Coulsdon Christmas Internationals

As I said two posts ago, I have been away for the past week, at the Coulsdon Christmas International. I said, at the time, that I was only going to be an arbiter, but fate decided otherwise. Stephen Crowdy was too ill to travel back to England, and I was the only rated player available to take his place in the Challengers.

Illness proved to be a recurring theme in the Challengers section: Roger Hutchings was taken ill after three games, and there was much rearranging of fixtures while we waited to see if he was going to be well enough to play his games later in the week. Eventually, it turned out that he wasn't, and he withdrew from the tournament. Still, by playing three games and scoring one point, he ensured that he would get a partial rating from this event. As did John Torrance, who played seven games and scored one and a half points.

There will be more posts about Coulsdon in the next few days, but not just yet. Coulsdon to Bideford is a five-and-a-half hour journey, and I'm a bit tired.