1st team win again

11 Mar Anstey 1 v Red Admiral
3½ – ½
1 B 139 Foreman, Brian ½ – ½ Arnold, Martin 145
2 W 117 Sandham, Mick 1 – 0 Matts, Stephen 106
3 B 122 Vaughan, Ben 1 – 0d (Default)
4 W 120 Connor, Matthew 1 – 0 Slater, Mick 86

An excellent win
Our cause was helped by the opposing captain/secretary - Wayne Matts - advising that they would only be able to bring 3 boards. This was very gracious of him and allowed me to make sure that I could be the defaulted board. Perks/pitfalls of being a captain, I suppose.
The games themselves meandered at a good pace.
Brian got into a very tactical position early on with a pawn push threatening an opponent's Knight and his opponent responding by threatening Brian's Knight. As I saw it, the capture of Knights worked in Brian's favour because pieces would come off the board, each of them would make an extra Queen and Brian would Queen first. In my experience, my lines are neither sound nor playable, so I probably missed something.
Mick's game on board 2 was looking very even - maybe the word dull springs to mind. But then one realises that this is Mick we are talking about and soon enough, Mick's young opponent pushed a central pawn - incorrectly. Mick's pieces soon rounded up the pawn and once everything came off and the game was reduced to a Knight and pawn ending, Mick soon excelled and forced a resignation. This was actually the last to finish.
Matt's game also looked even with some pressure on the Queenside for both players. Once these were dealt with by exchanges, Matt not-so-subtly switched play to the Kingside and with the threat of mate in 1, Matt's opponent was forced to sacrifice his Queen for a Bishop. With pins everywhere on the board, Matt played Bxf7 which was actually mate after Matt's opponent missed this threat.