A Day On Portland Bill

If we are not careful, John and I can find that we've worked for 2 or more weeks and not had a day off. So, we now try to build days off into our week. We had been fortunate with our b&b in Weymouth to get 3 nights for the price of 2, so were able to stay over on the Sunday night and have some free time on Monday. I had said that I wanted to go over to Portland Bill, as I hadn't been there before and Tyson offered to show us around.

We met him at the highest point on the island and spent almost 6 hours looking around. He had lots of interesting information about what we were seeing and knew of all sorts of hidden vistas. For example, we climbed a bank and there below us was a working quarry. We visited the Victorian High Angle Battery, which looks like a series of grassy mounds, but when you get up close reveals itself as concrete tunnels and gun emplacements. We naturally visited Portland Bill and were treated to a heavy hail storm - after a morning of glorious sunshine. We took refuge in the cafe and had a meal, with a beautiful rainbow as a background. The remainder of the day was cold and reminded us that it was almost November.

We ended our tour with a visit to Chesil Beach - one of my favourite geographical features ever since I first visited it as a student. Again it didn't disappoint. We spent quite a while there and I must admit that by the time we got back to our van and set off on our way home I was very cold. However, it had been a lovely day with no work, no chess, just a time to relax and rejuvenate.

Weymouth Chess Congress

John and I spent last weekend running our bookstall at the Weymouth Chess Congress. The congress had moved to a new hotel, which is always interesting for us as we have to rethink the position and layout of the stall. This time we were able to use the small bar area annexed to the ballroom which was being used as the playing venue. The playing area itself was a large room with plenty of space between tables, even when everyone was seated. I was told by one of the players that the floor was maple and that he had been involved in the laying of it 20 years previously.

We were also running a bookstall at the Caterham Congress at the same time. My parents, who know nothing about chess, had agreed to man the stall there. As a result, John decided that he would be better than I manning the mobile with any problems or queries from Caterham.

Friday evening started well when I beat an ungraded player in an equal material endgame. (My knight and king were more centrally placed than his, so I was pretty sure that I had an advantage). However, that was to be the last game that I won all weekend, one of my worst tournaments ever. I did have some tough games, and it was an under-125, but even so......