| Alan Merry (178j) [B] | 0 - 1 | Martyn Goodger (188) |
| Alan Watkins (163) | 0 - 1 | Richard Donaghay (158) |
| John Feavyour (172) | 0.5 - 0.5 | Mark Szymanski (155) |
| Bob Jones (BC) (139) | 1 - 0 | Mike Bradley (151) |
Ely continued in their winning ways in a hard fought match against a strong Bury team.
On bottom board, Mike seemed to be winning against Bob Jones until he gave up a piece for nothing in the endgame.
Mark ended up with a rook and knight against John Feavyour's sole pawn on the seventh. There may have been a win, but Mark was down to his last few seconds and decided to give up his rook for a pawn to secure the draw.
Richard seemed to having a tough game on board 2. Material was level in the middlegame, but Alan Watkins had an octopus of a knight on the 'd6' square, against Richard's bad bishop on 'c8'. Then, all of sudden, the tables were turned and Richard was delivering mate in his usual calm way.
Martyn's game on top board was a typical 'after a busy day at work' hack. Coming out of the opening in a roughly level position, he thought for 30 minutes about the best way to deal with a threat to his 'f' pawn. His solution blundered a pawn without any real compensation. He went for broke, advancing his 'h' pawn against Alan's castled king, hoping to open lines for his best piece, a bishop on 'b2'. Alan could and should have consolidated. But he was having to make decisions at each move, and just before the time control he went badly wrong. Although threatening Martyn with mate in one, his own king was badly exposed to an attack from Martyn's queen and knight. Martyn missed one mate in three, but after repeating the position managed to put the game away at the second time of asking.