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Hucknall Cup I

Overview

Hucknall Cup is played along the lines of ID however the Cup is different than the Tournament. The difference is two fold with one being that in each round a player in D1 might be facing a player in D2. The second fold is that if you lose the game, you're out of the Cup.

Rounds

The tables below show who played against whom together with which country they played. In addition it shows which season the game ended & of course the GM in charge of that game.

1st Round
Home Player Home Country Away Player Away Country GM Winner Season
Michael Valentine Italy Peter Hawkins Russia Kester Bearne Peter Hawkins A03
Greg Pierce France Ally Bain Italy Jon Hucknall Ally Bain B06
Kester Bearne England Jim O'Neil Russia Todd Hunter-Gilbert Kester Bearne A06
Brian O'Farrell England Steve Hanich Russia Ally Bain Steve Hanich B05
Gabriel Lecointre France Andreas Stephens Russia Richard Hucknall Gabriel Lecointre B04
Richard Hucknall Russia Jon Hucknall Italy Steve Hanich Jon Hucknall B02
John Wright Germany Carl Hanich England Peter Hawkins Carl Hanich S03
Brian Frew France Todd Hunter-Gilbert Austria-Hungary Carl Hanich Todd Hunter-Gilbert B03

Congratulations to the above 8 winners who now proceed to the quarter-finals. Three of them are Division Two players!

There were two feature matches in Round 1. Firstly Kester (England) played against Jim (Russia) last season's rookie who is definitely not a rookie anymore! (Unfortunately Jim drew Kester as he did in his first game for IDIII). I find this combination fascinating particularly when it involves two class players. Ally and Carl believe that Russia holds a slight edge and Kester disagrees and he has proven himself right once again. In a close game, Kester again bid hard for Germany, focused on Scandinavia and aimed for StP. He won despite only having 13 centres to Jim's 20 at the end. Never build a fleet on the north coast of StP when playing against England was a lesson learnt the hard way! In the other feature game, John (Germany) was up against Carl (England); 3rd vs 2nd from IDIII. Carl managed to get a slight edge in the bidding for 1901 and never looked back as is often the case when the battle is between close neighbours.

There were also two upsets. Firstly Richard (Russia) who founded the Cup and was the IDI Champ was bundled out by his son Jon (Italy) after overbidding in 1902 and conceding. Richard can now put all his energy into getting back into Division One! There have been a few instances now in IDIV where players have overbid and rarely can one come back from such a situation. Are players becoming more aggressive with their bidding or is overbidding being pre-empted? The other upset involved Brian Frew (France) the experienced campaigner who came 3rd in IDIII losing to Todd (Austria-Hungary). Todd managed to control Italy every year and won quite quickly. Brian gave up GMing for the moment to focus on playing. Now that he is out of the Cup, he can focus completely on the League!!

In the other games, Michael (Italy) lost to Peter (Russia) as Peter quickly gained the upper hand. Peter has never lost or drawn a game of ID!! He is certainly in devastating form. Greg (France) lost to Ally (Italy) in a tight battle where Ally had to deal with a French army on Italian soil. Brian O'Farrell (England) lost to Steve (Russia) in Steve's first competition game where there was another case of overbidding but by that stage the game was already all but lost. Again Germany was the key, and Brian never controlled this mercenary. In the last game, Gabriel (France) annihilated Andreas (Russia) who never even heard of ID until a few weeks before the game commenced. Andreas is still getting a handle on the rules but I hear he is improving exponentially!

2nd Round
Home Player Home Country Away Player Away Country GM Winner Season
Carl Hanich Russia Steve Hanich Italy Richard Hucknall Carl Hanich S03
Jon Hucknall Austria-Hungary Ally Bain Russia Todd Hunter-Gilbert Jon Hucknall A05
Peter Hawkins France Todd Hunter-Gilbert England Steve Hanich Peter Hawkins B03
Kester Bearne Italy Gabriel Lecointre Austria-Hungary Richard Hucknall Gabriel Lecointre A03

Congratulations to the above four winners who now proceed to the Semi-finals and are guaranteed at least one Hall of Fame point! A special mention of Jon who remains the only Division Two player left. Can Jon go all the way? And Carl is the only Division One player left from IDIII. Peter in particular keeps going from strength to strength.

The longest game was the Jon (Austria-Hungary) vs the highly fancied Ally (Russia). Was Ally distracted about becoming a Grandpa? Or was Jon just too strong? Ally got off to a solid start, but Jon slowly gained the upper hand. The other upset was Gabriel (Austria-Hungary) ousting the reigning champ Kester (Italy). Kester, by his standards has certainly hit a lean period. Despite what the stats say, I think Italy is hard to play against Austria-Hungary particularly when played by an accomplished player such as the IDIII D2 Runner-up. The bidding didn't go Kester's way early on and he was behind already by the end of 1901. Against a class player, that is all it takes!

The other two games were won by D1 players against two emerging D2 players vying for a D1 berth in IDV. Carl (Russia) quickly disposed of younger brother Steve (Italy) who is quickly gaining in experience in the second family battle of this inaugural Cup! Carl got Germany and Austria-Hungary which ensured that Russia was in a very strong position and once Russia gets going, it is very hard to stop! And Peter (France) continued on his amazing ID run against Todd (England). Todd went out hard in 1901 bidding all for and gaining Germany and Italy. But with a huge credit deficit, Todd could not maintain the pressure and ended up overbidding in 1903 as Peter managed to get the upper hand. Many games seem to have been lost in IDIV by overspending although in this case, Todd would probably have lost anyway as a draw is never an option in this pairing.

3rd Round
Home Player Home Country Away Player Away Country GM Winner Season
Jon Hucknall England Gabriel Lecointre Russia Steve Hanich Gabriel Lecointre B06
Peter Hawkins Turkey Carl Hanich France Richard Hucknall Carl Hanich S06

Gabriel (Russia) was too strong for Jon (England) in this classic tussle. Getting France in 1901 and Germany in 1902 enabled Gabriel to keep Jon to only five centres after 1902 which allowed Gabriel to secure Scandinavia early and grow very quickly. The IDIII Division Two Runner-up is now in the inaugural Hucknall Cup Final!

And in a very tight contest, Carl's France opened hard to Italy to get over the stalemate line against Peter's Turkey. Peter did not have Germany or Italy at all in the first two years which allowed Carl to quickly move east. Whilst battling it out in the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, Carl's France then made steady progress throughout England and Scandinavia and Peter then didn't have enough units to defend on all fronts.

Final Round
Home Player Home Country Away Player Away Country GM Winner Season
Gabriel Lecointre England Carl Hanich Italy Richard Hucknall TBA TBA

Synopsis to follow.

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