6 January 2014 - Central Allegro League

Badgers Brook 9 - 7 Stirling Wallace

I don't have round-by-round scores for this, but Steve Smith scored 3/4 with two wins and two draws, Robin Hayles and Jim Shemilt both scored 2/4, and Mick lost all of his games.

16 December 2013 - Keddie Cup

Dave Hewitt writes: Hope everyone who was there enjoyed the Keddie Cup last night. Good turnout, with 20 taking part, allowing a neat five players per group for the preliminary section. The 16 Stirling members were complemented by four guests: David Marshall - last year's runner-up; his Badgers Brook colleague and former Stirling stalwart (and double Keddie winner) Kenny McGeoch; Ken Stewart from the Polytechnic club; and young Finlay Anderson.

Congratulations go to Gordon Allcock, who won the title for the first time after having been runner-up two years ago. Runner-up this time was Martyn Roe (the 2005 winner), who came very close to taking the title again in what was surely the game of the night, the first of the two final games. This was a great cut-and-thrust encounter that left various of the spectators barely able to watch the latter stages, so goodness knows what it must have been like to play in. Gordon was a piece up for much of the game but Martyn hung in and managed to turn it round - but was unable to mate with Q+R against a bare K before his flag fell. He had, however, taken care to snap off Gordon's final pawn, meaning it was a draw - the only one in the entire tournament. So the colours were swapped, the times on the clock were halved and off they went again - and this time Gordon retained an early advantage and went on to win.

Gordon with the trophy

Overall, this year's Keddie felt like a classic of its kind: of the nine 1500+ players at the start, only one (me) made it through to the quarter-finals (where I was seen off by Martyn in another wild game). The final eight included four former winners (with two of the other four having previously lost finals), and it was the first Keddie since at least 2005 when no one named Blake made it through to the semis.

The semis featured the four form players on the night - but the two with 100% records, David Marshall and Robert Leckie, both lost. Overall, everyone bar Robert Togneri won at least one game, and there were lots of interesting encounters - eg I'd like to have seen more of the Nick Blake vs Gordon Q vs R ending in their quarter-final, but I was needing to concentrate on my own game. Finlay's win against John Blake and Tom McKay's win against Bill Cook definitely sounded like they were worth seeing. (Bill didn't qualify, but had the consolation of being the only person to beat the eventual winner.)

The social side of things seemed to go well - thanks to all who brought along foodstuffs and/or raffle prizes. It was good to see Craig Manson back from his transatlantic travels - and he might well be the first person ever to make it through to the Keddie quarter-finals while jetlagged.

The club is closed for the next two Mondays, and reopens on Monday 6 January (with the Stirling Wallace allegro team playing away at Badgers Brook that same night).

11 December 2013 - Central League Division 1

Dunfermline A v Stirling A
Ian Robertson   John McBride   Iain Sneddon   Fred Ossowski   Jim Webster	2149   1785   1740   1662   1613	1 - 0   0 - 1   0 - 1   1 - 0   0 - 1	1750   1810   1670   1660   1657	Steve Smith   Jim Shemilt   Graham Anderson   Robin Hayles   Neil Irving
		2 - 3

A match notable for White winning every single game. This first game is from board 2, where Jim Shemilt had White against John McBride.

Shemilt - McBride

 

 

The game below is from board 3, where I had White against Iain Sneddon.

Anderson - Sneddon

9 December 2013 - Central League Division 2

Stirling B v Dunfermline C
Jim Shemilt Bill Cook John Blake Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt	1810 1616 1559 1520 1518	0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0 ½ - ½	1474 1342 1300 1239 1090	Bryan O'Rourke Peter Horne Matthew Stuart Derek Rodger Ben Volland
		2½ - 2½

The game below is from board 3, where John Blake had White against Matthew Stuart.

Blake - Stewart

4 December 2013 - Central League Division 2

Dunfermline B v Stirling B
Fred Ossowski Douglas Rew Stewart Brisbane Mathew Stewart Glynis Grant	1662 1569 1547 1300 1280	½ - ½ 1 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 0 1 - 0	1810 1616 1520 1518 1207	Jim Shemilt Bill Cook Tony Pitson Dave Hewitt David Brodie
		3½ - 1½

2 December 2013 - Central League Division 2

Stirling C v Grangemouth B
Martyn Roe Gordon Allcock Mick Bloor Robert Togneri David Brodie	1458 1383 1323 1245 1207	0 - 1 0 - 1 0 - 1 1 - 0 0 - 1	1492 1442 1259 1112	Bill Gray Hugh Hanlon Crawford Welsh Hutch Williams David Fowler
		1 - 4

The game below is from board 4, where Robert Togneri performed an escape act worthy of Houdini to get a win.

 

27 November 2013 - Central Allegro League

Dunfermline Minnows 7 - 9 Stirling Bruce
Round 1
Jim Webster	0 - 1	Paul Prescott
Ian Robertson	1 - 0	John Blake
Iain Sneddon	½ - ½	Graham Anderson
Terry Doherty	0 - 1	Dave Hewitt
Round 2
Jim Webster	½ - ½	John Blake
Ian Robertson	1 - 0	Graham Anderson
Iain Sneddon	0 - 1	Dave Hewitt
Terry Doherty	1 - 0	Paul Prescott
Round 3
Jim Webster	0 - 1	Graham Anderson
Ian Robertson	1 - 0	Dave Hewitt
Iain Sneddon	1 - 0	Paul Prescott
Terry Doherty	0 - 1	John Blake
Round 4
Jim Webster	0 - 1	Dave Hewitt
Ian Robertson	1 - 0	Paul Prescott
Iain Sneddon	0 - 1	John Blake
Terry Doherty	0 - 1	Graham Anderson