U2 vs Eastbourne 3

Our last club session saw the first match of 2020 as our second team hosted Eastbourne 3.  Although the bottom team in the Division, and a win would have regained us first place, this division is much closer between all the teams this year than I can ever remember, and they arrived with a very experienced veteran team, albeit some of them still thought the match would end after 60 moves ! It proved a very hard fought match and unfortunately despite having a strong game, Steve on Board 5 fell the exchange down and his rook/knight combination just fell short against two connected well marshalled rooks;  Benedict on Board 4 probably came out of the opening slightly disadvantaged in pawn structure, but I felt if connected his rooks could have been still powerful, but this did not come to pass and just over halfway through the game we found ourselves as a team 2-0 down.  My game on Board 3 was a complete mess with my opponent giving new meaning to the word unconventional in his opening play and he fell a bishop to a pawn down; that said I could never make the advantage stick as this loss proved a sacrifice for strong positional play for him, though afterwards he admitted that had not been originally intended as such.  Michael on Board 1 maintained his usual standard with sensible careful opening and middle games leading to slight advantage which he then extended and rammed home the win. I fought a long hard battle to secure the win but in the end a pawn down I just could only manage to be sure of the draw.  So we entered the last half hour of the match 2.5-1.5 down and at this stage it looked as if we were heading for a loss as Graham on Board 2 fell a piece to a pawn down.  However all I said on the first update of the year about playing for the team came to pass and Graham fought heroically, managing to achieve passed pawns on both sides of the board and when his opponent under time pressure swapped off the queens, what had looked like a loss became a sure draw and then with still poorer play from his opponent Graham fought again and with expert positioning of his king we got to the end of the session.  They did not concede immediately and computer analysis showed Graham as +19.5, so the concession came the next day.  We therefore ended with a draw 2.5-2.5 and at least a match point which had begun to look unlikely.