The brave NLC band headed off to St James’s Square to take on the combined Oriental / East India team in the Canadian room. The ORI/EIC friendly team doesn’t include their superstars, so the trauma of facing Sam Franklin and Yaroslav Voropayev will have to wait until the return fixture in February.
Unfortunately three of the ORI/EIC team pulled out on the morning of the match, which meant a bit of a rejig. Mister Widdicombe gratefully took the chance to spend more time with his Ph.D. Mister Jacobs had more of a chance to do whatever young people do these days. Mister Giffin QC valiantly turned up, but wisely chose to take his cold back home where he could sniffle in peace.
The match ended 2-1 to the NLC. A win’s a win.
Doctor Kirby won a tight match as black against Nick Gowlland. The opponent played the rare Nimzo-Larsen attack (1. b3) and seemed to be getting an advantage after inflicting doubled pawns. But white made a positional mistake exchanging off Dr K’s bad bishop and was slow in pursuing his own attack. Doctor Kirby eventually woke up, sank another glass of wine and crashed through the King’s Side, finishing in a neat mate.
Mister Hamme played Petr Tikilyayen. It seemed like an evenly-matched game for a long period but our Captain went down to defeat.
Thankfully Our Good Friend Mister Taylor was available on Board 3, and he quickly won his match against Dan Kaszeta.
This being the East India Club, dinner meant curry – beef curry in fact plus poppadums with pickles followed by fruit salad for dessert. The one good thing about a three board match was no danger of running out of either curry or the accompanying wine!
All the more for the rest of us