The annual Christmas Speed Handicap was held on Friday 13th December in the function room of the Pinewood Bar & Café and reached a new height of attendance with 29 players, one more than last year’s 28 players. Included in the mix were most of the club stalwarts, and also a handful of juniors and a couple of parents playing too. But a most welcome surprise guest was Paul Gillham, a club member from over 30 years ago, joint club champion in 1987, and former runner up in the Speed Handicap in 1990. Thank you for attending Paul!
We again had four groups in the first stage, with the top four players from each group proceeding through to the knock out stage. Notable results from the group stage include Matthew Palmer and William Purle, who won every single game in their respective groups. Also noteworthy for winning all but one game were John Rawlinson, Nick Calvert, David Purle and Colin Purdon.
By the semi-final stage we had Matthew, two Ethans (Ang and Smyth) and, representing the adult players, Alexander Waters. The final itself was between the two Ethans, who not only share a first name but also a birthday. Their game was one of the most mature and sensible games I witnessed all evening, certainly better than any of mine, and proceeded very competitively until Ethan Smyth opened up lines on Ethan Ang’s king side, eventually breaking through to win with a checkmate. Congratulations to Ethan and commiserations to Ethan.
For two years running we’ve had a pure junior final and it is clear that several juniors are considerably stronger than their ECF ratings imply. I’ll impose a higher minimum rating level next year to balance results more evenly across the age range.
At the other end of the performance scale, the “winner” of the bottle of wine was yours truly [Jonathan, our club secretary], leaving me wishing I’d chosen a bottle of Antinori Tignanello as wooden spoon compensation.
