BCF National Club Championship Finals, 4 July 2004

Last Edited: July 8, 2004 12:37 PM

John Philpott reports:

The 2004 finals of the Open, Open Plate, Major and Major Plate sections of the 2003/4 National Club Championships were contested on 4 July in the spacious surroundings of the Hall of the Redbridge Institute, recently the venue for the Ilford Congress. Jeff Goldberg and BCF Chief Executive Roy Heppinstall presided as arbiters.

In the Open, Wood Green fielded a heavyweight team, all graded over 200, against Bedford, who had achieved an upset victory when the teams met in the 2001 final. Wood Green proved to have too much strength in depth for their gallant opponents, and despite a win for Andrew Ledger against John Emms on board 1, Wood Green regained the title, won by Cavendish in 2003, by the convincing score of 4½-1½.

The Open Plate saw holders Mushrooms up against Maidstone. Mushrooms took the lead by winning Board 6, but Maidstone hit back on boards 4 and 5. Boards 2 and 3 were drawn to see the trophy change hands.

In the Major Wanstead & Woodford, runners up in two of the last three seasons, faced familiar London League opposition in Metropolitan. Wanstead won board 4 after a double-edged variation worked out in their favour, and were fortunate to win board 5 also after standing worse for most of the game. Draws on boards 3 and 2 saw the title secured, and board 1 was then also won to give a rather flattering 4-1 margin of victory.

In the Major Plate, Hounslow quickly took a two point lead by winning boards 4 and 5, but wins by the Cutmore brothers on boards 2 and 3 levelled the score for Wood Green. Given the board count situation, Hounslow had to win board 1, and the game reached a rook and opposite coloured bishop ending where Hounslow were a pawn up. However, progress could not be made and the game (incidentally the last of the afternoon to finish) was agreed drawn.

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Complete Results

OPEN

       BEDFORD                   WOOD GREEN
1  232 Andrew Ledger (W)  1 - 0  John Emms        235
2  206 David Ledger       0 - 1  Chris Ward       243
3  192 Stephen Ledger     0 - 1  Danny Gormally   235
4  162 Mike Smith         0 - 1  Richard Pert     221
5  151 Peter Constantinou 0 - 1  Jim Poulton      209
6  159 Paul Habershon     ½ - ½  Desmond Tan      216

   183.7                  1½- 4½                  226½

OPEN PLATE

   MUSHROOMS                     MAIDSTONE
1  199 Ian Snape (B)      ½ - ½  Martin R Taylor  211
2  189 Rory O'Kelly       ½ - ½  Ian Watson       205
3  180 Mark Stockwell     ½ - ½  Chris Cooley     204
4  186 William Linton     0 - 1  Cliff Chandler   203
5  191 Ron A Harris       0 - 1  David Powell     186
6  171 Mike Prizant       1 - 0  Robert Lane      145

   186.0                  2½- 3½                  192.3

MAJOR

       WANSTEAD & WOODFORD       METROPOLITAN
1  199 Li Wu (W)          1 - 0  Nick Noden       170
2  161 Ian Hunnable       ½ - ½  D Ian Calvert    164
3  151 Paul Barclay       ½ - ½  Zafer Djabri     164
4  145 Terry Whitton      1 - 0  Kathy Djabri     156
5  139 Mark Murrell       1 - 0  Noel Stewart     136

   159.0                  4 - 1                   158.0

MAJOR PLATE

       HOUNSLOW                  WOOD GREEN
1  197 Gerald Moore (B)   ½ - ½  Cengiz Hasman    179
2  156 David J White      0 - 1  David Cutmore    167
3  145 L H J Fincham      0 - 1  Martin Cutmore   166
4  154 S Donald Chaudhry  1 - 0  Ali Kikoyo       146
5  132 Peter Staneland    1 - 0  David Harrison   140

   156.8                  2½- 2½                  159.6

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