U1800 Cup disappointment

10/11/22

Bury St Edmunds31/21/2Saxmundham
1Steve Lovell17961 – 0Mike Usher1767
2Bob Jones17031 – 0Dominic Carter1663
3Mark Heffer16821/21/2Matthew Lawes-Wickwar1300
4Laureano Garcia16901 – 0Lee Osmon1375

Saxmundham kicked off their campaign in the U1800 Cup (a competition for teams of four, whose players are all rated below 1800) last week with a tough trip to Bury St Edmunds.

For Sax, this was essentially our B Team playing. Bury were much the stronger team on paper and duly won convincingly 3.5 -0.5. For us, Matthew’s sterling effort on board 3 earned a draw and prevented  the whitewash. Lee was quickly dispatched on board 4 and on top board, Mike managed to drop a vital pawn in a complex middle game and that was enough. Dominic seemed to have reached a drawn R+P endgame, but then went wrong and lost quickly, to cap a very disappointing night.