Worcester City Win Wheatley Cup for Third Year!

Worcester City Chess Club's 2008 season ended with a triumphant 5-0 victory in the final of the county knockout competition for the Wheatley Cup. This competition in the Worcestershire League is a team handicap event. Higher-rated teams may have to win by a big margin to take the match.

In the semi-final, Worcester came through a tense struggle to beat a much stronger Malvern team on handicap. For match details click here. The final score for Malvern 3 - 2 in their favour was not sufficient.

The Final was fixed for 17 June and was to be played at Greenlands Social Club in Longbridge Birmingham against Headless Cross. When player lists were exchanged, it was clear that Worcester would have to win by a large margin because we were much the higher graded side.

Laurence Wheatley, the tournament Controller decide that Worcester would need at least 4 points from the five boards to win. The toss was called and Headless Cross took white on the odd-numbered boards.

Laurence Wheatly, far left, makes the presentation to Ray Collett, Captain of victorious Worcester City team.

The prospect of a Worcester win looked unlikely when Rob Cumiskey blundered a piece at the start of his game. His position seemed hopeless. Now everyone else would have to win.

The first sign of hope came on board 1 where Steve Mellor outplayed Glenn Cox in a Benko Gambit to win in fine style. More good news followed on bottom board, as Colin Vernon forced checkmate from his king-side attack. At this stage, Worcester seemed to be better in two of the remaining games, but they were far from clear.

Eventually, a tense struggle on Board 3 saw Worcester's Andrew Farthing squeeze a win against David Richardson, in an endgame that could have gone either way. All eyes turned to Rob Cumiskey's game, where – miraculously – the Worcester player had won back his piece and had a winning position.

Minutes later, the crucial fourth point was on the board. To cap a triumphant evening, Ray Collett won the last game to finish. Ray had gained an early middle-game advantage against Mark Hore's Queen's Fianchetto Defence, but did not find the best continuation so that Mark had achieved equality 30 moves into the game. Then Mark blundered away a pawn crucial for defending his king. Ray steadily increased his advantage and Mark ran out of time just before Ray could deliver checkmate. For match details, click here.