A trip up the A10 to Hoddesdon was the first of 2 matches. The first surprise was a home team default on board 1! Terry could not prevent a checkmate by Qxh7, but otherwise a comfortable win
Herts CA : Herts League – Division 4 Thursday 05-February-2015
Hoddesdon 1 Borehamwood 1
Board 1 : Default d-1 Simmons, Matthew 
195
Board 2 : Beadle, Mark 146 0-1 Kent, Anthony R 150
Board 3 : Ship, Jim 136 0-1 Sear, Kevin 143
Board 4 : Young, Dane P 124 0-1 Gesthuysen, Malcolm 133
Board 5 : Patmore, Alan 113 1-0 O’Sullivan, Terry J 117
Match Score : 1 – 4
The next match was a somewhat dramatic draw!
Leon unfortunately lost a piece early on in a reasonable position. Anthony played the Colorado Gambit, which was duly accepted. An inauspicious pawn on move 7 cost white a piece.
Terry was under pressure on the C file in his usual Queens Gambit Declined. He lost a pawn, but his opponent (also a Terry) late on blundered a piece. Our Terry agreed a draw as time was short. Dan had a blocked position from the Ruy Lopez which his opponent unwisely opened with about 10 minutes each to advance his ‘a’ pawn and make the game exciting. Dan duly obliged and got his 2 rooks on the 7th rank and broke through decisively.
Board 1 saw Ian Cross set up a Colle system against Matthew’s Benoni. Matthew got a 2 pawn supported bishop onto d3, but his opponent got amongst blacks pieces for good counterplay. As time got short, Ian got an unstoppable pawn. A great performance and result for Ian given the 51 point gap in gradings.
Herts CA : Herts League – Division 4 Monday 23-February-2015
St Albans 3 Borehamwood 1
Board 1 : Cross, Ian K 148 1-0 Simmons, Matthew 195
Board 2 : Palmer, James C 148 0-1 Marcos, Dan 154
Board 3 : Narbeth, Simon 131 0-1 Kent, Anthony R 150
Board 4 : Magee, Edward 125 1-0 Glouzman, Leon 117
Board 5 : Douse, Terry 129 1/2 O’Sullivan, Terry J 117
Match Score : 2.5 – 2.5
Borehamwood Chess club 