Two special events took place recently at Broadstairs Chess Club as the season approaches its close. First David Horton gave a simultaneous display against the other members of the club and congratulations to the four players who either won or drew their matches against him.  A week later the annual Broadstairs Blitz competition took place which for the first time included the use of our digital clocks.  With each player allocated six minutes on the clock, every second counts and the new clocks proved a great success.  

Fourteen players took part and as usual they were divided into two teams.  With the Ashes being keenly contested this summer, it seemed appropriate for the teams to be named England and Australia.  The format of the competition is that each player plays against every member of the opposing team i.e. seven games each in all.  There are therefore prizes for the best team and the highest-scoring individual.  It would be reassuring to state that England won the team competition but sadly that was not the case.  The winning Australia team was (individual scores in brackets): Ian Hames (7/7), Paul Carfrae (6), John Cutting (4), Tawan Naepnian (4), Reg Pidduck (3), Michael Olley (2.5) and Oliver Vince (1).  Ian Hames won the individual prize, a bottle of Australian wine.  The gallant losers were as follows: Bob Page (6), David Horton (5), John Couzens (3), Tom Lovegrove (2.5), Peter Timlett (2), Elliott Boyes (2) and David Clifford (1).