Final Fiasco

Well it wasn't to be in the Perry Trophy Final against Newcastle last night. 2 draws and 2 losses from Fenton meant that Newcastle ran out as worthy 3-1 winners. On paper it looked like an exceptionally close match with barely any grading points seperating all of the players. However, it was the Newcastle team of 60's pop icon Sandie Shaw, Paul Crapham, Tommy Cooper and Tom Jones who rose to the occasion. Richard Cantliff was the Puppet On a String on Board 1 for Fenton and set the tone for the evening with an early loss against Sandie Shaw. He was followed shortly afterwards by Robert West on Board 4, who lost a piece against Tom Jones and resigned shortly afterwards saying "It's Not Unusual". This left myself and Neal Davies needing wins on Boards 2 and 3 to win the match for us on board count. Unfortunately it wasn't to be as my game against Tommy Cooper petered out into a draw - just like that !!  Any hope of Paul Crapham performing his usual trick of losing on time were extinguished when we agreed to play on Trentham Mean Time, which has 75 minutes in each hour, instead of Greenwich Meantime. With the match score already standing at 2.5 - 0.5 in favour of Newcastle, and the Trophy in their pocket, Neal and Paul agreed a draw, resulting in a 3-1 win for the Newcastle Celebrity team.