| Board | Rating | Luton B | V | Bedford B | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1725 | Joseph, Michael | 0 – 1 | Botteley, Michael T | 1994 |
| 2 | 1751 | Gladysz, Marek | 0 – 1 | Bodily, Richard T | 1968 |
| 3 | 1815 | Vora, Samir | 1 – 0 | Habershon, Paul F | 1947 |
| 4 | 1623 | Juhasz, Aleksandar | 0 – 1 | Hale, Jack | 1750 |
| 5 | 0000 | Handa, Mannan | ½ – ½ | Pike, Steve C | 1863 |
| Total | 6914 | 1½ – 3½ | 9522 |
The win was very much in doubt until the last two minutes. At 2.5-1.5 to Bedford the last game was Board 1 with Mike Botteley in an inferior position after being unable to find good squares for his knights. He declined an exchange of queens and immediately his opponent allowed a pawn fork on queen and knight. Game over and match won. We had been close to a painful rating upset.
Earlier I had horribly misplayed a Sicilian Grand Prix Attack (1e4 c5 2 Nc3 g6 3 f4 etc.) and allowed Sammy Vora to steamroller me with a mass of central pawns.
Then Jack Hale, a pawn up, swapped off all the rooks in a rook ending and confidently converted the K & P ending.
Next was Steve Pike who carefully avoided tricks by the opposition rook on a1 in front of a potentially promoting pawn on a2. Draw agreed, match at 1.5-1.5.
I was fervently hoping that my Bd 3 loss would not be partly responsible for us losing the match, so before the Bd 1 drama I was relieved to see Richard Bodily win handily on Bd 2 – game appended.
Paul Habershon – Acting Captain, 12th November 2025