Eric Sachs has written an excellent and amusing report on the first ever match in the Bacchus League. Poole Knights v Wimborne, Thurs 4 Oct. Purpose of the League to give graded, match play opportunities to lower graded and often less experienced players, especially emerging youngsters. Grading max 100. Wimborne, managed by the experienced Mike Davidson brought supporters to the RBL, in itself unusual, but Eric reports no incidents and segregation not needed. If fact, the view from the terraces was quite nervy at times and he describes the match overall as “heart stopping” and a fair result.

To see details of the match and Eric’s full comments, please go to LMS and Bacchus East. 5 teams taking part – the original idea for Bacchus came from the Wimborne Club, Phil Wallace and Mike Davidson himself

Footnote 5 Oct – Eric sent this additional report – not on Bacchus and with photos. Especially well done to Eric Sachs and Mike Davidson who put in a lot of work to get this first match underway.

“All matches played in good spirit with a little help in hitting the clock and scoring from both Greg Webb and yours truly. Great to see the kids playing especially after seeing Josh and Felix developing through the ranks from yr 3/4 years old and now at Poole Grammar school in yr 8. Superb winning  performance from Jack Bozic playing his first ever serious competitive game of chess.

Wimborne entered into the spirit of the evening and good to see them well supported.

Great start for the Bacchus league! Well done in bringing it all together”.

Poole players in the 2 photos: at top of page: Jack/Josh/Felix and Steve

and image immediately above: Steve Bailey/Felix Wyatt/Josh Leggatt and Jack Bozic

The Wimborne team, board 1 to 4 was David Lane (who played Steve Bailey), Sam Walker, Phil Atkinson and Paul Dominey. So Wimborne team in reverse order for image at top of page