County Championship 2004–05

Nottinghamshire wins Under 150 County Championship

Neil Graham

Nottinghamshire became National Under 150 Champions on 2 July after a nail-biting match with East Anglian champions Norfolk. The final score was 8–8 with Notts overall winners on board count by 29 to 43.

This result confirms Nottinghamshire’s competitiveness at this level, as we also regained the Midlands title. Thus our overall results for the last three years are as follows:

2002–03 Midlands Champions National Semi-finals
2003–04 Midlands Runners-up National Semi-finals
2004–05 Midlands Champions National Champions

Our results this year were:

Midlands Rd 1 Warwickshire 6½–9½ Nottinghamshire
Midlands Rd 2 Greater Manchester 8½–6½ Nottinghamshire
Midlands Rd 3 Nottinghamshire 9–7 Staffordshire
Midlands Rd 4 Nottinghamshire 10½–5½ Leicestershire
National Quarter-final Nottinghamshire 9–7 Hertfordshire
National Semi-final Leicestershire 7½–8½ Nottinghamshire
National Final Nottinghamshire 8–8 Norfolk

Only 25 players represented the county in the seven matches and unfortunately some players had to stand aside such was the competition for places. The only disappointment was against Greater Manchester, when we defaulted two boards much to my chagrin when selected players failed to turn up. From then on it was tension all the way. In the closely contested Midland zone we trailed early leaders Staffordshire by 6–4, but won five of the last six games to finish. Leicestershire, who had already qualified, appeared to be in second gear and we had a relatively easy victory over them to overhaul our local rivals for the Midlands title. In the National quarter-final we beat Hertfordshire, with the match going down to the final two boards, while in the semi-finals a rejuvenated Leicestershire were in much more determined form, and we again scrambled through by a narrow margin. In the final, our top three boards somehow managed to conjure up two points out of three with the match going into the last two minutes of time.

All the team contributed to a superb season, and whilst I would like to congratulate everyone a special thanks go to the players who secured those last gasp victories for us. A mention too for the juniors who played: Daniel Wells, Kishan Lakhani, Amisha Parmar and Ian Harris. It is unfortunate that other events and exams inevitably clash with the competition, but our improving juniors were reliable point scorers whenever they played. My other thanks go to the team members who could be relied upon both to turn up every match and also to score vital points. John Tassi, George Murfet, Brian Hayward and Dave Flynn played in all seven matches, with Tim Lane, Tony Wright, Phil Morgan, Kevin Harvey, Keith Roper and Sean Foreman featuring in six games each. We now come to the difficult part – defending our title in 2005–06 – and I look forward to consolidating our position as the top English county at this level.

Here are the detailed results of the epic final match:

Board Grade Score Grade
1 Tony Wright 148 1–0 Dave Twitchell 149
2 Daniel Wells 146 ½–½ Graham Blowers 146
3 Tim Lane 146 ½–½ Jim McAvoy 146
4 Keith Walters 142 ½–½ Brian Jeffrey 145
5 John Tassi 141 1–0 John Burrows 145
6 Kevin Harvey 139 0–1 Henry Duncanson 144
7 Dave Flynn 136 ½–½ Tom Robinson 144
8 Keith Brameld 138 ½–½ Chris Russell 143
9 Stan Cranmer 137 ½–½ Nick Gorvin 143
10 Phil Morgan 137 1–0 Paul Badger 136
11 Brian Hayward 135 0–1 Les Gladwell 135
12 George Murfet 134 0–1 Chris Tuffin 129
13 Keith Roper 131 1–0 Joe Bell 128
14 Sean Foreman 126 ½–½ David Guttridge 126
15 Bob Taylor 130 0–1 Greg Tebble 126
16 Neil Graham 128 ½–½ Andrew Donnelly 117
Total 8–8
Board count 29–43