Bedford hosts the Cordon Trophy

The club was buzzing last Thursday when teams from all the other Beds League Clubs came to compete in the rapid-play Cordon Trophy. We entered A, B and C teams and also lent a player to Northampton.

Our A Team looked very strong but their prospects were severely dented when Steve Ledger could not save his game in an exciting time scramble having blundered a piece against Alex Taylor, Paul Habershon was held to a draw by Gerry Nolan and Ravi Arulnandhy was crushed (so John claims) by John Harbour.You just had to see John to know he was, well, rather pleased with himself– he won all four games on board 3 for the C team and claimed that his toughest was against Tom Moloney of Northampton (grade c75).  Mike Botteley, on board 4 for the A team, easily won all his games. Playing on board 1 for the B and C teams respectively Alex and Richard Bodily (who just came down to watch) put in stand out performances with 2.5 and 3 respectively. New members Tony Lawrence and Clovis Rees had a tough introduction to Beds Leagues chess. Tony scraped home in a hard fought individual encounter, and neither looked out of place against experienced and higher graded players.

Adrian Elwin’s amazing efficiency in organising the pairings for each round, whilst resolving the occasional dispute, and what was by common consent a very satisfactory venue, were the keys to an excellent evening.  The outcome was a win for Milton Keynes A, with Leighton Buzzard second, and our A and C Teams (really) third and fourth.

So now its down to League and Club tournaments. All prospective team members should  soon receive the fixtures from the team Captains but there are no League matches next week so a good chance to get Div 1 and Div 2 matches played.

Peter