | Chris Shephard |
| Ian Barwick | 0-1 | Paul Cumbers |
| Peter Carden | 0-1 | Prasun Chakravorty |
| Phil Ford | 0-1 | Mohammad Said |
| Kevin Marshall | 0-1 | Mursal Mohammed |
| Simon Nicholson | 0-1 | Masrura Khakimova |
Captain's Corner
Sadly long gone are the days of sloping mudbath pitches and life-threatening waist-high tackles from gruesome centre halves. Without recourse to such tactics we were going to struggle.
I phoned round the team to ask whether they wanted to suffer for two and half hours on Wednesday and surprisingly everyone said Yes. When it came to it though Kev decided that in fact he only wanted to suffer for about an hour - Mursal's heavy pieces battered his King from e1 to f6 then all the way over to b6. With mate next move on a6 Kev resigned. The rest of the team lasted a bit longer but to be honest we were always up against it. Perhaps the most interesting game was Chris v Graham. Graham went for a death or glory rook sac which, thanks to the intervention of a Bishop blocking a line to Chris's King, turned out to be death rather than glory. Congratulations to Nomads I. Both teams are on course to defend their trophies.
Paul B