I was ensconced in the comfort of "The Gerrymobile" as we waltzed our way merrily towards Fakenham and autumnal conversations turning to dogs,chess,holidays,hospitals and the best fish and chips.
Nigel was in the other car with Ed King,who was guesting for us. We got there half an hour early and were curtly told by the barman that opening time was 7.30....we peered through the door and found him with his feet up watching telly,leaving us out in the cold corridor with only a chess puzzle on the wall for company....we solved it by the way. WE out graded them four zip across the board and I was thinking a 3-1 victory and possibly more.But chess has a funny way of biting you on the bum as the great bard once said. Below is Gerry's game. Yes,it was a strange opening.His opponent told him "that he had played it before,but didn't know what to do after the fourth move."The game finished all square and looked drawish despite the opening. On board one Nigel was held to a draw by ultra-draw specialist Les Gladwell,who is at the moment my only rival to the claim of "Norfolk's draw king".Nigel's comment was "I was crap." On board two Ed was having a nightmare game....he was a pawn down with all his pieces disjointed and jostling for position in the queen's back half of the board.His opponent had two rooks on the open e file! He had eight minutes left versus his opponent's forty five! His rook protecting the king was doomed to be taken by a bishop.He had no attack at all and basically no hope.His opponent went for a beer and Quiet Ed whispered to me mournfully "I think I'm done for,"or words to that effect. What happened next was a bit of a miracle.If you don't believe me then ask the old sage himself,Gerry Clayton,for it is all true. Playing at a move every three seconds,Ed set about reorganizing his troops whilst denting the attack,which whittled away his opponents time to such an extent that by the end of the game he had five minutes to Ed's three and a half.His opponent never took Ed's rook either and with pieces getting swapped off Ed was still a pawn down,but with his rook now menacing on the enemy back rank. It was a masterful display and it appeared Ed was thinking three or four moves ahead of every move,and in the end he was two pawns to the good with an unstoppable pawns march to glory,he claimed the victory.I even saw him chuckle as he came back from the dead.The resurrection of Ed! We all broke into spontaneous applause (well some of us). It was impossible for him to record all the moves due to time,but it was a lesson to all us,never to throw in the towel until it is time to throw in the towel. My game against the warm and friendly Trevor Ansell.Well,I was determined it wouldn't be a draw as I was getting sick of six draws on the trot,so I attacked from the word go and got myself into a fine position with crisp,clean moves. Then just as quickly,I got myself into a bad position with fetid,slow and meaningless moves. My opponent went for a beer downstairs and whilst there,I moved my queen's pawn and as soon as I touched it I realized with abject horror that it could be taken for nothing by his rook,which would virtually give him an unstoppable attack.The horrible thing was that I had seen that move ten minutes earlier and ruled it out,in my tiny thimble of a brain,only to spend sixteen minutes on thinking of other moves,but only to come back to the original losing move. Trevor came back with a pint in his hand, and I tried to act as nonchalantly as I could. "Fancy a draw?" I asked as soon as he sat down.My tried for confident tone actually came out as a toad like croak. "I was going to ask you the same thing?" he said barely glancing at the board,and I grabbed his hand. Wow! Of course when we played it through he won in another ten or so moves. I might show it to you for you to wet yourself laughing some cold winter's evening in front of a roaring fire at the Coachmakers. So it is now seven standard play draws on the trot for me. Oh mummy! Anyway,that was all before Ed's heroics and in the car back to the fabled wastelands of New Costessey,I turned to Gerry,and said " I just wished that I could have played like Ed." Oh,I forget....we won the game by two and a half points to one and a half with the win and three draws and are now played three won two and one draw. The sad news for Fakenham is that their division one team has folded and withdrawn from playing,with some players retiring and others leaving for Alysham,leaving just the second division team to fight on alone. I wish them well. PS:Crumpton....the days from 20-27 November I will be unavailable for selection due to Yuki going back to Japan to see her mum, leaving me alone with the dog to look after. Richard Downing
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