Epsom v Kingston, board 1 in the Lauder Trophy final, played at the Adelaide pub, Teddingtonon 30 April 2024
David Maycock (pictured above) played this minor masterpiece against the rapidly improving Zain Patel. The game was played in the final of the Lauder Trophy. David departed from his usual king pawn opening and headed towards a simplified position out of the London System. His young opponent was tempted to grab some free pawns on the queenside. With Black’s queen hideously misplaced, David launched a vicious attack which proved decisive.
Zain Patel was unfortunate to meet Kingston’s David Maycock in prime form:. Photograph: John Saunders
Epsom v Kingston, Lauder Trophy final, played at the Adelaide pub, Teddington, on 30 April 2024
This was a very satisfying win on many levels. The Lauder Trophy is the competition in which titled players sit alongside relative novices, because captains have to choose a six-board team in which the total ECF ratings do not exceed 10,500 points. That’s an average of 1,750 a board, though you can slice it any way you wish. We were up against the holders of the Lauder Trophy, Epsom, who are always tough, and I’d followed a few hunches in selecting my team.
I had chosen the very highly rated David Maycock on board 1 – in case Epsom had picked any of their posse of IMs (which in the end they didn’t) – and combined him with the experience of Peter Andrews, John Bussmann and Jon Eckert on 2, 3 and 4, and relative newcomers Ergo Nobel and Rob Taylor on 5 and 6. Rob has only played a handful of rated games, so this was a huge test. Even having to notate would have been foreign to him.
David Maycock, Kingston’s board 1, in intense calculation mode. Photograph: John Saunders
The team – and Rob in particular – performed superbly to win the match 4-2 and bring the trophy back to Kingston for the third time in the past five completed seasons (one year was entirely lost to Covid and another stretched over two seasons).
Rob Taylor has played only a handful of rated games, but crucially won on board 6. Photograph: John Saunders
There were some anxious faces among the Kingston contingent for the first hour of the match as games looked to be going against us or were at best level, but David Maycock calmed nerves by winning with a beautiful sacrifice against promising junior Zain Patel on board 1. David’s win is worth looking at in full, not least as it was a rare d4 opening for him. Are we seeing the start of a whole new Maycockian repertoire?
David Maycock (left), FM Vladimir Li and Zain Patel conduct a friendly post-mortem. Photograph: John Saunders
Jon Eckert then got an important draw against another good Epsom junior on board 4. “The game was tricky,” Jon said afterwards, “and I have to admit that the French [Defence] backfired. I saw the drawing idea of exchanging queens, but in doing so I lost all chances of winning and just hoped for an opposite-colour bishops to salvage a draw. Looking up my opponent, I saw that he had won virtually all his recent games. For the team, a draw with Black was not a bad result.”
Jon Eckert drew an important game with Black against a dangerous junior on board 4. Photograph: John Saunders
Jon’s analysis was born out by what unfolded over the next hour. John Bussmann, who has had a long layoff with a back injury this season and barely played competitively, engineered a fine endgame win on board 3. That was a vital win in a game that looked like it could go either way, and it gave us some much-needed breathing space.
John Bussmann, returning from a long layoff with injury, won on board 3. Photograph: John Saunders
The middle game was a ferocious tussle, and Black had the edge for long periods,. In this position, after 23 moves, you would probably have bet on a draw.
But by pushing his h-pawn to create threats on the kingside and then exchanging a rook to make a potential passed c-pawn. John suddenly conjured up an advantage. It was a game of mistaken trades: John erred in exchanging queens, forfeiting much of the advantage he had built up, and his opponent then effectively lost the game by trading the other pair of rooks, eventually leading to this position, which is overwhelming for White.
There was further shuffling as time ran short – John was by now, under the terms of the five-minute rule, not recording moves – but Black’s race was run. The passed b-pawn will now win the game. John’s win made it 2.5-0.5, and we were now fairly confident. Ergo was losing on board 5, but Peter was better on board 2 and Rob was getting on top on board 6.
Rob’s game was initially sticky. “During the game,” he said later, “I saw a weakness in my position where my opponent could have won a pawn and planted a rook firmly in my half of the board. Thankfully, he missed it.” Instead, in a middlegame melee, Rob went a piece up, and after that it was just a case of not doing anything silly.
Rob Taylor (right) gets the better of Nicholas Orphanou to seal the team’s triumph. Photograph: John Saunders
Rob played coolly, won more material and his opponent eventually resigned. What a fairytale! It was Rob, in just his fifth ever rated game, who had had the honour of taking us over the line to victory. While proud of his part in lifting the trophy, however, Rob’s feet are still firmly on the ground as he gets to grips with competitive chess. “I don’t think I will be getting too carried away with my win,” he insisted. Wait until you’ve played at least a dozen rated games before eyeing the British championship.
The Lauder Trophy – which Epsom president Marcus Gosling had brought along to the Adelaide pub, home of the Richmond and Twickenham club and the neutral venue chosen for the final – was ours. There were, though, still the board 2 and 5 games to complete, and both in the end had results which went against the grain of the play for the previous three hours. Ergo Nobel had been under the cosh throughout against yet another capable Epsom junior, Maya Keen, but managed at the death to pull off a miracle save with a perpetual check.
Ergo Nobel looked certain to lose, but found a miracle save with a perpetual. Photograph: John Saunders
I congratulated him on fighting for hours in what looked a lost position. “Everyone I have ever met has told me I was stubborn,” he explained, “so I guess it’s normal for that to transfer to the way I play chess. Although I’d definitely prefer to be stubborn in a winning position.”
Marcus Gosling (left) and Peter Andrews face off in evening sunlight on board 2. Photograph: John Saunders
Peter Andrews, with Black, had had the better position more or less throughout in his board 2 game against Marcus Gosling – the Epsom president was captaining, playing and probably doing the washing up at the pub later (his energy is remarkable) – but often time (or rather the lack of it) takes over, making a mockery of all the careful play that has gone before, and that’s what happened here. This was the position in what might be called “normal” time, when Peter was still recording.
Black still has a small plus, but now in a mutual time scramble Marcus threw all his pieces at Peter (metaphorically speaking) and it paid off. Peter’s king was surrounded and his kingdom fell. Or, as Peter put it, “There were several more moves in a frantic scramble, in the course of which White activated his entire army, Black blundered the g7 pawn, and got mated.”
“The real lesson was psychological,” Peter reflected afterwards. “When the game changes, as it did after Marcus’s sac of two pieces for a rook and again after the sac of an exchange, it takes time to reorientate. After the first change, I still had time on my clock and did that better than my opponent did – hence the attack on g3 which should have been winning. But after the second change with less time I failed to do so, and Marcus seized the initiative, which matters much more than material or machine accuracy in a blitz finish. I never quite managed to reactivate the bishop on h7, whereas he activated everything he had.”
Peter Andrews’ advantage slipped away in the time scramble as his opponent pressed. Photograph: John Saunders
The Epsom president won that battle, and congratulations are due to him for leading from the front, but we triumphed in the war and are happy to have the Lauder back in our possession. Surrey tournament controller Huw Williams (to whom thanks for running the final) did wonder, as he handed me the cup, whether I had done anything to deserve it, having spent most of the evening in the bar, but the Lauder is all about the preparation and the mathematics, and the Kingston abacus had been used to good effect in the weeks leading up to this encounter. What matters in the bunker is as important – perhaps more important – than what happens on the battlefield. That’s my armchair general story anyway.
I receive the trophy from Huw Williams as Marcus Gosling watches on empty handed. Photograph: John Saunders
Kingston C v Surbiton D, Thames Valley division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 29 April 2024
Kingston’s third team maintained their tremendous late-season burst with a win over local rival Surbiton’s fourth team. Colin Lyle won in double-quick time against Shelia Siu on board 4; Jaden Mistry had an excellent victory against Kim Cross on in a lengthy battle on board 3, and Greg Heath got a solid draw against Surbiton captain Phil Goodings on board 2 to seal the win for the team by 2.5-1.5.
Only Ergo Nobel on top board suffered the pain of defeat. His opponent James Lawrence, who seems to have no official Thames Valley rating, has a ECF rating of 1623, so is no slouch, and Ergo was by no means overwhelmed. It was a good workout for Ergo ahead of the Lauder Cup final on the following night, when he would be playing board 5. Third-team captain Stephen Daines pronounced himself well pleased by the win and these end-of-season successes. “Like last season”, he said, “nurturing good players is paying dividends late on.”
Kingston 2 v Surbiton 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 22 April 2024
There was nothing (except local pride) riding on this match – Surbiton could not catch divisional champions Ashtead and we were safe from relegation – but our neighbours in the borough of Kingston nevertheless brought a strong first team to the Willoughby and were too good for our seconds, running out 5-2 winners. We were nonetheless happy with our four draws, and the other three games were all very well contested, so it was a satisfying evening given the rating disparity between the two teams.
Performance of the night for Kingston came from Jon Eckert, who played with typical élan with Black on board 4 to hold Liam Bayly, despite the latter being rated 250 points above him. Alan Scrimgour drew with the dangerous Altaf Chaudhry on board 3, and David Shalom also secured an excellent draw against Graham Alcock on board 7. Indeed, in the bar afterwards when I congratulated him on the draw against an opponent rated 100 points above him, he looked a little crestfallen at not having pressed home his advantage. I must learn not to seek to limit my players’ expectations. Ratings are only numbers after all.
Our other draw came from David Rowson in the battle of the Davids – his opponent was the highly rated David Scott – on board 1. David R played a Caro-Kann to which David S responded with a very solid set-up, and after some complicated middlegame jostling a draw was agreed in the position below, where White has a small edge because of Black’s pawn islands.
“I think I should have played on as I had a bit of an advantage,” David said later with typical honesty, “but I was getting tired after trying to work out what was going on previously. Neither of us completely understood what was going on.”
There was a fascinating clash of the captains on board 5 – Kingston skipper Gregor Smith with White against his opposite number Nick Faulks. Gregor played the Smith-Morra Gambit (how could a Smith play anything else?) against Nick’s Sicilian and really went for it. We will show the game in full.
The other two games also resulted in losses, but both were extremely tight encounters. Nick Grey was beaten by Andrew Boughen on board 6, extra pawns in a minor piece endgame deciding the issue, and Surbiton’s ever creative Jasper Tambini got the better of Julian Way in a high-level match-up on board 2. Julian played a sharp response to Jasper’s Ruy Lopez, and after 11 moves he had a slight edge in the position below.
But Jasper is a fine tactician and made imaginative use of his knights on the kingside while threatening a pawn storm on the queenside. He built up a solid advantage and eventually found a winning tactic to seal the deal. That gave Surbiton a well-deserved 5-2 victory in a match played in an excellent spirit between two clubs who have mastered the art of friendly local rivalry.
Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 2
Kingston B v Hounslow A, Thames Valley division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 18 April 2024
This was a remarkably professional win by Kingston B over Hounslow A, and it suddenly (and rather surprisingly) puts the Bs in a good position to win promotion and join the A team in division 1 of the Thames Valley League. Whether we really want two teams in the top division is another matter, but we probably have to go for it and see if we can cope next season if we do get there.
In this match everyone played their part, even me! I managed a quick draw against Hounslow captain (and Thames Valley chair) David White on board 3, finally abandoning my hopeless Scandinavian in favour of the Caro-Kann, which at least appears to have the virtue of solidity. We shall see.
Charlie Cooke drew on board 6 against promising junior Vibhush Pusapadi, and Gregor Smith got the third draw of the night against JJ Padam, though the Kingston captain looked slightly disappointed at not being able to convert his pawn advantage in a blocked position. Meanwhile on board 5, Nick Grey continued his excellent recent run with a well-controlled win with Black over Eugene Gregorio, who always seems to play at blitz speed and may, Nick thought, have missed a chance to win the exchange in his desire to crack on with the game.
The encounters on the two top boards were interesting struggles, both eventually going Kingston’s way to make the final score in the match an emphatic 4.5-1.5. Peter Andrews provided a helpful summary of his game against Hounslow veteran Leon Fincham: “I retained an edge through a typically tense opening, and my opponent’s thematic opening of the position was unsound. There was a flurry of tactics, at the end of which I had a material advantage and the safer king, so could mop up safely even with little time on my clock.”
Peter pinpoints this as the key position and the moment on which the game turned. Black has just played 16…f5, the expected move in a King’s Indian-type position:
Julian Way also won a very nice game on board 1, demonstrating once again what a top-class endgame player he is. We join the game after White’s 28th move – coincidentally another f5!? White’s attack looks somewhat scary, but Black has it all under control.
A very encouraging evening and a fine result for Kingston and for Gregor, who will be giving up the captaincy when he decamps to Oxfordshire in the summer. He will be sorely missed at Kingston as organiser, assistant secretary, captain and all-round good guy, but one hopes he will stay in touch from afar. Maybe he could even play in Maidenhead!
Whether his legacy will be getting Kingston B into division 1 of the Thames Valley League will depend on his team’s final match of the season – the crunch derby with Surbiton B on 29 April. As the league table (see below under the match scorecard) shows, that really will be a zero-sum clash. With Richmond B almost certain to beat bottom-of-the-table Staines in their last match, whoever wins the Kingston-Surbiton encounter will get promotion while the loser is likely to be squeezed into third place (with just two teams promoted). It should be quite a night as we mark Gregor’s departure.
Ashtead 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at Ashtead Peace Memorial Hall on 16 April 2024
We are safe! From relegation in division 2 of the Surrey League that is. In fact, we were already before this match because South Norwood 1 beat Coulsdon 2 on the previous evening to leave Coulsdon stranded in bottom place. But getting a 3.5-3.5 draw with Ashtead, runaway winners in the division and on course to take their place in division 1 next season, emphatically made the point that we deserved to stay up.
It was a very solid performance from a team of Kingston stalwarts. The president, John Foley, got an early draw with Black against the highly rated Dan Rosen on board 2, and the also outrated Jon Eckert drew with Bertie Barlow on board 5. Jon compromised his pawn structure to build a very promising attack, but Bertie neutralised it well and peace was eventually declared.
Peter Andrews had White against Phil Brooks on board 1 and, conscious of the disparity in ratings and the way the match might pan out, played a very solid English opening which led to a draw in the position below. He was ahead on the clock, which may have influenced his opponent’s decision, and on his part was conscious that he had two other important matches later in the week, so preserving energy was important. Peter called it a “cynical” draw, but let’s call it a canny and very useful one against a strong player.
John Bussmann was in early trouble against the experienced Jonathan Hinton on board 4. The Ashtead player sacrificed the exchange for a big attack, and it proved well-judged, with his pieces combining irresistibly to overwhelm John’s king. John is making his way back into competitive chess after a long layoff and this was a tough outing.
At this point Ashtead had the advantage, though Nick Grey on board 7 with White against Adrian Waldock had established a passed c-pawn and had good chances in what was shaping up to be a tricky endgame. I thought I was drawing against Tom Barton on board 6, but as so often my poor endgame technique was letting me down and a few imprecise moves, not helped by time trouble, left me struggling to hold the position.
The key game was the board 3 encounter between Kingston chair Alan Scrimgour and Seb Galer. The two are old adversaries, and Galer was determined to avenge a previous defeat – perhaps too determined because it may be that he overreached himself. Seb played a Pirc – and played it perkily. This key early position was reached:
Alan’s win made it 2.5-2.5 and left me and Nick struggling with our respective endgames. I lost mine rather miserably – back, for the umpteenth time, to the drawing board – but Nick was well ahead on the clock and playing confidently. Eventually his opponent cracked, and Nick had a memorable win to draw the match. As we left, the vanquished Adrian Waldock and his Ashtead team-mates were still poring over the final few moves of his game and looking for ways to save it. Too late, I’m afraid. We are on the way home, happy to share the spoils against the division two champions.
Stephen Moss, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 2
Surbiton D v Kingston C, Thames Valley division X match played at Fircroft, Surbiton on 8 April 2024
The whooshing continues. Two days after beating Richmond E, the Kingston third team put Surbiton D to the sword in an away match at the refurbished Fircroft, where Surbiton have happily been reinstalled this season after a couple of years’ absence during the restoration. It was a very professional 2.5-1.5 win, with Kingston C captain Stephen Daines on this occasion putting himself in the team and enjoying an important victory on board 4.
Charlie Cooke was first to finish, winning smoothly against James Lawrence. Stephen made it 2-0 with a controlled victory against Shelia Siu, rook domination allowing him to drive home a passed pawn. But Sean Tay, having played an ambitious (but completely sound) early sacrifice against Kim Cross, then miscalculated in a key position, missed forced mate and went down to a 49-move defeat which he said as he left would guarantee him a sleepless night. The opening and Sean’s marvellous missed opportunity is worth looking at (though not necessarily worth endlessly replaying in your mind in the early hours of the morning!).
Sean’s defeat left securing victory in the hands of the reliable Ergo Nobel on board 2, and he did not disappoint, fending off Phil Goodings’ queen-and-knight attack (often a fatal combination) and earning the draw which gave Kingston the match by 2.5-1.5. Another excellent performance by a well-marshalled and highly motivated team.
Kingston C v Richmond E, Thames Valley division X match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 8 April 2024
“We are whooshing!,” said triumphant Kingston captain Stephen Daines after this 3-1 win against Richmond E, which backed up last week’s victory by Kingston 4 away to South Norwood. What he meant was that the players in our third and fourth teams, many of whom have been introduced to competitive over-the-board chess this season, are now finding their feet and starting to produce excellent results.
Stephen, seen in the photograph above watching his players in their four-board match, sees his role as nurturing new talent, and has done a great job this season juggling three teams across almost 30 matches. Three of the four Kingston players in this match are new to the club this season, and the team did well to beat some match-hardened opponents.
Leon Mellor-Sewell with Black lost to the highly rated Alex Shard on board 1, losing the thread as his Sicilian Defence moved into the middlegame. But his three team-mates all won. Robin Kerremans and Greg Heath beat Richmond veterans Laurie Catling and Julian Bedale, and David Bickerstaff defeated the higher-rated Thomas Brand. Truly a result to send Captain Daines to the bar in a happy frame of mind.
South Norwood 3 v Kingston 4, Surrey League division 5 match played at West Thornton Community Centre, Thornton Heath on 4 April 2024
On the same night that the old soaks of Kingston 2 lost to South Norwood 1, a (mostly) young, boundlessly enthusiastic Kingston 4 team led by acting captain Ed Mospan strolled to a 4.5-1.5 victory against South Norwood 3. After our all-conquering season in 2022-23, we have had some setbacks this year, but here was hope for the future: the inspiring Mospan, who initiated the Kingston Rapidplays a few years ago, has returned to the club after a three-year absence, and four of the other five players are new to Kingston this season. Clubs have constantly to renew themselves, and here was renewal in action.
Ed himself, perhaps weighed down by the burden of the acting captaincy (the usual third- and fourth-team captain, Stephen Daines, was indisposed), lost a quickfire game to John Ganev on board 2, both players blitzing out their moves as if they were competing in one of Ed’s much-missed rapidplays (time for a revival surely). That gave South Norwood 3 an early 1-0 lead, but it was to be the only reverse of the night.
A succession of wins for Kingston’s new “fab four”, none of whom has played more than a handful of rated games for us or indeed anybody else, followed. David Bickerstaff (pictured above, right, alongside Captain Mospan) beat the very experienced South Norwood captain David Howes on board 3; Leon Mellor-Sewell, brimming with confidence, won well on board 4; Ergo Nobel, continuing a fine run of form, won on board 5; and Rob Taylor triumphed in a chaotic game on board 6.
Sean Tay, a veteran in this Kingston team having been at the club for a couple of seasons, then rounded off a very satisfying evening with a draw against super-solid South Norwood stalwart Ken Chamberlain after a three-hour struggle on board 1.
Kingston may have had more glamorous team victories this season, but there has been none that gave me this much pleasure: a group of players relatively new to chess bonding as a team and bringing home the spoils after the sort of lengthy journey that only members who are really enthusiastic about playing for the club are willing to make. That all-important renewal is in safe hands.
South Norwood 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at West Thornton Community Centre, Thornton Heath on 4 April 2024
South Norwood are usually a very different proposition at home compared with when they travel, and so it proved here. Threatened by relegation from Surrey division 2, they put out their strongest possible team against Kingston 2 and ran out winners by 5-2. But we had some hard luck stories, and on another night we might have come away with a 3.5-3.5 draw.
The first game to finish was a gloriously violent struggle between South Norwood’s Ronald Harris and Kingston’s Jon Eckert on board 4. Forty years ago, Ron was a 2200-level player and, now 80, has retained a great deal of his strength. He plays at rapid speed, loves to attack, will seize the initiative at every opportunity, and has probably forgotten more about chess than most of us will ever know.
Jon Eckert is now slouch either and is always up for an over-the-board punch-up. The two of them fashioned a game which, sitting next to them, I could barely take my eyes off. This was raw, kill-or-be-killed chess and is worth looking at in full – a glorious French Winawer in which both sides play with the zero regard for defence.
That made it 1-0 to South Norwood, but Kingston were soon on the board after a draw between old rivals Alan Scrimgour and Paul Dupré on board 3. Alan had made most of the running against Paul’s Alekhine’s Defence, but with time starting to become a factor he allowed his advantage to slip and by the end Black had not just equalised but established a small plus in the position below:
Peter Andrews got a good draw with Black against South Norwood’s highly rated Tariq Oozeerally on board 2 to make it 2-1 to South Norwood. Both players played with commendable accuracy in an Alapin Sicilian and peace was declared after 30 cagey moves in the dead-level position below:
Kingston’s Charlie Cooke lost a well-contested game with the higher-rated Michael Livesey on board 7 to put South Norwood 3-1 up, but I managed to win my game with White against Oliver Weiss on board 5 to narrow the gap to 3-2. I had also faced an Alekhine’s Defence, but unlike Alan did not have the courage to challenge it and played a rather anaemic opening. My opponent had a plus (at one point threateningly healthy) for most of the game, but as a messy middlegame developed he allowed me some counterplay and missed a forced mate in two in a position where with best play he had good drawing chances.
Beating a higher-rated player has been such a rarity for me this season that I have analysed the encounter in the Games section, though as others have pointed out the computer-heavy nature of the annotation does hint at the somewhat threadbare nature of my mid-game analysis. I really was guessing at key moments. But it was all fine in the end thanks to my opponent losing the thread in this position:
Black played 28… Be6 here, which allows an unstoppable mate after 29. Qc1. Instead he should play 28…Qf4, which gives good (if complicated) drawing chances. The lines which might ensue are shown in my annotation of the game in the Games section.
So 3-2 to South Norwood with two games to go. David Rowson stood better against the very strong Marcus Osborne on board 1 (their game is pictured above, alongside the Oozeerally-Andrews encounter). Another Kingston stalwart, Nick Grey, was battling hard on board 6 against South Norwood captain Simon Lea, and certainly didn’t look to be worse. At that stage, a drawn match looked perfectly plausible.
It was not to be, however. Nick went wrong in the endgame as time started to take its toll. “I was playing for a win ,” he explained afterwards, “and missed the fact that liquidating both h-pawns would have been drawing.” Even worse was David Rowson’s fate on board 1, where it was the familiar story of first the win going west and then the draw slipping away as well.
David’s game with Marcus Osborne was a very classy one up to the moment when the Kingston board 1 blundered. Marcus played a Sicilian Defence, to which David responded imaginatively, leading to this position after 15 moves:
The engine has a slight preference for Black here, but the white pawn lodged on e6 is potentially awkward for Black, and David made the running hereafter, winning the exchange after a slip by Marcus and having this objectively “won” position after 28 moves:
Of course the notion of an objectively won middlegame position is ludicrous, as the Dutch grandmaster Hein Donner noted in a famous remark: “I love all positions. Give me a difficult positional game, I’ll play it. Give me a bad position, I’ll defend it. Openings, endgames, complicated positions, and dull, drawn positions, I love them all and will give my best efforts. But totally winning positions I cannot stand.”
It is when they have “won” positions that many chess players (at club level at least) start feeling queasy, while the player with the “lost” position has nothing to lose, can throw caution to the wind and will draw on all sorts of resources to try to equalise. Marcus is just such a player and he showed his resilience in the rest of the game.
David, perhaps subconsciously relaxing in that “won position”, blundered to give back the exchange and lead to a level position, but after that, as David later, said Marcus showed his ability and played the final part of the game well. Here is the denouement from move 34.
A desperate finish for David who, behind his brave facade, was very disappointed by the result. Chess is cruel – a conclusion we could draw after pretty much every match we play. But we fight on. We are not quite clear of the relegation mire yet (see table below, under the match scorecard), but once our relegation rivals South Norwood 1 and Coulsdon 2 have played on 15 April we will know exactly what we have to do against Ashtead 1 and Surbiton 1, the two strongest teams in the division. A narrow win for Coulsdon 2 would leave us having to accumulate a handful of game points to survive. We can surely manage that … can’t we?
Stephen Moss, Kingston 2 captain in Surrey division 2
