6 April 2016 - Central League Cup

Knowing that Grangemouth would be at pretty much full strength, and missing our top board Shivan, it seemed before the game that Stirling's best hope of victory lay in hoping that the janny wouldn't turn up.

Grangemouth v Stirling
Uby Archibong   Alan Bell   Graham Hamilton   Dougie Will   John Smith   Ian Mason   Bill Gray	2224   1956   1944   1946   1737   1719   1460	0 - 1   ½ - ½   ½ - ½   1 - 0   0 - 1   1 - 0   1 - 0	1778   1702   1671   1666   1583   1562   1486	Jim Shemilt   Steve Smith   Graham Anderson   Bill Cook   John Blake   Tony Pitson   Dave Hewitt
		4 - 3

As it turned out, it was a very close match, and had it been a league match Stirling would have won. I think John finished first, winning against John Smith. This was followed by two wins for Grangemouth on the bottom two boards, putting the score at 2-1. Steve and I agreed draws at pretty much the same time, after which Bill lost to Dougie. This gave Grangemouth the victory, before all attention turned to the game on board 1. Jim got two passed pawns to the 7th and 6th, before Queening one, and, after checking that Jim had enough to mate him, Uby resigned. Grangemouth go on to play Badgers Brook in the final.

The game below is from board 3, where I had White against Graham Hamilton.

Anderson - Hamilton

The game blow is from board 5, where John Blake had White against John Smith.

Blake - Smith