Richmond A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at The Adelaide, Teddington on 18 March 2025

Those of us who fancy ourselves as arithmeticians had worked out, prior to this match, that a win or even a draw would be enough to give us the Thames Valley Division 1 title. However, we were missing several of our leading players, so we anticipated a close match. In general, this season we’ve been fortunate enough to field very strong teams, thanks to the willingness of our top players, and have often found that opposing clubs, in contrast, have not been at full strength. This was indeed the case at Richmond, as they were missing both Gavin Wall and Mike Healey.

Another surprise was Richmond’s time control of 65 minutes plus 10 second increments, making for a shorter evening than usual. This seemed to disadvantage their own players, as some of them quite quickly found themselves in time trouble.

My own game was the first to finish. I had got a bind as White in the Italian Game, and in this position Chris Baker clearly decided that he wasn’t going to die wondering:

We had been fortunate that Stephen Lovell and John Bussmann both stepped in to play when some of our usual squad were unavailable. John’s opening against George Milligan was reminiscent of Peter Lalić’s favoured defence, with Black forgoing castling for a queenless middlegame in which he hoped to outplay his opponent. In this position White should keep his bishop pair, but he exchanged off, giving Black play on the open g-file:

If the two games described above were relatively smooth wins for Kingston, the John Burke v David Maycock encounter on board 2 (pictured above) was anything but. White started with 1. d4, but the opening transposed into the Exchange Variation of the Caro-Kann. In this position David went wrong, as he admitted afterwards:

Alan Scrimgour has had an excellent season so far for Kingston, but things did not go right for him in his game with Black on board 4 against Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek. (Maks has produced his own report on the match and his victory.) He played the double-edged Benoni Defence and commented afterwards, “It’s bad enough losing your first Kingston game of the season but worse when you make a mistake as early as move 10 in an opening you think you know. Another bad choice a few moves later lost an exchange and left my opponent in a dominating position. I managed to stay in the game, but also fell behind on the clock. In the end I couldn’t stop his passed a-pawn and resigned on move 42.”

The board 5 game between Stephen Lovell, with White, and Victor Bluett had started as an English Opening. When the queens were exchanged, Stephen commented: “I thought I emerged with a pleasant positional advantage (two bishops, chances of a minority attack). I grouped my pieces on the queenside in what seemed the right way and was looking for the right time for the b5 break.” As Stephen said, the position after move 24 could have been a good moment for this:

The board 1 game was a quiet positional Sicilian Defence, in which play was level until a time scramble put pressure on the players. Peter Large, with White, had an outside passed pawn while Maxim Dunn had an extra pawn in the centre:

Thus Kingston A have won the Thames Valley Division 1 title with three matches to spare. Following our victories in 2023 and 2024, this is the first time in our history that Kingston have won three TVL titles in a row. As Kingston club captain Stephen Moss reported, “We won it in 1949 and again in 1950, so twice in a row, and recorded single wins in 1978 and 1984. Pinner did the treble in 1993, 1994 and 1995. Richmond have, remarkably, done the treble five times and the quadruple once (1974, 1975, 1976, 1977).” So there is our next target! Meanwhile, I wish to thank all the players who have contributed so much to this historic achievement, and to Stephen, Peter Andrews, Greg Heath, Ed Mospan and others for their hard work in supporting the team.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Surbiton A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 26 February 2025

We faced familiar opponents in this local derby. The Surbiton team was quite strong, though missing Mark Josse and Chris Briscoe. Kingston outrated them significantly, but as we know, it’s not the rating difference which wins the game but the better play on the evening.

The first game to finish was on board 1, where David Maycock (pictured) had been developing a ferocious attack against Altaf Chaudhury’s Sicilian Defence. In this position Black needs to be very careful about how he protects his kingside, especially as his king is still in the centre.

John Hawksworth’s game with Black on board 4 was more sedate. Joshua Pirgon played a line against John’s Sicilian which I have favoured for years – not necessarily a recommendation – the King’s Indian Attack. Joshua missed his chance to develop an attack in this position:

On board 3 Ash Stewart and David Scott reached this position from Ash’s English Opening:

The Jasper Tambini–Peter Lalić game was more or less level until this position was reached:

My own game, with White against Joseph Morrison on board 5, was strangely uneventful – so uneventful, in fact, that I think the only moment of any (very relative) interest was probably at move 9:

The last game to finish, with the score 5-0 to Kingston, was on board 6, where Nick Faulks had opened with the English. Pieces were exchanged two-by-two until a king and pawn ending was reached. John Foley showed great ambition in trying to win this, but it turned out that it was White who held the trumps, and after many moves of a queen and pawn ending (following promotions by both players) John was finally forced to resign, giving Surbiton a compensatory point.

Thus Kingston A won their seventh Thames Valley League division 1 match out of seven. Our results so far have been 5.5-0.5, 4-2, 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, 4-2 and now 5-1. I have to give the usual warning that we shouldn’t get ahead of things, but we can at least feel that we are in a situation where we will only have ourselves to blame if we don’t win the title for the third year in succession.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Hammersmith A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the London MindSports Centre, London W6 on Thursday 13 February

The Thames Valley fixture list this season determined that our home and away matches with the club most likely to be our main rivals, Hammersmith, took place one after the other. Having beaten Hammersmith 4-2 at home on 27 January, we visited the London MindSports Centre just two and a bit weeks later.

Both teams were missing one player due to illness, but Kingston were very fortunate to have as a late sub Peter Finn, making his debut in this competition. The addition of Peter to the team meant it had four players with the same first name, always a good augury. Peter Finn did not take long to get on the scoreboard as White against Cian Ward. In an opening which might be categorised as a Queen’s Gambit Semi-Slav or possibly a Queen’s Indian Defence, this position was reached:

On board 4, Will Taylor (who had selflessly offered to change his first name to Peter in the interests of the Peter-ish team) was Black facing the experienced Carsten Pedersen, who had drawn with Supratit Banerjee in the corresponding match at the Willoughby. Will commented, “I made a big effort to play quickly and was 35 minutes up on the clock at some point (almost unprecedented for me). Alas, I didn’t manage to convert the time advantage into anything serious on the board.” However, he was never in any trouble against Carsten’s Vienna Opening and a draw was agreed in this position:

Black has just played 37…Nxh3. White has a choice between Nxh5, gxh5 and Ne4, but none of these moves would give him an advantage.

Hammersmith soon equalised the score by winning on board 5. From an English Opening, Peter Andrews reached this position against Aryaman Ganguly:

Thus scores were level with boards 1, 2 and 6 still in play. If Kingston members following events on WhatsApp were feeling the tension, for the players at the venue it must have been agonising, especially given the way each of the remaining games veered from favouring one side to the other.

On board 6, John Foley faced the same opponent, Greg Billenness, as in the corresponding match last year. John again deployed the Caro-Kann Defence, but this time forearmed, instead of the Fantasy Variation, Greg chose a line which chess.com tells me is called the Von Hennig Gambit. The opening moves were: 1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Bc4 Nf6 5. f3 e3. With this move, John explained, he was “trying to move the game into uncharted waters”. The book move is 5…b5. After both players castled queenside, the following position was reached, White having just played 22. f5.

Kingston were now a point ahead, with the top two boards still in play. Peter Large’s game against Ali Hill was on a knife edge. In accordance with one of his New Year Resolutions, Peter had played the Trompowsky Opening for the first time. After 16 moves, this was the position, Peter having just played 16. Bb5:

The last game to finish, perhaps not unexpectedly, was Peter Lalić’s – he was Black against Thomas Bonn (see photograph at top of page). It might have ended with a threefold repetition as early as move 15, but Peter varied from his previous moves to avoid this. A long ending of rooks and knights followed, with the advantage veering from one side to the other. Thomas queened first, and Peter had to give up his rook for the queen, resulting in the unusual balance of forces shown in this position, with Black to play:

This made the final result 4-2 to Kingston, the same result as in our home match against Hammersmith. This puts Kingston in a dominant position in the league at the halfway stage.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Kingston A v Hammersmith A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 27 January 2025

In the past two seasons Hammersmith have been our main rivals for the Thames Valley league title. In 2022/23 we were running neck and neck until we beat them at their venue, and last season they looked to have it in the bag before they slipped up mid-season and we showed our mettle by finishing with a run of wins. This year we have seen our squad boosted even further by several very strong additions, to the remarkable extent that our line-up for this match had international masters on boards 1 and 6.  However, although we comfortably outrated Hammersmith’s team on the night, they were still strong and a hard-fought match ensued.

The first result came quite quickly: a very nice, deceptively smooth win for Peter Lalić (pictured above) on board 5 against Paul Kennelly. Having made his trademark pawn sacrifice in the opening, he developed quickly, gained the two bishops and had White’s king in the centre as a target. In the position below his opponent played 14. Rhd1? 14. h3 was correct to stop Black’s next move, which forces the position open.

The second game to finish, on board 6, also resulted in a Kingston win for IM John Hawksworth against Robin Sarfas. From a Slav Defence this position was reached:

So Kingston had a two-point lead, but the remaining four games were all hard to call and, in two cases at least, very tense. The board 1 game saw IM Peter Large play the Hedgehog Defence against Alistair Hill, reaching this position:

It’s hard to know what to focus on when describing the board 2 game between David Maycock and Zain Patel (not named in the scoresheet below as Hammersmith do not appear officially to have registered him with the Thames Valley League), as it had so many twists and turns, with creativity – and, as time trouble set in, errors – running wild on the part of both players. From an unusual variation of the Ruy Lopez, this position was reached:

This meant the score was now Kingston 3 Hammersmith 1, and we only needed a draw from the remaining two games to win the match.

The board 3 game, in striking contrast to Maycock v Patel, was a close positional contest from a Caro-Kann Defence Exchange Variation. Supratit Banerjee and Carsten Pedersen manoeuvred carefully until a rook and knight ending was reached with all the pawns on the same side of the board. Eventually, in the position below, the players agreed a draw, and Kingston had the half-point we needed to win the match.

The final game to finish was the board 4 encounter between Ash Stewart, with White, and Hammersmith captain Bajrush Kelmendi. Ash established an advantage from the position below, which at first sight looks a little worrisome for White:

Thus a hard-fought match resulted in a win for Kingston by 4-2. A very professional performance, one might say, not conceding a single game, even though there was no shortage of tension. As it happens, our next Thames Valley League Division 1 match is at Hammersmith’s venue on Thursday 13 February, so the battle will continue. Having won all five of our Thames Valley matches so far, we are three points ahead of Hammersmith with a game in hand, but there are still more than half the fixtures left to play – and look what happened to Hammersmith last season after they had made all the early running. We take nothing for granted.

David Rowson, KIngston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Maidenhead A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at St Luke’s Community Hall, Maidenhead on 13 January 2025

It is a truth universally acknowledged that half the battle when it comes to winning away chess matches on winter evenings is getting a full team to the venue. This is particularly the case when it comes to Maidenhead (or South Norwood, where the second team ventured this same week). So the fact that six players, one unwell and one only 10 years old, made it to a church hall in distant Berkshire was a very good start. Three of us, very kindly driven there by Stephen Moss, arrived 10 minutes late due to traffic problems, but the Maidenhead captain, Nigel Smith, very sportingly did not start the clocks until we had sat down.

Maidenhead, like some of our other recent opponents, were surprisingly weaker than expected, especially given that they were playing at home. We, on the other hand, were near full strength, bolstered by the presence of Supratit Banerjee on board 3. How important this was rapidly became clear when, after less than an hour’s play, Supratit’s opponent resigned, after going wrong in a tactically complicated position, the kind of position where Supratit seems completely at home. At this point, after just seven moves, Black is already under pressure from the pin on the f6 knight:

On board 2 a Nimzowitsch-Larsen Attack led to a wild position. Things took off from here when David Maycock played the provocative 9…g5:

On board 5 John Hawksworth was consolidating a positional advantage. He commented: “My opponent Tony Milnes played an unusual combination of the Dutch and the Bogo-Indian. I didn’t know the theory, but got a pleasant position playing natural moves. He misplaced his knight with 17…Nb7, which I could completely neutralise with 18.b4!” This gave the position below:

John’s win made the score 3-0 to Kingston. In my own game on board 6, everything also appeared to be going swimmingly as my opponent allowed me to win two pawns early on:

The board 4 game had seen manoeuvring in the centre and on the queenside, with neither player gaining much advantage, until the following position was reached. At this point Charles Bullock had about three minutes to Peter Lalić’s one and a half, but Peter thrives in such situations and he was the one who was pressing.

This made the score 4.5-0.5, with the top-board contest still outstanding. From a Caro-Kann Defence Peter Large and his young opponent, Bohdan Terler, reached this position:

With all the games completed (but the long journey home still in front of the Kingston players), Kingston had chalked up another convincing Thames Valley League division 1 victory. Our record so far this season is played four, won four, with 20.5 game points out of a possible 24. However, we still have eight matches to play, and our next two may well be crucial in deciding whether we retain the title, as we face Hammersmith home and away.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in the Thames Valley League

Ealing A v Kingston A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at Actonians Sports Club, London W5 on 16 December 2024

On Monday 16 December we visited league leaders Ealing for our second Thames Valley division 1 match. Last season we had beaten them away, but lost to them at home, so we expected a tough contest. I was ready to enjoy the unaccustomed luxury of being a non-playing captain, able to observe the match without any responsibility for the moves, but in the event the closeness of the games meant that I felt almost as nervous as if I was playing.

The first result was on board 5. John Hawksworth, with White against John Quinn, commented: “I had a clear advantage soon after the opening, but was just too timid at critical moments. In particular, instead of 16. Rb1 [see diagram below] I should have played 16. Qxd6, not being scared of 16…b4 because I can play 17. e5 Ne8 18. Qxc5 bxc3 19. Nxc3 when I have three pawns for a piece and a dominant position (+2 according to the computer).”

As things turned out, the two Johns agreed a draw in a level position on move 25.

On board 3 Ash Stewart was facing the strong veteran Alan Perkins, who chose to counter Ash’s English Opening with the symmetrical system (1. c4 g6 2. Nc3 Bg7 3. g3 c5). Perfect symmetry it was not, however, as Black developed his king’s knight on h6 and then moved it to f5, while White made the early running on the queen’s side, pushing his pawn to b4. As often happens in the English, both players had to make a lot of difficult strategic decisions, backed up by tactical calculation. This position was reached after White’s 18th move:

Here Black played 18…Ne5, an error allowing 19. Nxe5 dxe5 20. Nxe6+! winning a pawn.

This meant that at roughly the halfway stage Kingston were doing well in one game, but the situation on the other boards was much less clear. On the top board Rick McMichael had avoided Peter Large’s preparation by cunningly playing a line of the Philidor Defence (1.e4 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 e5 4. dxe5 dxe5 5. Qxd8+ Kxd8 6. Bc4 Be6 7. Bxe6 fxe6) instead of his usual French. McMichael’s doubled isolated e-pawns might not have been aesthetically pleasing, but his position was very hard to attack. On board 2 David Maycock did not seem to have much play against Andrew Harley’s Ruy Lopez, and on board 6 Will Taylor was negotiating a complicated middlegame position arising from his opponent’s Bird’s Opening.

Peter Lalić’s games can usually be relied on for originality, and this one did not disappoint. Afterwards, I was surprised to see that when I put the score into chess.com it labelled the opening “Ruy Lopez, Old Steinitz Defence”. It’s true that after four moves Peter, with Black, and his opponent Martin Smith (both pictured above, with Martin facing the camera) had reached the position below, but by a very unconventional route, as if using an idiosyncratic satnav.

The second game to be completed put Kingston a point ahead, as Ash Stewart defeated Alan Perkins in a beautifully played game, which is featured with Ash’s notes in the Games section of the website. Following on from the position given above, Perkins sacrificed his knight on h4 to try to get a perpetual check, but the Kingston player parried this attempt efficiently and Black resigned a bishop down with his own king exposed.

Ealing, however, hit back soon after when Will Taylor, playing Black against Jonathan White, had to resign. He had fought for compensation after losing a pawn, but to no avail. So the score was 1.5-1.5, with three close games still to conclude.

Andrew Harley had succeeded in denying David Maycock any opportunities to unleash his tactical genius until the following position was reached:

Kingston were now one up, with two games to finish. The Large v McMichael game reached this position after move 17:

This made the score 3-2 to Kingston. We couldn’t lose the match, but could we win? In the last game to finish Peter Lalić had gambited his e-pawn, but after an exchange of queens on d1 White was unable to castle, and when Peter won the minor exchange his bishops and rooks pressured White’s position (see diagram below).

Thus a tight match ended on a dramatic note, and Kingston had won 4-2. A significant victory against one of our main rivals.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in the Thames Valley League

Kingston A v Richmond A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 9 December 2024

All good things come to those who wait, perhaps. At least, Kingston A’s long-anticipated first Thames Valley League match of the season proved worth the wait when we defeated a slightly understrength Richmond team 5.5-0.5. Richmond were missing Mike Healey and were significantly outrated on every board except the top one, but, as everyone knows, such matches don’t always follow form so clearly.

The first result was a deceptively smooth win by David Maycock (pictured) on board 2. Deceptively smooth like a Capablanca win, in the words of IM Peter Large. David commented that his opponent, Maxim Dunn, slightly confused the theory, playing 12…Bb7 instead of Rb7 in this position:

Kingston won their second game on board 4 when Luca Buanne defeated Bertie Barlow. From a Scandinavian Defence, the players reached this position, in which an exchange sacrifice on f6 is more than promising.

My own game interrupted Kingston’s triumphal progress by finishing in an early draw. The game transposed from a Bishop’s Opening to a King’s Gambit Declined. Alastair Armstrong surprised me by playing an early Na4 in this position, securing the two bishops but losing tempi.

In this connection, I should mention that in our last match against Richmond, back in May, I sat at the board brooding on how I had allowed a winning position against Alastair to become a dead-drawn endgame, until he suddenly pointed out that my time had run out, and I’d managed to turn a draw into a loss. On Monday I decided it was better not to tempt fate.

On board 6, from an English Opening, Peter Andrews was two pawns down against Richmond captain Maks Gajowniczek (one an accident, he admitted, the other a genuine sacrifice) but with a great deal of positional compensation, as can be seen in the diagram. Black is unable to defend the d6 pawn.

A lead of 3.5-0.5 soon became 4.5-0.5 as Peter Lalić won the exchange by a clever tactic and then simplified into a winning ending against John Burke. This was the key position:

Fittingly, the last game to finish – with most of the rest of the players looking on – was the heavyweight one on board 1 between international masters Gavin Wall and Peter Large.

Playing the French Defence, Peter gave up a pawn for positional compensation. Peter analyses a fascinating game in detail below, though, because of mutual time trouble, the final moves were not recorded.

Playing on little more than the increment, Peter showed toughness to refuse a draw and press home his advantage to eventually force his opponent’s resignation and make the final score in the match an emphatic 5.5-0.5. Kingston thus got off to a delayed but very satisfying start in the quest to retain our Thames Valley division 1 title. After the long wait, the matches will now come thick and fast, so we will need to keep up the momentum.

David Rowson, Kingston A captain in the Thames Valley League

Kingston A v Richmond A, Thames Valley League division 1 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 20 May 2024

Sometimes a cliché just happens to fit the facts, so let’s say that Kingston’s 2023-24 Thames Valley League division 1 experience was a season of two halves. Up to the end of January, we had played seven matches, winning three, drawing three and losing one (to Ealing). Not too bad, but not title-winning form. In contrast, during the same period, our main rivals Hammersmith had won six and only drawn one match (against us). The title looked to be theirs. But the following weeks saw Kingston achieve consistently good results, winning three and drawing one, while Hammersmith seemed to lose their focus, losing three of their final five matches, including one at home to us.

The consequence of this was that on Monday 20 May we faced Richmond A at the Willoughby with the same number of match points (eight) as Hammersmith, but with this match in hand. If we won or drew we would be champions for the second year running. 

The strength of our team is shown by the fact that Peter Lalić was on board 4. I reckon that few opponents would now mistake his opening 1. d3 d4 2. e5 as evidence of modest ambitions, as he has shown himself to be a master at patiently wringing victories from these innocent-looking moves. It happened again against Bertie Barlow. In the position below Peter was a pawn up, but if Bertie had contested the d-file with 37…Rd7 it would have been hard for Peter to make progress, as an exchange of rooks leaves a drawn king and pawn ending.

However, after 37…Rg7 38. Rd3, Peter first activated his rook and then pursued the winning plan of advancing his a-pawn to a6. His opponent allowed him to win the pawn on a7 in a desperate search for counterplay, but the white a-pawn was then unstoppable.

Kingston 1 Richmond 0, and David Maycock soon made it 2-0 with a win on board one, in a very different type of game. Gavin Wall opened with the Trompowsky Attack (1.d4 Nf6 2. Bg5), and after five moves this position was reached:

White took the offered e-pawn – 6. Nxe5 – and David then played the spectacular Ng4. Now 7. Bxd8 would not be sensible in view of 7…Bxf2 mate. Gavin defended with 7. Nd3, though David thought “7. Nxg4 was the way to go, to which Black would have played 7…Qxg5 8. h3 and Nc6 with compensation.” The game actually continued 7…Qxg5 8. Nxc5, giving this position:

Now David was able to spoil White’s kingside pawn structure with a temporary knight sacrifice. 8…Nxf2 9. Kxf2 Qh4+ 10. g3 Qd4+ winning back the knight. The position is still roughly level, but later Black’s rooks infiltrated White’s second rank to give the following position:

Here 25. Rf4 is best, though White’s situation would still be difficult. Instead, Gavin played 25. Rxf7 and lost queen for rook after 25…Rdg2+ 26. Kf1 Rf2+ 27. Rxf2 Rxf2+ 28. Kxf2 Qxg7. He resigned one move later. Another very impressive win for David against an IM.

On board 2 Vladimir Li and Michael Healey were having a technical battle in a line of the Catalan Opening. Mike gave up a pawn to activate his queen’s bishop, but was eventually left with a weak pawn on a6 and resigned when this was about to fall, at which point he had already lost two other pawns in a rook ending.

In our final two matches we have been very fortunate to have 10-year-old Supratit Banerjee (pictured) playing for us. His mature, patient play as Black against Maks Gajowniczek was remarkable for someone of his age. His analysis of the following position is instructive.

Supratit explained: “17…a5 is not the best here because after 18. a3 bxc5 19. bxc5 my queen cannot come to a5. If 17…a5 18. a3 axb4 then the white rook is occupying the a-file.” So Supratit played 17…bxc5 instead, and after 18. bxc5 Qa5 19. Rfb1 Ba6 he commented: “The white light-squared bishop defends key squares such as c4 and e4, so if I trade it then the black knight will become better than the white knight because the white knight has no good squares.” The game continued 20. Bf3, allowing Bc4, and Black has achieved an advantage on the queenside. White’s exchange of rooks on b8 added to this advantage, though presumably White was hoping to get counterplay with e4.

A few moves later this was the position, with White to play:

Supratit commented: “White has to play 26. Qc1. That would still be a slight advantage to Black, but White can hold if he plays perfectly.” Instead Maks took the bishop – 26. Qxc4 – and after 26…Qxf3 Black had a winning advantage due to the active position of his pieces and White’s kingside weakness. Supratit won on move 41.

Thus the four top-rated members of the team had already given us the wins needed for victory in the match and for the retention of the Thames Valley League title.

Among all these successes my own game hardly bears mention, but it did have some interesting points – one of them painful for me.  In this position I saw an opportunity to win the exchange:

There followed 25. c4 Nc7 26. Bxc6 Qxc6 27. Qxb3 exd4 28. Bf4 Nc5. Here I moved too quickly and miscalculated, playing 29. Nxd4 when Qd1 would have kept more advantage. This was the position:

Black played 29…Nxb3 30. Nxc6 Nxa1 30. Rxe8 Nxe8 31. Nxd8. Seven successive captures have left me just a pawn up. I actually hoped to win this position, but my opponent played it better than me, and I ended up with bishop and two pawns against his knight and one pawn, but with me unable to make any progress. Disappointed, I sat looking at the position and completely forgot about my ticking clock. Suddenly my opponent broke into my reverie to point out that I had lost on time. It was a shocking and stupid finish to the game for me. Fortunately, these negative feelings were overlaid with delight that we had already won the league.

The final game to finish, like mine, made no difference to the overall result. John Foley had graciously stepped in as a substitute on board 3 when it turned out that Silverio Abasolo had got the wrong date for the match. Behind on the clock from the start, John had put up a good fight, but ultimately lost a rook ending to John Burke.

It is no exaggeration to say that in 2022-23 we had swept all before us; as a result, we felt that in the first matches of this season other clubs made a point of trying to get out their strongest players against Kingston. We sometimes struggled early on, but came through in the end. It has to be admitted that we were reliant on Hammersmith slipping up to give us any chance of winning the league, but then we had to show our mettle by taking that chance – and we did.

Many thanks to all the players who made this achievement possible, and to Peter Andrews and John Foley for captaining when I was unavailable, to Stephen Moss for his assistance with team selection, and to Greg Heath for his hard work getting everything ready for home matches. Next season … but no, let’s not even think about next season yet.

David Rowson, Kingston captain in Thames Valley League division 1

Final table