Suffolk Chess

Yesterday's posting reported the narrow loss for the Suffolk Under 160 team in the National Quarter-Finals to Nottinghamshire.   This followed three pairs of matches in the EACU competition, against Norfolk (win, win), Hertfordshire (loss, win) and Cambridgeshire (win, loss).   Suffolk were runners-up to Cambridgeshire, with Herts third and Norfolk last.

A total of 28 players were used over the seven matches.   Several performed well above expectation, as the following chart demonstrates:

Name	Score	Gp
Adrian Sanderson	1/1*	186.0
Stephen Lewis	1½/2	180.0
John Peters	3½/4	175.3
Ed Kirkham	4½/6*	167.0
Sam Brennan	3/5	165.6
Silas Peck	3½/5	165.0
Andrew Shephard	4½/7	162.3
John McAllister	2/3	160.7
Leon Burnett	1½/3	159.0
Bob Jones	3½/6	158.7
John Lambert	2/3	158.3
Mark Bettley	3/4	157.3
Kevin Greenacre	2½/5	155.6
Harold Thomas	1/2	146.0
Scott Taylor	3½/7	145.7
Keith Woodcock	2/3	145.0
Rob Harden	3½/7	144.3
Carl Phillips	2½/5	139.4
Les Jones	1½/4	137.0
Simon Riley	2/5	132.8
Anna York-Andersen	½/2	132.0
Jakob Tulic	1½/4	130.5
Vivian Woodward	1/4	125.3
Arthur McCormick	½/2	115.0
Jim Buis	0/1	110.0
Melvin Steele	½/2	103.5
Colin Roberts	1/7	102.1
Andrew Donnelly	0/1	101.0

* = also received a default win
Gp = grading performance

The Player of the Season is Ed Kirkham, who scored 4½/6 over the board but also received a default win when his opponent failed to appear.   Five people played in all seven matches.

Cambridgeshire also lost their quarter-final, 7½-8½, to Warwickshire.

-oOo-

It's often amusing to see how journalists, usually with little understanding of the game, use chess as a metaphor.   Here's one from the Evening Standard (16 May).   The journalist was Dan Jones.

The headline read: "Wayne Rooney's been playing chess with Manchester United and it's nearly checkmate".   The article included this reference: "In his chess game with United, this is check, with a view, in not so many moves, to checkmate."   Stick to football Dan.