All good things come to an end, and our two-match winning streak in the tough third division was halted by a perennially strong Albany side, writes TIM WELLS.
We made a respectable contest out of it, as always, and the final scoreline of 6 ½ -3 ½ to Albany could have been rather closer.
Outgraded by over 17 points over the top seven boards, we put up a good fight but were ultimately outclassed.
Domenico Amabile made a welcome appearance for Battersea 3 – unfortunately probably his only one this season – and was rewarded by being given top board against the stronger of Albany’s Cutmore twins, and was defeated.
Joe Skielnik faced the other Cutmore, and did well as Black to grind down to a quite drawish ending, and the point was shared.
Bill Drennan was kept waiting for his opponent to arrive – a gentleman known for his idiosyncratic time-keeping as well as for his strong chess – but despite the clock advantage Bill found himself under an avalanche of an attack, and went under.
On board 4 was my usual lamentable scenario was unfolding: I get a good game – my opponent swore he “had nothing” into the middle game – but one positional miscalculation brings it all tumbling down. I suppose that is what separates a 150 from a 170.
The middle boards were equally unlucky, with Gary Smith and Ben Franklin on boards 5 and 6 running into tough opponents and having to concede, but once again our bottom order gave us a chance in the match with three points from four, with draws for Tim Valentine (I was told Tim was swindled out of a win) and Richard Fries on 7 and 8, and wins for Arnold and Steve on 9 and 10 against weaker opponents.
All in all, another respectable performance by Battersea 3, despite the loss of the match.
The next match is coming up very soon: Thursday 23 November v Cavendish 3 at their venue in Millman Street, WC1N 3EW, starting at 6.45pm.
