Hackney’s team had a successful weekend on 14 and 15 January in Rounds 3 and 4 of the 4 NCL Division 3 South. We won both matches by 4-2, and are now on 6 points out of 8, in a group of 8 teams sharing 4th-11th place. In true Rivlinesque style, however, I am taking each game as it comes and do not want to encourage talk of promotion. The season is a marathon, not a sprint.
On Saturday we played AMCA Hippos. The hippos were in sluggish rather than aggressive mood, and wins for our new Swedish signing Daniel Wakeham, who crushed his opponent in the opening, Nick Walker, and Pepe Vives, who has seemingly overcome his aversion to Black, guaranteed overall victory.
Our opponents on Sunday, who went by the name of Sons of Anarchy, tried to confuse us by playing a daughter of anarchy on Board 6, but Dominic Leigh was not fazed and steered home the point. Peter Burgoyne caught his opponent in the classis Bxf7+ opening trap, when Kxf7 allows Ng5+ followed by QxB(g4), and never looked in any danger of failing to win. Nick won again when his opponent overlooked a cunning knight sacrifice to promote a pawn in the ending.
Special thanks for playing both days to Frank, who closed out top board with two solid draws, including against England’s top under-12 year old, Matthew Wadsworth, and also to Dominic.
The full scores of this weekend are as follows:
Round 3
http://www.4ncl.livechess.co.uk/div3_201112/res-div3s-rd3.htm#t10
Round 4
http://www.4ncl.livechess.co.uk/div3_201112/res-div3s-rd4.htm#t9
The soubriquets of our opponents (we have so far played Fermented Sharks, AMCA Hippos and Sons of Anarchy) have caused some to complain that the team name Hackney is, frankly, uninspired. Personally, I like its simple forthrightness, and far from being intimidated by our opponents’ monikers we have beaten them all, but if there is a groundswell of opinion in favour of a change we may well run a competition to choose a new name for next season.
Rounds 5 and 6 take place on the weekend of 11 and 12 February at the much more accessible venue of De Vere Latimer Place, near Amersham (so one hour each way travelling rather than 2). If you would be interested in playing on one or both days, please contact Nick Walker (npwalker@blueyonder.co.uk).
