Friday 17 August 2012

Lille Women 6

Our last 16 opponents were China. This is what happens when you don't do well enough in the Round Robin to exercise choice. Mind you I doubt we would have been their choice either. We both ran out of other possible opponents so a repeat of the Gold Medal Match from Beijing it was.

We were one up after 16 and 10 down at the end of te day. On the second day of the match(all KO matches are of 96 boards) we got to 9 in front with one set to play and the team played very well to win the last set hardly conceding an imp. On to the Quarter Finals we go with a match against Sweden. They were also our opponents in the QF in Veldhoven last year in the Venice Cup. On that occasion a very close match for 5 sets ended with the English putting on 50+ in the last set to triumph.

The last set in other matches did not lack excitement. USA were 65 down to Poland and lost by only 4. Indonesia were about 55 down to Turkey but the first 6 boards of the last set were 63-0 to Indonesia and they hung on to win. An enormous last set for Monaco in the Open to finally see off Canada showed clearly that these long matches are a matter of never say die! Even if you have a comfortable lead a couple of bad results to start with are often followed by some more.

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