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| From front: |
| Top seed Alex Richardson, currently playing out of Fenton. |
| Alan Paling, who presumably enjoyed his half-point bye watching Stoke beat West Ham. Was there any connection between this and the unusually fleeting visit we had from Steve Emmerton? |
| Jean-Paul Taylor, our new kid on the block, being our first ever contestant from Macclesfield. Will the rest be gentle with him? |
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| Malcolm Armstrong, the original champion having won the top section in 2005. | Ben Scattergood, and old kid on the block, junior champion 2009, Intermediate champion 2012 and defending co-champion. | Matthew Carr, arbiter and sometime filler. | Rheinhold Heinlein, came to see what he was missing. Not playing because Germans don't like more than one game a day Captain Mainwaring sir!. | Steve Hill, master of Meir, but this weekend merely a spectator. |
In round one Alex and Ben seemed determined to contest their own slow starter prize, 2½ hours into proceedings they had mustered 15 moves each. Inevitably play speeded up, but a draw ensued. Ben wasn't going to relinguish his title easily.
By some fluke the last round featured Alex v Alan, both then on three, Malcolm v Ben, both on two, and Jean-Paul in the rear getting the bye. Who needs Swiss pairings? Alex won this critical last round game to take the title by a point, while Jean-Paul remained stuck in last place when his bye turned out to be worth 0 points.
Final scores:
Alex Richardson 4, Malcolm Armstrong and Alan Paling 3, Ben Scattergood 2, Jean-Paul Taylor 1½.
Stephane Pedder (left) dominated proceedings, turning the U160 event into his private benefit section. His four wins enabled him to lap the field, going into the final round with a 1½ point lead. No great surprise that he drew his final round game.
Scores
4½: Stephane Pedder
3: Railton Hyde, Jacob Boswell
2½: Jon Blackburn, Alex Cartlidge, Doug Barnett, Pavel Nefyodov
1½: John Day
1: William Noble
Right: Pavel Nefyodov and Jacob Boswell plot their next moves from different vantage points.
Below: Bill Noble woz 'ere, and Chief Liaison Officer John Day ponders his rook and pawn ending.
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