4NCL Online League – Season 11 – Wessex Squad Round 8 – Play-off Semi-Finals Report

An excellent overall season from our Wessex teams saw 3 of them go into the play-offs for a shot to becoming division champions. Spoiler alert – Wessex A march on whilst Wessex E & Wessex F now get a sabbatical until it all ramps up again next September.

I was off winning the Portsmouth Division 1 title for Fareham (OK, more accurately, my draw helped our 6 player team prevail) so my thanks to Peter Anderson for doing the “time control checks” and contacting our MIA player, although sadly to no avail.

So here are the individual match reports…….

Division 1 Play-off – Semi-Final

A somewhat bizarre win for Wessex (although we’ll take it!). Gavin received a walkover against Keith Arkell—déjà vu, as the same thing happened in December 2023 during the Season 8 Div 1 Play-off Final, against the same opponent!

The default win, plus a half-point penalty for Salopians, meant that draws from David and Christian were enough to clinch the match by the unusual score of 2 – 1.5.

Division 3 Play-off – Semi-Final – Wessex E

Another strange match, with both teams defaulting a board. Better Call Tal fielded a very strong board 1, although Phil was more than ready for battle and was comfortably winning at one point before overlooking a tactic that turned the game in his opponent’s favour.

Similarly, on board 4, Stephen had a promising position out of the opening before a piece sacrifice swung the momentum decisively.

The double defaults led to another unusual final score: 2.5 – 0.5.