Raymond Slatcher Memorial Match 2015

Post date: 17-Mar-2015 20:34:20

The thirteenth annual friendly match against Ilkley played in memory of the late Raymond Slatcher, took place in Harrogate on Monday 16th March. The match was originally intended to take place over ten boards but Ilkley found a couple of highly rated reserves at the last minute and Harrogate were happy to accomodate them. As I welcomed players to the match I noted that Ilkley had won the last two matches and the overall score now stood at 6-6.

Harrogate got off to a dismal start when I blundered in the opening and lost quickly. Draws on boards four and ten followed before Mate Ther gave Harrogate their first win and Mark Daley put Harrogate ahead when his attack crashed through against a formiddable opponent. However many of the remaining games were either going against us or were too close to call. The decisive moment was arguably when a vocal exclamation from an Ilkley player indicated that he'd just let in a mate in a position where he was a clear rook up.

Ilkley managed to level the score with two wins on the middle boards but the state of play was favouring Harrogate and victories in tense technical endgames at either end of the board order put Harrogate over the finish line.

As usual an excellent buffet was provided by Richard Tate.

The full results was follows (Harrogate players first);

1 Mick Stokes 1-0 Jonathon Swallow

2 Mark Daley 1-0 Rupert Jones

3 Brian Coop 1/2-1/2 Robin Browne

4 Richard Sneddon 1/2-1/2 Lee Crawford

5 Steve Huxley 1/2-1/2 David Adam

6 David Harasym 0-1 William Boothman

7 Andrew Zigmond 0-1 Graeme Hall

8 Peter Gregory 0-1 Peter Ward

9 Richard Tate 1-0 Stuart Johnson

10 Ranyl Hughes 1/2-1/2 Bob Leach

11 Mate Ther 1-0 Martin Hawkins

12 John Swiers 1-0 Peter O'Brien

Harrogate 7-5 Ilkley

Andrew Zigmond