University Knockout Cup Team - 2006-07

Captain: Joey Stewart

2005-06 Fixtures/Results

When the part-timers had gone home, the rest of us got down to the serious business of the Knockout Cup. First up were Nuneaton B; Joey got the ball rolling with a nice combination to beat David Kearney, and I forced a pawn through to promotion in the endgame against Fred Rose to put us 2-0 up. Unfortunately Lloyd and Robin both lost, leaving Steve needing to win since a draw would have sent Nuneaton through on board count. His opponent, Peter McConnell, certainly wasn’t playing for the draw, having sacrificed a piece for a kingside attack, but it hadn’t quite gone according to plan and he was relying on Steve’s time trouble to pull off a swindle. Instead Steve won a second piece, and when he made the time control with less than a minute in hand, his opponent threw in the towel and we were through to the quarter-finals.

Rugby B were the surprise opposition for the semi-final, after the handicap system had helped them to an upset win over their own A team. The same system once again left us needing to win by at least 3 points, and thanks to a blunder by my opponent, who up to that point had been defending well and had had a good chance of holding the draw, I provided the first. Despite Rugby including Philip Blackburn and Matthew Emery, both well above what would usually be considered division 3 standard, Joey and Lloyd chalked up wins and once again our last player, this time Steve, needed to draw. Nigel Malka had the advantage in the endgame and looked to be about to force a pawn through, but Steve managed to create enough counterplay with a passed pawn of his own to reach a dead drawn position, which Nigel played on in the hope of a win on time - as usual, Steve was down to his last few seconds, and couldn’t claim a draw by repetition due to having ceased recording the moves. He claimed the draw under the two minute rule instead, which Nigel disputed due to not having heard of it. The position was sent to the League’s disputes committee, who ruled in Steve’s favour to put us into the final.

Whoberley A, meanwhile, had been steadily progressing through the other half of the draw, mostly against their own club’s lower teams – although not without one or two scares as some of the division 1 players incurred unexpected losses – and thus the final started on level pegging (except for the fact that we were outgraded by an average of 18 points on each board). I created a few threats against Dave Ireland but they never came to anything much and after a few exchanges the game petered out into a draw – still my best result of the season. Steve also drew comfortably, and even had a slight edge over Ed Goodwin, and when Lloyd, the only one of us not playing someone graded significantly higher, brought home the full point against Colin Eckloff, we were 2-1 up with two to play and a major upset was on the cards. Joey survived a tricky position to split the point with Andy Baruch, leaving the pressure on Mark Page, who needed to beat Robin to prevent us from taking the trophy. Unfortunately for us he did so, and the draw was enough to give Whoberley the title on board count - although we had the consolation of being the only team all season to avoid losing to them, and thanks to every Whoberley player managing either to miss a game or lose one at some stage, and Joey and Steve recording two draws apiece, I ended up with more points than anyone in the Knockout Cup, along with a university record for the most games in a season. We were left to wonder what might have been, as Steve looked further into the final position and became convinced that it was winning…

Knockout Cup Table 2006-07

Knockout Cup Rules:
Players must have played at least two league matches to be eligible to play in the Knockout Cup.
Players may only play for one team in the Knockout Cup.

Divisional Handicaps:
If teams have a difference of one division the lower team gets 1.25 points.
If teams have a difference of two divisions the lower team gets 2.25 points.

12/12/06 (first round)

20/03/07 (quarter-final)

03/04/07 (semi-final)

24/04/07 (final)

Whoberley A won the Knockout Cup on board count.

Last reviewed and updated by Michael Jones 12/05/07.