National Club Handicap Rapidplay, 20 April 2008

The National Club Handicap Rapidplay event for teams of four was held on Sunday 20 April in the pleasant surroundings of Magdalen College School Oxford. 5 rounds, with 20 minutes per player, were played. The system applied the previous year was adopted, with the lower-graded team in each match receiving an increment to its score based on the difference between the average grades of the sides:

The 13 entries necessitated a bye, for which 3 points were awarded in line with the precedent established in 2007.

The event was led throughout by the Magdalen College School Blackbirds B team comprising John Place, Daniel Rey, Edward Down and Patrick McKenna. Although as the lowest graded team in the competition this received a handicap increment in every round, the real key to its success was the performance on board 3 by Edward Down graded 95, who scored 3½ out of 5 against opposition with an average grade of 143. Mushrooms, the highest graded team, were close behind and trailed the Blackbirds by just one point going into the last round, but did not manage to score quite heavily enough and finished two points behind.

Scores of 5 out of 5 were achieved by Mike Healey (board 3 for Oxford University 1) and Robbie Coleman (board 2 for Oxford University 3).

Final scores: