Clubnight 1

Nick Cleans Up

Given that four of the eighteen competitors in the Handicap Team Blitz were Jelletts, it was statistically quite likely that one of them would win. In the end it was Nick, and quite deservedly as he had to play all the other members of his family as well as Liam Raybould and Mike McDowell. Apart from the game against Mike, Nick was giving away quite a time handicap, but then took full advantage against Mike when he had the extra time. It was fitting that the deciding round was between Nick & Matt, the latter having been forced by his duties at Waitrose to take a half-point bye in round 1.

Some players fared better under time pressure than others. Yours truly, coming up against Jellett Minor, found that the youngest member of the family kept a cool head while I was losing mine, and he even had the temerity to smirk when I offered him a draw in a totally lost position. Mike McDowell played some very fine chess in spite of the fact that he had never had more than one-third the amount of time offered to his opponents. His game against Melvin Pool was an object lesson in forcing passed pawns through. Rhys Lloyd played well for his 4 / 5, inflicting a particularly neat checkmate on Melvin, but John Hart and Mark Jones, whose only other point was a bye, never really got to grips with the time limits, playing one another in the final round for the wooden spoon, John finally collecting this when his flag fell even though he was about 6 pieces up.