This years Spens Cup final was contested in Grangemouth between EK and Troon. Allow me to introduce the team

Alan Jelfs	Phil Thomas	Tony Dunlop	Tom Brisbane	Daniel Thomas

and of course me.

This morning I was sitting in the living room waiting to be picked up by Phil and I can honestly say I have never been so nervous in my life. I have been looking forward to today ever since we unexpectedly beat Civil Service in the Semis. We left and had a good discussion on the merits of the Sicilian Defence. 11:20 and we get a call from Tony wondering where we were. Just around the corner thankfully.

We arrived for the 12:30 start and I filled in the teamsheet. Problem number 1. We were there but Troon weren't. Donald wanted to start so after a chat, we agreed to wait for our opponents and start the other tournies. Donald reckoned we would have to start by 12:45 - 12:50. Thankfully Troon arrived about 10 mins later and we exchanged lists. Problem number 2 (well I don't know if it really is a problem!). Troon only had 5 players which meant that I was not getting a game. On the other hand it means we were 1-0 before we started.

Off we went and for the first 90 minutes all the games seemed to be equal. I settled down for a, as I put it to Donald, relaxing afternoon. HA!

There is a downside to having a default win. Normally you don't win the tie break. I worked out we were ok as long as Alan and either Phil and Tony won. Anything else was a bonus. Looking at the grades, for the first time that I can remember, we outgraded our opponents. That gave me concern as we are best as underdogs.

After 90 mins, Tony started to get ahead. His opponent had made a blunder and lost the exchange. Tony in his true cavalier style, used this and promptly punished his opponent who resigned shortly after. 2-0 up and things are looking good. Daniel was 2 pawns up and we looked level on the other three boards.

Daniel approached me, he was wanting to know if he could take a draw. Quick check of the boards. They would have to score 2.5/3 on the remaining boards and from the positions that just was not going to happen. I told Daniel that if he felt a draw was the best result on his board to take it. Result, we were 2.5-0.5 up.

A little later and I take a wee walk around to see what was happening. To my horror I realised that Alan was about to lose a piece, Phil was looking to be in a bit of a pickle and Tom was holding on and defending really well. Tom had a really solid position and it was hard to see how his opponent could make any headway. Quick calculation told me that it was heading for 3-3 and we were going to lose on board count.

Alan and Phil were in totally lost positions, both were a piece and pawns down. Tom was in a drawn game. Alan threw his pawns forward to assault the Kingside. Success, Alan managed to capitalise on an uncharacteristic mistake and forced a draw with a Bishop sac. 3-1.

Tom was playing very solidly and looked like he was going to secure the win. I'm not sure what happened but next thing I knew he had lost. I never saw it coming and was heading to the board to congratulate him. The score was 3-2

3-3 was no good as we would lose on board count.

Phil was so far behind we were praying for a miracle. Every time he set a trap to get back into the game, he was thwarted. The game had been going for 80 moves, Phil is facing 2 passed connected pawns in the centre and is the exchange down. No one gave him a chance. There were gloomy EK faces all watching the board. Phil just went for it and advanced a pawn to the 7th. Incredibly his opponent focussed totally on this pawn and missed a win, blundered and gave Phil  a B v 2xP endgame which gave us the draw we needed. Final score EK 3.5 - 2.5 Troon.

When the blunder had been played we all looked at each other stunned.

Move 63 is the start of the sequence

We have won the Spens for the first time in our history with all the fame and glory that it brings :-)