It was the Reform v the NLC in the HR Cup on 12 December 2024.
This fixture has been unpredictable over the years. In the early years the Reform used to just about get the better of the NLC (but fairly regularly so), but the recent few years have seen the NLC taking the match points from the Reform. What would happen this year?
Board 1
The NLC champ led off with the white pieces against Richard Saunders. A French Tarrasch was looking sound for white, until a slip led to a white going a piece down and it was and uphill fight from there.
Board 2
Mister Burgoyne had the black pieces against the Reformer Alek Safarin, but couldn’t bring home the points. Another victory for the Reform.
Board 3
Would the NLC’s top lawyer be able to claw back some points for the Libs? Mister Giffin KC MA (Oxon) did his best, but Mark Glover had more to bring to the fight.
The Libs are 0-3 at this point. Things are looking grim.
Board 4
Who could stop the rot? When things are looking grim, there’s only one man to call…
…Doctor Kirby.
But he doesn’t play anymore, so board 4 was left to Mister Ioannou. And he only went and won it.
NLC 1 – 3 Reform.
Board 5
So after the Greco-swiss heroics on Board 4 it was now down to the Captain to further right the ship. What could Captain Saldanha deliver?
Across the board was someone called Gordon Hamme. The name is dimly familiar, but the Editorial Committee just can’t quite place it.
Board 6
Mister Milkias was making his debut for the NLC. He had drawn with our Captain in a 10-minute game earlier in the week.
So in his first over the board encounter, a nervous Mister Milkias, took some time to adjust, being more used to playing online. He put up a good fight against Rose Hill, but alas succumbed at the last.
And with that, the NLC scored 2 points, and the Reform 4.
Dinner
With the preliminaries out of the way, everyone could get down to the real business of the evening.
Turkey and stuffing. Quite right.