Devon 1st and 2nd teams were in action today against Somerset meeting at the Hatch Beauchamp Village Hall with 16 boards in action for the 1st team and 12 boards for the 2nd. Jon Underwood, DCCA Match Captain reports on the day's events.
In the end we ran out comfortable winners of both matches, but the contest was closer than the final scores might suggest.
The first team got off to a rather bad start, as I discovered that being white isn't quite the same as black with an extra move, and lost in an hour. The nerves were soon calmed though, as Chris Gant, Richard Truman, Trefor Thynne and Charlie Howard hit back with quick wins. After that the result was never really in doubt.
Further wins from Alan Brusey and Chris Lowe brought us to 8 points, and it was down to debutant Joe Pratt-Johns to score the draw that won the match for Devon.
Joe's opponent will feel fortunate to have got something out of the game, but perhaps not as fortunate as Steve Levy who tricked his opponent and managed to turn a probable loss into a win, to leave the final score as Devon 10 Somerset 6.
Having already beaten Cornwall we retain the West of England championship for another season.
If you'd like to see the (quite impressive) silver trophy I will bring it along to the DCCA AGM later in the year.
The second team also fell behind early on in the match, trailing by 2 points at one stage. Suhayl Abdalla got one back for us, before Nick Butland and Bill Ingham took us into the lead. A win from Tony Stenton preserved it.
As the match drew to a close another two debutants, Peter Worthington and Michael Sapiecha, won their games to settle the tie.
Final score - Devon 7.5 Somerset 4.5.
Let me also mention Ellis Manning and Trevor Hurt also made their debuts today, and thanks again to everyone for playing. There will be a second team match against Cornwall in the spring to decide the Wayling Cup, and I will be in touch as appropriate about that and the national stages of the County Championship.
Best wishes, Jon.
