Three weeks ago Cumnor 1 took on Oxford City 1 in the Frank Wood Shield; sadly we couldn’t perform the same heroics of our first round tie against Witney 1 and bowed out at the second round.
The game was a close match and it left a bitter taste in the mouth.
However, we had the chance for revenge on Thursday as Oxford City 2 came to Cumnor in the league. Again the match was close, but Cumnor had just enough to cross the line and won the match 3.5-2.5.
Simon was the first to finish with a draw on the top board and Daniel continued his great run of form on the league with another win board two. Daniel now has 6.5 points from 7 games, a current league best of 92.86% (not counting players who have played two games or less). Down on board 5, Andrew lost his game to Simon King the result levelled the scores with 1.5 points each.
With at least a draw in the bag, Cumnor had 3 points to City’s 2, I had to only draw to get the win for the team. It took a little work, Rook and Pawn endgames are notoriously draw-ish but John had the more active pieces and an extra pawn. I had to battle hard to create some counter play while not getting mated. But with only a few minutes left on the clocks a draw was offered by John and (quickly) accepted by myself.
The match finished 3.5-2.5 and pushed us back in to the mid table. We have only 3 games left and while not fighting at either end of the table we look to pick up some more points starting with a visit to Wantage on St. Patrick’s day.