My next match was one for which I am captain - Castles vs. Streatham in the rapidplay Stoneleigh Trophy. This, in case the reader didn't know, is a competition run on grade handicap. As is our tradition, Castles were substantially outgraded, so we needed only 2 points from 8 to draw the match, or more to win.
The intention had been to totally change the team at half-time, but of course fate intervened, forcing me to swap the order in which some people played, draft in a new player on the night and use myself as a substitute. If that sounds rather chaotic, it was! Notwithstanding the improved result, I think I prefer the more serene matches that preceded it. Anyway, for the first match I was to play Martin Smith, rapid-graded 165 with a slowplay grade in the 180s. I had black, and wheeled out a forgotten component of my opening repertoire that had fallen into abeyance. From that point on, almost nothing about the match continued to make sense...:
The confusion wasn't limited to this game though. Outgraded 170-186, 155-170, 134-165, 88-107, we found ourselves having already reached the target drawing score, with wins on both of the extreme boards that came in rather different circumstances; board 1 was over in about 15 moves after a tactical flurry, and board 4 was decided by the clock after both sides gave away pieces in time trouble.
That was supposed to be that for me - how galling it would have been, as winning positions against 160s are a very rare thing indeed for me! At the half-time interval, fate demonstrated that it hadn't finished winding me up yet, and when someone else failed to arrive, and my intended replacement heard the grade of who he would play, it was down to me to seek revenge...
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