Not other finals but a bit of background. I think that the Bedfordshire interest in this match is because it was the first time the county had reached a national final. In the age before 4NCL this was the best team chess available.Christopher Kreuzer wrote: ↑Tue Mar 12, 2024 8:19 pm....
I wonder if a similar look at other country finals from this era will revive other memories. Can anyone think of any particular county final that was particularly memorable? Some of them will have already been heavily reported on at the time (or since), but maybe some have not.
Throughout that season Beds had punched above its weight. Our big counterweight was that the local league was an early adopter of quick play finishes as used in the national stages. Earlier we had beaten Cornwall in a telephone match; we still reminisce about Adrian Elwin making an incredible (in the days before bullet chess) amount of moves in normally not enough OTB time. He used an precursor of pre-moves prepared while awaiting transmission. Against Derbyshire in I think the quarter finals, we needed (from memory) 3/4 from the remaining games. I had a safe draw the others were distinctly dodgy. After doing my duty but with a heroic failure, I got up to find the other 3 had been turned round.
Paul Habershon has described his important part in that final upthread.
The following year Oxon got their revenge, but after we had pulled out our greatest giant-killing told herehttp://www.adrianelwin.co.uk/Bedfordshire/Surrey.html. The result was particularly outrageous from my point of view. Previously I had played in the Surrey league top division and occasionally on top board. I had never played for their first team, apart from one 11am desperate late call up . (Kevin has alluded to Surrey situation whereby they even ended up in the minor counties.)
By the time our next generation reached the final again (2004) most adversaries were now used to quickplays and the status had been diminished by the rise of 4NCL. Normal but less memorable strategies prevailed.
