We advanced to the next round of the Richardson Plate tonight after a hard-fought 3½–2½ victory over Aughton. With the Bridge closed due to floods, we played the fixture at Aughton's place despite having been drawn at home.
Perhaps feeling the pressure, an opening disaster for Oli (who was making his debut on top board) saw him miniatured in 17 moves. That levelled the match score at 1–1, with Aughton having defaulted board 6 due to unforeseen circumstances. At one stage, Rotherham seemed to be in the ascendancy in the 4 remaining games, but the tables turned rather quickly.
Phil and his opponent agreed a draw. Next, what looked like a great position for John petered out into equality. Only Mick Mc, having won an exchange with a tactic, managed to convert his advantage into a win.
Oli's defeat on board 1 meant that a 3–3 scoreline would send us out, so with the scores at 3–2, we needed to get something from the final game. We were left holding our breath as Ed, up on time but a pawn down, eventually salvaged a draw from a horrible-looking endgame to take us through to round 2.