Quarter Final
Recovery
An extraordinary turnaround
was seen in the County U120 quarter final when Staffordshire played
Hertfordshire on Saturday.
Staffordshire quickly
fell 4 - 0 behind due to a mixture of good play
and the occasional blunder.
However, the match slowly began to turn. Simon Jones put Staffs first points on the board with a draw on
board ten and Jacob Cartlidge scored Staffordshire’s first full point on board 9 with a
winning rook and pawn endgame.
Nic Wright then
played a fine combination attack to win on board three and this was followed by
George Scattergood going two pieces up, forcing the Hertfordshire board six to resign.
John Fenby drew on
board two after defending a difficult position well and the match was equalised
by Steve Emmerton winning on the top board. Steve had won his opponent’s queen
for the loss of a rook; however the position was still difficult and after
patient play Steve was able to create space to create a winning queen attack.
All was level and
there were just two games left. Bob Brodie was a late replacement on board 5
and he justified his selection with his accurate defence to draw the game.
Danny Torbica on
board ten was last to finish when he was able to checkmate his opponent, giving
Staffordshire a win by 6½ to 5½. We look forward to June’s semi-final.