Muldooned to failure?

Division 1

Fruithill 1-4 Bangor

Bangor put further distance between themselves and bottom side Fruithill with this 4-1 win. Wins for Mark Seidman, Walter Wilson and Michael Sheeran gave the visitors the bonus points, while Paul McLoughlin drew with Ciaran Marron and Gary Johnston drew with Gerry Collins.

Muldoons 1 0.5-4.5 Ballynafeigh 1

Muldoons 1 needed a good result to stay in touch with Division 1 leaders Ballynafeigh 1; they got the exact opposite as David Houston, Brendan Jamison, Stephen Rush and Damien Lavery all scored wins that put the visitors well out in front in the race for the Silver King. Only Nicholas Pilkiewicz could salvage a draw for the home side against Steve Scannell.

Lindores 1 3-2 Ballynafeigh 2

There would be no repeat of the upset from Week 3, but Lindores 1 will have felt that they could have secured a more convincing win against a four-man Ballynafeigh 2 side. In a comfortable position against the Ulster Champion Gabor Horvath, Damien Cunningham missed a simple tactic, costing him a piece and the game. Calum Leitch secured the bonus points soon afterwards with a win over John O'Doherty, but the visitors rallied as Thomas Donaldson and Ian Woodfield recorded fine victories against Ross Harris and Fred MacDonald respectively.

Standings

Division 2

Ballynafeigh 3 3.5-1.5 QUB

Ballynafeigh 3 kept their outside chances of winning the John Strawbridge Cup alive with this win over QUB. Suraj Tirupati made short work of newcomer Jason Roe, winning an exchange early on and carrying that advantage through to a won endgame. Robert Lavery and Matthew Chapman agreed a draw soon afterwards, and Tyrone Winter made sure of at least a draw for the home side by beating Paddy Magee, who blundered into a mate-in-one in an already-lost position. James Barbour made his debut for the home side against Chris Cao; a cavalier attitude to king safety landed him in deep water, and Cao had an opportunity to fork his king and bishop. Barbour seemed to have earned a reprieve when the fork was missed, but then immediately blundered the bishop anyway. Attention now turned to the board 2 clash between Eoin Carey and Chris Roe; Roe withstood some early pressure, mounted a decent counterattack, and at one point was in a position to win a piece. Roe missed his opportunity, allowing Carey to reach what appeared to be a dead-drawn pawn ending, but further mistakes from Roe allowed Carey's king to penetrate and create a passed pawn.

Ballynafeigh 4 5-0 Ballynafeigh 5

On the same night, Ballynafeigh 4 (Hewitt/Seaby/McEvoy/McGahan/Anderson) leapfrogged QUB by scoring maximum points against Ballynafeigh 5 (Rainey/Campbell/Jackson/Charles/Weir).

Belfast South 2 4-1 Muldoons 2

"Kelly's Heroes" stretched their lead in Division 2 against Muldoons 2. The match started with a quick draw between Neil Green and Stephen Downes, before the home side raced into the lead, and ultimately to the bonus points, with wins for Bernard Jaffa, John McKenna and David Ruben. On board 5, Chris Armstrong found himself two pawns up but also in serious time trouble against Rodney Orr; with the match over as a contest by this point, a draw was agreed.

Lindores 2 3-2 NI Civil Service

Lindores kept in touch with the leaders thanks to this win over NICS. Peter May got the visitors off to a good start with a quick win over Jim McLean, before Ian Kilpatrick evened the score against David McAlister. Kilpatrick played a risky g-pawn thrust in an attempt to open up the game; for a time it seemed as if he would be punished for it, but McAlister failed to press home his advantage and Kilpatrick won with an attack down the g-file. David Barr then exploited David Jackson's poor development, sacrificing an exchange for a winning attack to put the home side ahead. Drew Ferguson played Andy Hughes on board 5; despite finding himself a pawn up in a rook ending, he erred in time trouble, allowing Ferguson to turn the tables and level the match at 2-2. NICS' hopes were to be short-lived, though, as Paul McNaughton then ground out a win against Mark Newman on board 1 to claim the match for Lindores 2.

Standings