In a tough away fixture at Hackney, the Hendon Lions consolidated their position at the top of Division 1 of the Middlesex League. After this 4.5-3.5 victory, the Lions now have 10.5/11 match points going into the biggest match of the season, against Kings Head 1 on Monday.
| Hackney 1 | Hackney 1 | Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ansell, Simon T | 226 | ½ - ½ | Meszaros, Gyula | 247 | ||
| 2 | Walker, Nicholas P | 207 | 0 - 1 | Moskovic, David M | 225 | ||
| 3 | Adelaja, Abimbola | 205 | 1 - 0 | Poobalasingam, Peter S | 201 | ||
| 4 | Chin, Francis CW | 192 | 0 - 1 | Mures, Cristian | 206 | ||
| 5 | Shaw, Dashiell L | 181 | ½ - ½ | Eden, Tomer | 204 | ||
| 6 | Jones, Emyr | 176 | 1 - 0 | Willmoth, Robert F | 194 | ||
| 7 | Peschiera, Jaime | 170 | 0 - 1 | Ellis, Daniel | 181 | ||
| 8 | Hughes, Charles | 168 | ½ - ½ | Du Buf, Paul | 173 | ||
| 3½ - 4½ | |||||||
Match Report by Michael Bennett
On Tuesday, the Hendon Lions journeyed to Stoke Newington for a big match against Hackney 1, hoping to consolidate our position at the top of Division 1.
Hendon got off to a poor start with a rare loss by Peter, when his queen got trapped early in the game (0-1). However, Daniel Ellis equalized the score about 30 mins later, with a typically belligerent attacking game against the dangerous Jaime Peschiera (1-1).
All the other games lasted the distance.
Tomer Eden outplayed his young opponent in fine positional style and reached a good knight v bad bishop ending, but was unable to break through (1.5-1.5) Next Cristian brought his score to an unbeaten 13/15 (!) for the season by patient defence including a brave king march, followed by a counter-attack as his opponent ran short of time (2.5-1.5). Then Rob (who had suffered a neck injury earlier in the day and was in some pain, but to his credit decided to play anyway) unfortunately missed a win in mutual time-trouble, and eventually lost too much material (2.5-2.5). Tense.
Going into the last 5 minutes of the match, Paul’s game on bottom board had now reached a drawish rook ending, but he was behind on time in the QP finish, with his opponent pressing. On top board Julian was 2 pawns down in a rook ending and clearly losing. So David on board 2 knew he had to press for a win to draw the match, despite the associated risks.
And then – out of the blue – Julian’s opponent fell into a classic mid-board stalemate trap! Very easy to miss in time trouble. (3-3)
To seal the victory David then won his game, and Paul showed great tenacity to hold the draw. (4.5-3.5)
Congratulations to the whole team on a very gritty performance!
The Lions now have 10.5/11 match points, going into the biggest match of the season, against Kings Head 1 on Monday.