Straight after the win against Oliver Howell, I was dashing for the bus to Whyteleafe which took me to Castles, for a match in the Stoneleigh Trophy (incidentally, I am captain of that team as well as the Sutton Grammar 1st team, so an especially trying day for me!) This is very much like the matches played by the 3rd and 4th teams at SGS; 2 games in an evening of 30 minutes per player. The difference is that there is a grade handicap which determines the score the team must reach to win the match. On this particular occasion, it was 4-4 to win, 3.5-4.5 to draw, and as I arrived for the second game it was 1.5-2.5... still a match. But in the end it was not to be, for me or for the team.
There is little to say of my game against the 142 Simon Lea, except that I was cleanly outplayed from an unusual opening in which I know very little and my opponent is presumably well-versed - I was careless with my Queenside and long before move 30 had been reached, I had reached a hopeless position, several pawns down. Much of that might sound like an Alekhine Defence, but in fact this was the very opening I steered things away from...
So well done to Mr. Lea, and to South Norwood, the team that won the match, and remember that knowledge is power! It is clear who was more comfortable with the position, even when it was objectively equal.
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