Tim Dickinson writes:
All, the May 4NCL weekend is over. I do hope you all got back safely, particularly the Zakarian & Duggan cars which left shortly before I took Nicole home. We drove into a tornado around junction 10 of the M40. That was quite scary at the time: fortunately the weather had eased by the time I turned off at junction 11.
To the results, then. We didn't quite manage to stave off relegation from D1, I am afraid, missing out on tiebreak with Blackthorne Russia at the death. Full details here & here (navigate to round 9, 10, 11 from there). The final FIDE cross-tables have also been posted.
In summary:
- Oxford 1 were hammered 7-1 by Blackthorne Russia before squeezing past Anglian Avengers 4½-3½ and thumping Bristol 1 6½-1½
- Oxford 2 had rather a disappointing weekend, losing to both Celtic Tigers 1 & Full Ponty 2½-3½ before beating SCS 4½-1½
- Oxford 3 caught Oxford 2 on Saturday by beating a depleted Bristol 3 4½-1, but then lost bragging rights by losing to Halesowen & Manchester Manticores 1½-4½
The arbiters seemed rather keen to get at Oxford this weekend. They paired Oxford 3 against SCS [who we had already despatched in round 3] on Sunday; and cocked up our first-team board order on Monday, reprising the Sunday (original) team list including Tomos on 6. JC and I were not impressed: neither were our opponents John Curtis & Dave Collier, both of whom I found haranguing the in-room arbiter when I entered before the start. I did give them an apology & explanation, hopefully they took it well. Sorry again, JC!
Highlights? No-one managed 3/3 over the weekend. These were the notable performances that I saw:
- Paul Colburn scored 2/2 in rounds 9 & 11, although he had to wait quite some time for his opponent to pack in a rook-and-position-down game on Monday
- Mike White completed a 9-round IM norm by beating Paul Talsma on Sunday: he then extended it to an 10-round norm by adding Dominic Bennett to his seven previous victims this season (no draws!)
- Alastair Irving demolished his Saturday & Sunday opponents, and was not all that far off making it 2½ from 3 games as a drawn position slipped from his grasp on Monday
- Tomos Nitz reached an unbeaten 6/8 by drawing with Laurence Webb and beating Mark Gray. He will join the 2200 club next season
- Jen Ehr extended her unbeaten run in Oxford 3 to five games, scoring 1½/2 sadly against unrated opposition
- James Coleman navigated his d2-pawn to c7 as early as move 6 on Sunday, and that pawn was still there 20 moves later when Black resigned
- Ivo Panayotov saved a rook-down position on Sunday ("I have the initiative", he explained later!), and even almost won it! We will miss his entertaining games next season, as he is almost certainly out of the country
Sean will doubtless have seen more than I did, as he was quick to finish on all three days (his Saturday oppo Mr Default is quite easy to beat) and we can look forward to an entertaining report in due course, I am sure.
I will sign off by thanking all 39 players who turned out at some point or other for us this season, with special mentions for Tom Eckersley-Waites, Rod Nixon and Chris Duggan who put their names down for all 11 rounds. I phrase it that way because Chris actually played only nine games, a bug acquired from his visit to Sri Lanka putting paid to the other two games he was down for. We must also profusely thank the drivers who ferried players to and from venues: in alphabetical order, Chris Duggan, Phil Hayward, Phil Neatherway, Matt Rose, Ben Savage, David Zakarian.
And thank you all for the book that you presented me with after round 10 ("25 years of NiC")! I look forward to perusing the articles therein - particularly the one on Ivanchuk's 21. Qg7!! in the Botvinnik Semi-Slav.
Roll on 2012-2013 and promotions for the first & second teams ...
Oxford 1
Saturday
| Blackthorne Russia | 2339 | Oxford 1 | 2216 | |||||
| w | Hunt, Harriet V | m | 2454 | 1 - 0 | Tsanas, Athanasios | 2295 | ||
| b | Ledger, Andrew J | m | 2424 | ½ - ½ | Rose, Matthew | 2282 | ||
| w | Bates, Richard A | m | 2385 | 1 - 0 | White, Michael JR | f | 2263 | |
| b | Ansell, Simon T | m | 2370 | 1 - 0 | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2267 | ||
| w | Duncan, Chris R | f | 2315 | 1 - 0 | Harvey, Marcus R | 2322 | ||
| b | Webb, Laurence E | f | 2279 | ½ - ½ | Nitz, Tomos | 2130 | ||
| w | Ledger, Dave J | f | 2225 | 1 - 0 | Coleman, James | 2142 | ||
| b | Eames, Robert S | f | 2263 | 1 - 0 | Miranda Gonzalez, Nicole | w | 2027 | |
| 7 - 1 | ||||||||
Sunday
| Oxford 1 | 2223 | Anglian Avengers 1 | 2149 | |||||
| w | Zakarian, David | 2379 | ½ - ½ | Player, Edmund C | 2205 | |||
| b | Rose, Matthew | 2282 | 0 - 1 | Tozer, Philip AA | 2169 | |||
| w | White, Michael JR | f | 2263 | 1 - 0 | Talsma, Paul A | 2240 | ||
| b | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2267 | 1 - 0 | Spence, David J | 2221 | |||
| w | Tsanas, Athanasios | 2295 | 0 - 1 | Merry, Alan B | 2130 | |||
| b | Nitz, Tomos | 2130 | 1 - 0 | Gray, Mark S | 2090 | |||
| w | Coleman, James | 2142 | 1 - 0 | Gregory, Stephen J | 2127 | |||
| b | Miranda Gonzalez, Nicole | w | 2027 | 0 - 1 | Smith, Olivia | w | 2010 | |
| 4½ - 3½ | ||||||||
Monday
| Bristol 1 | 2145 | Oxford 1 | 2225 | |||||
| w | Beaumont, Chris R | m | 2279 | ½ - ½ | Zakarian, David | 2379 | ||
| b | Buckley, David E | 2245 | 0 - 1 | Rose, Matthew | 2282 | |||
| w | Rudd, Jack | m | 2303 | 0 - 1 | Tsanas, Athanasios | 2295 | ||
| b | Dilleigh, Stephen P | 2074 | ½ - ½ | Eckersley-Waites, Tom | 2267 | |||
| w | Bennett, Dominic L | 2074 | 0 - 1 | White, Michael JR | f | 2263 | ||
| b | Curtis, John E | 2116 | 0 - 1 | Coleman, James | 2142 | |||
| w | Collier, David O | 2114 | ½ - ½ | Dickinson, Tim R | 2152 | |||
| b | Roberts, Lynda | w | 1960 | 0 - 1 | Miranda Gonzalez, Nicole | w | 2027 | |
| 1½ - 6½ | ||||||||
Oxford 2
Saturday
| Oxford 2 | 2036 | Celtic Tigers 1 | 2080 | |||||
| w | Healey, Michael W | 2095 | ½ - ½ | Pedersen, Carsten | 2134 | |||
| b | Panayotov, Ivo | 2053 | 0 - 1 | Kemp, Peter D | 2159 | |||
| w | Hayward, Philip T | 2034 | 0 - 1 | Quinn, John M | 2121 | |||
| b | Duggan, Christopher | 2031 | 0 - 1 | Haldane, Robin W | 2134 | |||
| w | Colburn, Paul J | 1995 | 1 - 0 | Evans, Craig J | 2009 | |||
| b | Nixon, Rodney J | 2011 | 1 - 0 | Way, Julian M | f | 1923 | ||
| 2½ - 3½ | ||||||||
Sunday
| Oxford 2 | 2062 | The Full Ponty | 1947 | |||||
| w | Dickinson, Tim R | 2152 | 1 - 0 | Sully, David J | 2076 | |||
| b | Healey, Michael W | 2095 | ½ - ½ | Perrett, David C | 1956 | |||
| w | Hayward, Philip T | 2034 | 0 - 1 | Hanscombe, Richard | 1946 | |||
| b | Nixon, Rodney J | 2011 | 0 - 1 | Davies, Peter L | 2005 | |||
| w | Panayotov, Ivo | 2053 | ½ - ½ | Thomas, Gary | 1909 | |||
| b | Duggan, Christopher | 2031 | ½ - ½ | Gilbert, Colin | 1795 | |||
| 2½ - 3½ | ||||||||
Monday
| SCS | 1878 | Oxford 2 | 2036 | |||||
| w | Mercs, Peter J | 2084 | 1 - 0 | Healey, Michael W | 2095 | |||
| b | Taylor, Robert P | 1976 | 0 - 1 | Duggan, Christopher | 2031 | |||
| w | Graham, Neil | 1826 | ½ - ½ | Panayotov, Ivo | 2053 | |||
| b | Cranmer, Stanley EE | 1810 | 0 - 1 | Nixon, Rodney J | 2011 | |||
| w | Lutton, J Arnold | 1815 | 0 - 1 | Colburn, Paul J | 1995 | |||
| b | Thomson, James L | 1762 | 0 - 1 | Hayward, Philip T | 2034 | |||
| 1½ - 4½ | ||||||||
Oxford 3
Saturday
| Oxford 3 | 1811 | Bristol 3 | 1684 | |||||
| w | Neatherway, A Philip | 1926 | 0 - 1 | White, Martin J | 1812 | |||
| b | Pozimski, Szymon | 1930 | ½ - ½ | Dunlop, Neil J | 1833 | |||
| w | Ehr, Jennifer | 1818 | 1 - 0 | Meadows, Michael | 1802 | |||
| b | Henbest, Kevin B | 1725 | 1 - 0 | Woodruff, David G | 1607 | |||
| w | Irving, Alastair | 1546 | 1 - 0 | Smith, Chris P | 1370 | |||
| b | Terry, Sean | 1926 | 1 - 0 | |||||
| 4½ - 1 | ||||||||
Sunday
| Halesowen | 1870 | Oxford 3 | 1676 | |||||
| w | Hurney, Kevin | 2034 | ½ - ½ | Terry, Sean | 1926 | |||
| b | Paul, Nathanael | 1898 | 1 - 0 | Smith, Ben | 1900 | |||
| w | Lee, Darren | 1897 | 1 - 0 | Thornblad, Erik | 1714 | |||
| b | Doran, Michael J | 1860 | 1 - 0 | Henbest, Kevin B | 1725 | |||
| w | Llewelyn, John D | 1738 | 0 - 1 | Irving, Alastair | 1546 | |||
| b | Peck, Windsor WA | 1793 | 1 - 0 | Asatryan, Robert | 1250 | |||
| 4½ - 1½ | ||||||||
Monday
| Oxford 3 | 1740 | Manchester Manticores | 1884 | |||||
| w | Foster, Chantelle L | 1978 | ½ - ½ | Hamer, Martyn | 2032 | |||
| b | Neatherway, A Philip | 1926 | 0 - 1 | Mulleady, Peter J | 1986 | |||
| w | Terry, Sean | 1926 | ½ - ½ | Norris, Michael J | 1991 | |||
| b | Ehr, Jennifer | 1818 | ½ - ½ | Lonsdale, Jon | 1898 | |||
| w | Irving, Alastair | 1546 | 0 - 1 | Connor, Michael I | 1692 | |||
| b | Asatryan, Robert | 1250 | 0 - 1 | Jerzynek, Neil | 1706 | |||
| 1½ - 4½ | ||||||||