Roger Goldsmith finals

In the Bury Area Chess League, the Roger Goldsmith competition is a graded event, played initially as a round-robin league.   There are two divisions, with grading limits of 580 and 450 for Divisions 1 and 2 respectively.   On completion of the round-robins, the top two teams play each other again in a Final.

Both finals took place this evening at the Bury St Edmunds club, because two Bury teams – ‘Abbey‘ and ‘Cathedral‘ – had both qualified in first place (which gave them home advantage).   Not only that, but the rules state that in the event of a tie, the team with the higher total at the League stage will win.

In the Division 1 Final, Bury Abbey faced Cambridge Masters.   The Bury team was Mike Harris, Jon Collins, last-minute replacement Dave Clark and Fraser Fallows.   15-year old Fraser managed a good draw against Andrew Ellis, but the result of the evening was Dave Clark’s win against John Cooper, graded more than 30 points higher.

The final match to finish, on Board 1, secured the win for ‘Abbey’ when Mike Harris forced John Daugman to resign.

In the Division 2 Final, between Bury ‘Cathedral’ and last year’s winners Linton Lions, early wins from Steve Lovell and Hugo Smith ensured that even if the match ended in a tie, that ‘Cathedral’ would win.

And that’s how things ended, with Patrick Gembis and Bob Jones both losing their matches.