The County Champion explains ….

With his typically modest style, Steve Ledger explains how he won the Bedfordshire County Individual Championship this year:

I can’t say I was a particularly deserving winner of the Beds CC this year, especially to win it outright with 4.5 / 6.

It started off OK, with wins against Richard Bodily and Kevin Williamson, before I let Richard Freeman escape with a draw in a rook ending I probably should have won at some stage.

I was then gifted a free point when Adrian Matthews had to withdraw, as he decided he couldn’t make the date we had arranged or the final weekend, so I went into the final weekend on 3.5 / 4, half a point ahead of the field.

My morning game was a fairly feeble use of the white pieces against Graham Borrowdale. Turned down a draw when I thought I had a small edge / a nibble in a bishop ending but then contrived to give myself losing chances before holding the draw.

Fortunately, the other top boards were also draws so I was still half a point ahead. The last round draw was a bit of a nightmare for the controller, as a 6 round swiss with 14 players is never going to be easy, and I ended up with black against Brian Valentine.

I built up a very nice position against Brian but then made a complete hash of things and probably should have lost. Luckily, Brian blundered a pawn but still had such a good game he was able to force me to take a repetition.

Bizarrely, all the other top games were again draws and I emerged as the outright winner.

None of my games jump out as particularly publishable. I’ve attached the 2 wins if you really want a game to print (I’ve published the first! – Ed)

Against Richard was a fairly smooth effort at refuting his opening idea.

The one against Kevin would have been nice if I’d had something on f7 or h7 that I thought was lurking at some stage but, instead, I let him right back into the game before he blundered right at the end.

I’ve also attached my last round game from the 4NCL.  Last round, Blackthorne Russia V Barbican 2, shootout for the title ( Demotion pool title !! ), 4-3 to us, this one game remaining and one of the last to finish in the whole event ………