This was held at Eastwinds, it is 'away' for all the Packs so there would be no advantage to any of them. Teams consisted of 2 Chess players and 2 Draughts players, with everybody getting involved with the Connect 4. Our gallant chess and drafters were Jess, Ryan, Shaun and Xenos. These four had been the winners in the play-off we had held over the last few Pack Nights. We had high hopes for them.
The first section for both Chess and Draughts was a round robin affair with two groups with everybody played everybody else. The top four from each group would go through to the quarter finals, semi-finals and then the final.
Chess
Ryan was put into the section that would hold some strong players and after the first three games he had lost two to Checkmate and narrowly been beaten on points in a 'blood-fest' game that had left little but royalty and a couple of pawns on the field of battle. At this point he seemed to get a little dispirited, until he was told that there might be a special certificate and award for the 'Sportsman (Cub) that turned up did their best but did not win a game. At this news he brightened up and played with a new sense of purpose. Jess played well and was only beaten once in all her games with most of the games being decided on points.
Draughts
Shaun and Xenos played well against strong opposition and did well, winning and loosing in equal measure Xenos and one opponent managed to end in a stalemate so were awarded equal points for this. This turned out to be almost important as it meant that the Draughters had 9 players eligible for the 'final' rounds. Xenos and the other Cubs name were put into a hat and Xenos was unlucky that his name stayed in the hat.
Connect Four
This meant that all our Cubs were able to take part in the Connect Four, in this they were no more successful with only Xenos managing to get past the first round. The Cubs then went outside to explore the gardens that had been tamed out of the adventurous wooded area that had been so much of the character of the old Eastwinds.
Then excitement, Xenos was invited back in to play again, this time for the third place position. This after a draw he won. Hooray for him. The Chess and draughts finals ended about the same time after a tense game in both disciplines.
All that was left was for Simon (ADC Cubs) to thank everybody, for helping and taking part. The winners were announced with Tuesday Cubs doing very well, Xenos picked up his Certificate for Third place and Ryan to his huge delight managed to win the Sportsman award for the Chess.
Jess found out that playing connect four against Akela was not easy, she won a nail biting first game but was then taken to the cleaners for the next six or seven. She had discovered that Akela is a brilliant Connect Four. player. The other three wisely decided to not challenge Akela and borrowed Hathi's camera to take some pictures of their friends.
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Despite the Cubs not winning they were given a lift home by Akela, in the sunshine it must be said.