The grades of the Yorkshire players when compared with those of the opposing team, Devon, statistically predicted a score of 6‑6 or slightly more probably 6½‑5½ to Devon, who had Paignton-resident GM Keith Arkell on board 1.

An unfortunate circumstance was that Farshad Ai for some reason was unable to play, so that Yorkshire started off defaulting the board on which they were most likely to win, on the basis of grade. The first result was a 10-move draw on board 1. Then followed a 10-move win by Peter Gayson on board 4. Thereafter things went largely Devon’s way, with some critical oversights by Yorkshire players. The final game to finish, an impressive one by Oskar Hackner, returned the score to something more respectable. Even if Farshad Ai had played and won on board 10, then the result would still have been the predicted 6½-5½ to Devon.

Game results were as follows:

Bd	Grade	Devon	7½‑4½	Yorkshire	Grade
1	240	Keith C Arkell (W)	½‑½	James R Adair	228	play
2	225	William Claridge-Hansen	0‑1	Oskar A Hackner	219	play
3	201	Paul A O'Neill	1‑0	Robert Starley	193	play
4	198	Dominic Mackle	0‑1	Peter M Gayson	189	play
5	185	Paul D J Hampton	½‑½	Peter J E Ackley	190	play
6	189	Jonathan W R Underwood	1‑0	David Latham	189	play
7	178	Thomas G Thorpe	1‑0	Simon Smith	172	play
8	170	Oliver E Wensley	1‑0	Peter Micklethwaite	176	play
9	169	Steven Martin	0‑1	David C Wedge	170	play
10	153	Brian G E Gosling	1d0	Farshad Ai	174
11	152	Michael O Marshall	½‑½	Mark S Allison	168	play
12	153	Nicolas Bacon	1‑0	Dominic Gallagher	116	play

Click on “play” to play through the game on screen.

The present writer played for Devon while at university (even on board one in two matches, scoring 1½-½), but none of the above was in the Devon team then.

The Group A league table shows Yorkshire is not well placed to take one of the top two places which qualify for the following knock-out stage:

	Li	De	Mi	Ch	Yo	Le	P	W	D	L	F	A	Total
Lincolnshire	X		8	8		8	3	3	0	0	24	12	6
Devon		X	5		7	8½	3	2	0	1	20½	15½	4
Middlesex A	4	7	X		7		3	2	0	1	18	18	4
Cheshire & N. Wales	4			X	5	9	3	1	0	2	18	18	2
Yorkshire		5	5	7	X		3	1	0	2	17	19	2
Leicestershire	4	3½		3		X	3	0	0	3	10½	25½	0

Other match results on the same day were:

Group A

Cheshire &NW	9‑3	Leicestershire
Lincolnshire	8‑4	Middlesex A

Group B

Greater Manchester	9‑3	Bedfordshire & Hertfordshire
Surrey	2‑10	Northumberland
Essex	3½‑8½	Norfolk

The next round is to be in a week’s time, on 25/07/2020, when Yorkshire is due to meet Lincolnshire.