Steve Peirson sent the following report on the Dorset Blitz and an update a few days later.  If you have already read the report but want to see the update, please scroll to the end.

Bacon Butties and Unfortunate Flooding

A last minute entry from Adam Ursell meant that, once again, we were lucky with the number of entrants with thirty giving us three ten-player groups. This meant the time limit would be 10 minutes + 5 second increment which I believe is, strictly speaking, a little too slow for blitz but I think this was welcomed by some of the more, how shall I put it, experienced entrants!

I was at the hall by 8.00 am to start putting out the tables and chairs and was joined about half an hour later by Martin and Lucy who started sorting things out in the kitchen – this included getting ready to make bacon butties for those who wanted one (I did and it was an excellent way to start the day). Later, Martin and Lucy were joined in the kitchen by Lucy’s daughter Emmeline, Nikki (who brought along a vegetarian curry for lunch) and my wife Lindsey who made the puddings. That’s all the help I had booked for the kitchen but they were to be joined later by Larissa’s mum Wendy.

Play got underway more or less on time and everything was going smoothly until late morning when I needed to answer a call of nature. When I went out of the playing hall I was horrified to see water literally pouring out of the gents’ toilet. Bizarrely, the top of one of the taps had come off and fallen into the sink and blocked the plug hole. But somebody had for some unknown reason left the tap running. The toilet floor was awash and the carpet in the entrance hall was soaked. So Martin took over controller duties while I started mopping up – I was joined by Lindsey and Lucy who did sterling and rather unpleasant work drying out the toilet. Thanks also to Lucy’s husband John who provided two blankets which were very useful in soaking up the water. Nobody owned up to leaving the tap on.

Anyway, on to the chess …

Group A

Adam Ursell got off to a flying start with three wins in the first three rounds. In fact he never lost the lead but reigning champion Mike Waddington pulled level in round seven when he beat Adam. They both went on to win their final two games and therefore shared first place and are joint champions.

James Forster picked up third place.

Bill Adaway (not pictured) won the Veteran’s prize, Finn Schell the Junior Prize and Ian Clark the Rating Prize

Group B

Florence Spirling had an equally good start as Adam but eventually had to withdraw because she was feeling ill. At that point several players were in with a chance but Femi Oloyede had a fantastic run, winning his last five games to finish a point clear of Zander Booth.

Mark Potter was in third.

Martin Clancy won the Veteran’s prize, Ellis Fretwell the Junior prize and Paul Jackson the Rating Prize.

Group C

Four players were in the running when the afternoon session started but the leader, Matteo Wiltshire, who had won all his games in the morning, continued his winning streak through the afternoon and finished with a magnificent 9 / 9, two points clear of Tony Sanderson in second place.

John Bowley was in third place.

Paul Errington won the Veteran’s prizes, Larissa Cuthbert the junior prize (also joint third) and Darrell Sturmey the Rating prize.

A Big Thank You!

I had bought four boxes of chocolates to hand out to the helpers: Lucy, Emmeline, Nikki and, of course, Martin (I did feel a bit bad not getting Lindsey a box but we’ve already got loads of chocolates at home!). However, I needed to give Wendy a box so I’m afraid Martin missed out (see photo!) but he still wanted a photo of him receiving a box so we did do a presentation even though he had to give it back afterwards!

As usual, I’d like to finish by thanking everyone who helped – Lucy, Emmeline, Nikki (pictured), Wendy (pictured), Lindsey and Martin (pictured) – and everybody who turned up to play – hopefully you all enjoyed yourselves and I hope to see you all again next year!