Well done on two excellent sets of results. Great wins for both teams this evening (more of the controversy in a bit).

Firstly a big thank you to Finn Schell for stepping in to play to replace Zander who is travelling in South Africa and without internet this week. On Wednesday evening, the team was one player short as no one else seemed available to play. Ellis had even tried to change his shift at work but without success. Then this morning a miracle happened; firstly I received an email saying that Joshua Richards could possibly play the second round if needed, followed not long after by Finn’s offer to play – which I gladly accepted. Not that much later, Harry Mercer’s mum also let me know that Harry would like to play. Unfortunately for Harry, I had already registered Finn by that stage but Harry will be warmly welcomed into the squad, especially for Season 9 (starting soon!).

There was a minor panic a little later when the 4NCL system temporarily rejected Finn as it couldn’t locate his fair play form. After some panicked emails, all was resolved and I updated the team again from a layby on the A31!

And the excitement was yet to come……

Dorset Juniors 1: won 6.0 to 0.5

A great result!

There were nice double wins for Hugo and Sam, and Finn won one and lost one against his equally highly rated opponent (the ratings listed here differ somewhat from the Lichess ratings which are often higher).

Jason’s opponent was, however, missing in action, eventually appearing 17 minutes after the start of the round and immediately initiating the challenge to play to Jason. In the tension of the moment, Jason accepted the challenge and played, but then realised he could have claimed a default and only played the second game. Meanwhile Jason and his opponent were notified that the game had been set up incorrectly by the opponent as a casual game rather than rated. In such circumstances, the arbiters usually give the players an opportunity to void the game and restart with the correct time control. But when Jason tried to reissue the challenge, his opponent had disappeared again, never to return.

VAR – aka the arbiter – awarded Jason the second match by default but called the first match a void, so 0-0. The ruling was based on the fact that Jason had accepted the challenge rather than claim a default straightaway, and that since the error was not fixed by a restart, the match was void.

Ummm, it is difficult to restart and fix the error when the opponent has gone! I registered our viewpoint via the official captains channel.

But a message to all players – please check the ‘time control’ before accepting a challenge. As a reminder, it should be 10 + 5 and RATED.

The opponents, Brentwood School B, were deducted a half point for the second default.

If you wish to see how the other teams got on please see the full results for the round.

Our team remains top of Group A equal with Suffolk Juniors on 11, with a higher number of game points. With one round to go, the results should guarantee our Dorset Juniors 1 a place in the semi-finals.

Dorset Juniors 2: won 7 – 1

Another fantastic result!

There were double wins for Michal and Ollie and one win, one draw for Jack and Arthur, so effectively a clean sheet.

To see how the other teams got on please see the full results for the round.

This result lifts our Dorset Juniors 2 team two places up the Division 4 table from 6th to 4th and within touching distance of promotion, again with one round to go. There are no semi-finals and finals to decide promotion in Division 4.

The full table can be found here