Tuesday 06 November saw the NLC walk to the end of Pall Mall to play the O&C in a friendly. Hopes were high after the RAC victory the previous week, but with a weakened team out it was not to be. 3.5-1.5 to the home side.
Board 1
Mister Chamberlain came off the worse against John Godfray, with a painful 13…e4 pawn fork that he didn’t recover from. A rare off day.
Board 2
Mister Giffin QC was up against the handy Vivian Woodward. There were no obvious slips on either side in the first 25 or so moves, but white managed to pull away by a couple of points over a the course of the game to that point. Longstanding NLC member Mister Fritz said that it was 26…e5 that really let white in. Eight moves later it was all over.
Mister Widdicombe fought David Jones to a draw. It’s not clear who can claim the moral victory: Mister Widdicombe for the bravery (rather than the soundness) of his e6 piece sacrifice out of the opening, David Jones for soaking it up and counter punching to go a piece up, or Mister Widdicombe for continuing to fight against the odds and grab a draw. What was certain is that Mister Widdicombe was very badly off toward the end of the game and was lucky to take a half point.
Board 4
Mister Hamme put in a captain’s performance against Tom Pickeringill and won in a straightforward fashion to secure the only full point for the Libs.
Board 5
Mister Jiang earned his second cap tonight, taking on Peter Gant. He came a little late so was behind on time from the start, and things didn’t improve, going down soon after that.