After the Christmas break, the university was once again playing catch up while other teams played before the new term had started. This meant that Downend A had briefly overtaken University A on points having played two more matches. While the games in hand are potentially very useful, it would be nice to retake the lead with our first game of 2022. We were unfortunately helped by a lack of availability for Bath, who could only field three players and only one A team regular.
Not how we want the matches to go, but myself, James Clarke and Tom Shepherd got the team’s first 6-0 of the season, even sooner than our first 6-0 when winning Division 2 last season. According to James, his opponent “blundered a pawn in the opening”, which is a phrase I’ll borrow to hide his opening preparation. Tom won a piece after taking control in a symmetrical English, while I won quickly after some jazz opening play.
10.Nxb5 landed a quick win using the pins on the a4-e8 and h1-a8 diagonals.