The club entered two teams in this year’s Nottinghamshire Team Handicap Knockout tournament: West Nottingham Nightmare (captained by Ian Kingston) and West Nottingham Daydream (captained by David Levens).
The format is a knockout tournament for 16 teams of three players each. Each team must play in strict grading order. The teams are handicapped by giving extra time to the lower graded player on each board. The difference between the two players’ grades is calculated, and the result (in minutes) is added to and subtracted from 60. The lower graded player then starts with 60 + (grading difference) minutes and the higher graded player has 60 – (grading difference) minutes for all moves. The higher graded player receives a minimum of 10 minutes, whatever the grading difference.
In Round 1, a strong Daydream team faced the maximum handicap on Boards 2 and 3, and almost the maximum on Board 1. In the end, this proved just too much to overcome. David Levens blundered and lost, Billy Grewal’s draw offer was accepted by Marcel Taylor with only two seconds remaining on Billy’s clock, and Amarjit Mehton somehow contrived to win on time, despite the handicap. The resulting tied match was awarded, under the rules, to the lower-graded Radcliffe Rabbits.
The Nightmare, captained for the night by Pete Williamson, had the better of the handicap against Newark B, but were unable to take advantage of it, losing 3–0.
The draw for and results of this year’s tournament are given below. The semi-final and final results have been inferred from the Ashfield CC web site.
| Round 1 | Round 2 | Round 3 | Round 4 |
|---|---|---|---|
| A Gambit Boys 1 | |||
| H Bingham Bunnies 2 | |||
| H Bingham Bunnies ½ | |||
| A Ashfield Astra 2½ | |||
| A Ashfield Astra 2 | |||
| H University Wiseheads 1 | |||
| A Ashfield Astra | |||
| H Bigmat Yobs | |||
| A Radcliffe Rabbits 1½ | |||
| H West Nottingham Daydream 1½ | |||
| H Radcliffe Rabbits 1 | |||
| A Bigmat Yobs 2 | |||
| A Ashfield Amateurs 0 | |||
| H Bigmat Yobs 3 | |||
| Bigmat Yobs | |||
| Ashfield Allstars | |||
| A Noname 2½ | |||
| H Ashfield Academicals ½ | |||
| H Noname ½ | |||
| A Newark B 2½ | |||
| A West Nottingham Nightmare 0 | |||
| H Newark B 3 | |||
| A Newark B | |||
| H Ashfield Allstars | |||
| A Charlie’s Angels 0 (default) | |||
| H Ashfield Allstars 3 | |||
| H Ashfield Allstars 2 | |||
| A Bunkers 1 | |||
| A Newark A 1 | |||
| H Bunkers 2 |
| 1 | B. Grewal (174) | ½ | – | ½ | M. Taylor (126) |
| 2 | D. Levens (160) | 0 | – | 1 | B. Redburn (99) |
| 3 | A. Mehton (148) | 1 | – | 0 | M. Falgate (66) |
| 1½ | – | 1½ |
| 1 | D. Wells (146) | 1 | – | 0 | L. Messam-Sparks (91) |
| 2 | I. Burridge (126) | 1 | – | 0 | E. Williamson (77) |
| 3 | R. Myers (104) | 1 | – | 0 | P. Williamson (77) |
| 3 | – | 0 |