Bangor back on form
Last Board
Board 6: NICS Rhys McLean attacked Ashley Mawhinney. Rhys dropped his King's Knight early on and then compounded his problems by dropping the other one is a similar manoeuvre. Now, with a significant material advantage, Ashley did not take long to claim the match.
Board 5: Pete Storey defended against Gary Johnston. Gary hasn't been playing for a while but soon got into his stride again. Pete managed to engineer a potential mate on the back rank but Gary neatly side-stepped the trap and proceeded to turn the tables on Pete with an effective mate.
Board 4: Adrian Donford-Smith opened against Bangor's Walter Wilson. Giving up almost 500 points, Adrian was holding his own as the game reduced to a pawn end-game. Walter's greater experience placed his King in a sensible position on the right side of a pawn wall ready to target Adrian's pawns. Meanwhile Adrian's King was hopelessly out of position and with the inevitable surge as Walter's own pawns broke through, White was forced to concede the game.
Board 3: Drew Ferguson also giving up almost 400 points, defended against Paul McLoughlin. Drew managed an aggressive start taking Paul immediately out of book and leaving White with two open files, an isolated pawn on the a-file and a pair doubled on the c-file. The game continued robustly with threat after threat being countered as the pieces circled about the centre. Drew established a good Knight on d5 but couldn't hold it letting Paul get his own Knight into an unassailable position on e5 and this determined the rest of the game. Paul was able to get one, then a two pawn advantage after which he traded down leaving Drew impotent against pawns advancing on 3 fronts.
Board 2: Alan Burns was giving up almost 400 points as well against Paul McGuigan. Despite White advantage, Alan limped into the middle-game already under pressure and it wasn't long before a mate closed the game.
Board 1: Despite some valiant efforts, NICS were getting a drubbing this time around and it was down to the final board with Mark Newman defending against Alan McConnell. This game looked poised for NICS' first white-wash in Division 2. But the game descended into a Bishop & 4-pawn end-game. It looked like a draw might save something of NICS honour but an injudicious move from Alan let Mark trade Bishops into a winning position.
A dominating performance from the Bangor squad. After all their hard-fought matches in the Division giving the NICS squad a glimmer of league honours; now dashed as Bangor jump well clear of all opposition. Of course, already this season, Bangor have shown a lack of consistency which kicked them out of the Division 1 race so its maybe not all over just yet.
