With a total of 3 new recruits to bolster his ailing veteran squad
Groomsport captain Richard Proctor stepped down to field his strongest
team against the upstart Barracudas. Seeing Richard dropping himself
for fear of weakening his own team, Barracudas captain Drew Ferguson
also stepped down to give younger players the opportunity to gain
experience. On paper, Drew reckoned the odds were stacked against the
Barracudas and cautioned his players to go for draws and maybe steal a
few points.<br>
<br>
First up on Board 1 James O'Fee led the Barracudas against Martin
Moorcroft who opened with his famous, if stodgy, English. James was up
for it, and maintained balance through careful manoeuvring. The end
game arrived with Martin under time-pressure, material down and James
pressing for promotion. It looked like James had secured a good win
till he was surprised by forceful play from Martin threatening to trade
and win a Rook advantage. Fortunately James woke up just in time and
recovered to seal the win.<br>
<br>
Martin Rogers opened on board 2 for the Barracudas against late arrival
Paul McLoughlin. Perhaps pressed by his 15 minutes disadvantage, Paul
went on the offensive with aggressive play quickly exchanging Queens.
The game settled down though to a solid positional game. In the
minor-piece end-game, Martin was pushing for promotion but he needed to
be careful. Martin's end-game expertise told and Paul was unable to
retrieve his position as he did last week. <br>
<br>
Barracudas boasted their brace of wins but Richard Proctor was unmoved, confident in the strength of his lower boards.<br>
<br>
On bottom board 5 Ken Browne was a late draft for the Barracudas when
top youngster Philip Todd had to cry off. Facing William McGratten,
still a bit tentative on his return to competition play, Ken defended
ably and was in line for at least forcing a draw when a miscalculation
cost him a Knight. William needed no more encouragement and cleanly
wound up the game to give Groomsport their first win.<br>
<br>
Barracudas' middle-board 3, young David Symmington defended against the
experience of Ron Henderson. David survived the opening well and had
established a good defensive structure against Ron's careful
development. The Queen's side had a couple of open files which both
players prepared to exploit with minor and major pieces. Ron had a pair
of isolated pawns and this gave David a target to aim for immediately
forcing Ron onto the defensive. Focusing all his pieces on Ron's weak
pawns it looked certain David would gain substantial material but
somehow he let his advantage slip away - indeed almost losing an
exchange in the process. Ron recovered well and gradually fought back
to balance the game, eventually deadlocked in a pawn end-game to agree
a draw.<br>
<br>
With David's draw, the Barracudas were now certain of at least sharing
points for the match. The final game would decide and by now the
Groomsport captain was justifiably concerned.<br>
<br>
Youngster Richard Montgomery opened for the Barracudas against Albert
McCarter on board 4. Richard was very much the under-dog having only
played a couple of League matches last year, and Albert an unforgiving
opponent exploiting every weakness. Still Richard played solidly
keeping control of the game and not letting Albert gain an advantage.
Claiming lack of match practice(??), Albert blundered away a Knight but the
game was by no means lost - with only a couple of pawns missing all four
Bishops had very little room to manoeuvre. A position reminiscent of
Richard's match lost to Aurelio Javier in the KO Plate, but Richard had
clearly benefited from this experience and demolished Albert in a fine
display of accurate play to claim an excellent win.<br>
<br>
Barracudas captain Drew Ferguson enjoyed his team's 3.5 - 1.5 victory
describing it as an "Outstanding Performance" especially from the young
players. Hopefully the stunned Groomsport team will be able to recover
after a rest next week, and give a better account of themselves as
Bangor's 3rd Team when they visit Hillsborough.