Devon v Norfolk, Minor Counties Final, July 2 2022

 One of the longest running events in English chess is the County Championships, and though the number of competing counties has declined over the years, the events are still keenly contested. Previous editions of this event have had a big finals day somewhere in the Midlands, but representations from the more far-flung counties have persuaded the ECF to allow competing teams to arrange for their final to be played at a more mutually convenient venue. Thus, of the six finals being contested that day, only one, Yorkshire v Middlesex in the U-1850s, was played in what would be considered a normal Leicestershire venue.

People who've followed my county games over the years will know that, although I live in Devon, I normally play for Somerset, where I grew up - and indeed I have been playing for them in the WECU Online Championships over the past couple of seasons. But I had managed not to play any over-the-board chess for Somerset by the time the national stages of this year's event rolled around, and so I was available to play for Devon in this year's final at Woking.

Board	Norfolk CCA	Grade	Result	Devon CCA	Grade
1	Walker, Martin G	2305	0 - 1	Arkell, Keith C	2465
2	Cubitt, Clive	2195	0 - 1	Rudd, Jack	2410
3	McEwan, Ken B	2163	1 - 0	Haynes, Jos E	2110
4	Moore, Gerald	2170	½ - ½	Underwood, Jonathan WR	2118
5	Orton, Stephen LA	2125	1 - 0	Bolt, Graham	2043
6	Hughes, Roy	2095	½ - ½	Brusey, Alan W	2043
7	New, Alexander	1983	½ - ½	Archer-Lock, Christopher J	2005
8	Lim, Mark	1908	½ - ½	Homer, Stephen J	1987
9	Abbott, Nathan J	1840	½ - ½	Martin, Steven	1960
10	Jeffery, Brian R	1870	½ - ½	Shaw, Meyrick	1983
11	Hall, Antony C	1855	0 - 1	Wheeler, John F	1983
12	Palaneappan, Senthil Murugan	1790	0 - 1	Bellers, Chris JV	1983
13	Larter, Nigel J	1878	0 - 1	Butland, Nick J	1953
14	Payne, David J	1780	½ - ½	Stinton-Brownbridge, Michael H	1848
15	Wickham, John R	1645	½ - ½	Caleshu, Caleb	1861
16	Yelverton, Ben	1685	1 - 0	Honey, Luke	1380
			7 - 9

My game was one of the first to finish, despite being over 50 moves long, and my opponent and I immediately went off to analyse it. After a long analysis session, it turned out that Devon were now three up and well placed to go on to victory; this was clinched fairly soon after with John Wheeler's win, which left us 8-4 ahead with just four games going - and the knowledge that even if we lost all four, we would win on board count. We did not lose all four, and so won the match outright. Congratulations to the team.