Suffolk Chess

The Final of the Norfolk & Suffolk Cup took place at the end of May.   The Norfolk winners, Broadland Chess Club, hosted the Suffolk winners Bury St Edmunds.

This was the third successive year that these two clubs have competed in the Final.   Bury St Edmunds had beaten Ipswich 4 - 2 in the Suffolk Final, with wins for Mike Harris, Ed Player, Chris Davison and John Peters.

The Final was won by Bury St Edmunds by the same score, 4 - 2.   The Bury team was heavily outgraded (by more than 10 points per board on average) and were missing a key player, Mark LeVine, who had misunderstood pickup instructions.   'Non-playing' captain Laurie Pott was forced into last-minute action, with the bottom three boards having to play a board higher than expected.

The result was as follows (Broadland names first):
Kamil Przybyla (209)    0 - 1    Mike Harris (203)
Gerald Moore (186)    ½ - ½    Ed Player (198)
Ken McEwan (186)    1 - 0    John Peters (179)
Roy Hughes (189)    ½ - ½    Alan Watkins (165)
Karthik Saravanan (171)    0 - 1    Richard Lamont (168)
Daniel Frean (175)    0 - 1    Laurie Pott (135)

As can be seen from these results, the key to Bury's success was on the lower boards, with Alan Watkins gaining an excellent draw and Richard Lamont and Laurie Pott both winning their games.