Mammoth in the home

Elimination tournament have a habit of turning up some strange results and pairings. One of the more curious Australian ones was the pairing of Mrs. C.V. Henri vs Mr. S.J. Henri in the very first final of the Hammond Mammoth Tournament.
James and Carmelita saw great potential here for disruption in the home, so they soon resolved that all moves must be delivered via the post box. All temptations to hand deliver the next move after analysing over breakfast seem to have been resisted. Holidays, cessations etc were meticulously noted on the scoresheet.
Perhaps unfortunately for posterity, the game was not very interesting. James gained a positional advantage in the opening and slowly exploited it for another 40 moves. The most fascinating psychological gambit of the whole unnatural encounter was the curious note in the margin : “Holidays. It’s a boy!”
The sequel was rather ironic. With one game left, James playing rather well, was undefeated and had wrapped up first place (a silver bar and a nice amount of cash). Carmelita, not disrupted by her own psychological gambit, had also played well to hold second by half a point. James needed to win his last game for the household to clean up big. However, his attempt stir up complications was unsuccessful and he suffered his only loss, with Carmelita relegated to a meritorious third.