Hounslow C v Kingston C, Thames Valley League division X match played at the Royal British Legion, Hounslow on 28 October 2024
I intend to pass very quickly over this match. We lost 4-0 to a much higher-rated Hounslow team, and you may think anything I say constitutes sour grapes, but in fact the match was played in what we considered unsatisfactory conditions – a noisy bar area which was certainly not an appropriate environment for rated chess.
Kingston captain Jon Eckert decided to proceed with the match – in conditions really only suitable for friendly, beer-fuelled blitz – on the grounds that his players had made the long journey over to Hounslow and were there to play chess. But the Kingston club has made representations to the league about the conditions in which the match was played, and will be seeking assurances that they will not be repeated against a visiting Kingston team.
Wallington 1 v Kingston 3, Surrey League division 4 match played at Wallington on 23 October 2024
We always knew this would be tough. Kingston 3 were up against Wallington’s first team, and they had strong players (including a certain Mr P Lalić) on boards 1 to 3. That we ran them so close is testimony to the fighting spirit of the team and bodes well for future battles in Surrey division 4.
David Bickerstaff and Kingston captain Ed Mospan had good wins against lower-rated opposition on boards 4 and 5; Jon Eckert had an excellent draw with Black against the strong Wallington (and indeed Coulsdon) veteran Nick Edwards on board 2; while on board 4 Ye Kwaw miscalculated in a Closed Sicilian and paid the price against Robert Davies.
The board 3 match-up between Alicia Mason and David Jones was a tough battle that was resolved in Jones’s favour after just shy of 60 moves. Alicia played aggressively and was ahead for much of the game, but she made some errors in the endgame – time trouble was inevitably a factor – and let her advantage slip.
Despite that, she had good drawing chances until a misjudgement on her 52nd move. The position below looks tricky for White, with the Black king about to snaffle the white pawns, but with best play it is drawn. As it was, there was no way back from the move which Alicia chose. Such is the precision required in endgames, where every tempo is a matter of life and death.
Board 1 was a battle of the Kingston Peters – Peter Lalić (moonlighting for Wallington) and Peter Roche, a former Kingston chair now happily restored to competitive action after a five-year break. Facing the mighty Lalić is always a challenge, but Peter R gave him a good run for his money in a well-contested game.
Coulsdon 1 v Kingston 1, Surrey League division 1 match played at Coulsdon on 21 October 2024
Our Surrey League division 1 season started with an away match at Coulsdon. On paper we had a modest rating advantage on most of the boards, but Coulsdon invariably field a crop of fast-rising juniors, rendering such comparisons unreliable. Peter Large, John Hawksworth, Ash Stewart and Jasper Tambini made their league debuts for Kingston; congratulations and many thanks to all of them.
In the early skirmishes, Peter Lalić (pictured above) quickly gained a winning advantage against Timur Kuzhelev on board 4. The critical position came after 11. Rg5.
Board 7 saw Black fall into an opening trap in the Giuoco Piano. Unfortunately the setter of the trap was a 12-year-old uniformed schoolboy, and the victim was our own seasoned veteran David Rowson.
There was more bad news on board 3, where Ash Stewart’s opponent gained a massive amount of space in the centre and also won the exchange. The games on boards 5 and 6 were well-contested battles but always looked like being draws, so we would have to make a plus out of boards 1, 2 and 8.
I stood objectively better for most of my game, against a rather older junior, but it could easily have gone wrong. We join the action after 16 moves. I had played 16. Bh3, aiming at the hole on e6 and the rook on c8, but deserting the defence of e4. Black had responded with 16…c4, leaving both sides with a bewildering choice of pawn captures.
On board 2, it had seemed for some time that John Hawksworth had a slight edge against our Thames Valley League clubmate Supratit Banerjee, playing against an isolated queen’s pawn in a Queen’s Gambit Declined set-up. But in trying to turn that into something concrete, he ran short of time and of plans. Supratit combines a fine instinct for where the pieces should go, which reminded John of the 1980s Michael Adams, with resourcefulness and a very quick sight of the board, and took control, eventually putting one of John’s knights in a fatal pin.
So we needed a win from Peter Large on board 1, playing Black against Rahul Babu, who, with an ECF rating of 2298, is now England’s number 6 rated under-18 (Supratit is number 8 on that list). Peter rebutted a dodgy-looking innovation in the Closed Sicilian, and already had a slight edge when the critical position arose after 23. Qa1.
So a well-contested match finished 4-4. Several of the sides in this division do not always travel well, and it may be difficult for some of the juniors to play an away match finishing at 10.30pm (are we clutching at straws here?). But it confirms that the title race is wide open. Coulsdon look credible challengers, after Epsom won in 2023/24 and Guildford had been our main challengers in 2022/23.
* In case anyone is waiting in suspense for Peter Lalić’s finish: 17. Rg8+ Ke7 18. Bg5 pinned and won the black queen. If you failed to spot it, console yourself that Peter’s opponent, who presumably also missed it, is rated around 2100.
Peter Andrews, Kingston captain in Surrey League division 1
Kingston 2 v South Norwood 1, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston, on 14 October 2024
For the second week in a row, Kingston hosted a team from South Norwood. The result was the same as last week, when we triumphed in the first round of the Lauder Trophy, but this time it was much tighter, with three knife-edge games still being vigorously contested as the three-hour playing session drew to a close. In the end, Kingston emerged as 4.5-2.5 winners, but that relatively comfortable margin by no means tells the whole story.
IM John Hawksworth was making his league debut for Kingston on board 1 – John has returned to chess after a break of more than 30 years – and was up against a tough opponent in Marcus Osborne. The two showed each other a good deal of respect and an early draw was agreed in the position below (with Black to play). A good result for Marcus with Black; a good result for John on his return to competitive action.
Half an hour later Kingston went one up when Julian Way defeated the ever combative Ron Harris on board 3. Black blundered in the position below and ceded White a material advantage that was sufficient to win the game 15 moves later.
Peter Andrews, with Black against South Norwood captain Simon Lea on board 4, pushed Kingston further ahead with what he afterwards called (in the nicest possible way) “a very pleasant crush”.
Peter’s win put Kingston 2.5-0.5 ahead and that soon became 3-1 when Alan Scrimgour and Kaddu Mukasa agreed a draw in the position below after a very solidly played game that had always been level.
David Rowson and South Norwood’s Paul Dupré also drew on board 2, but their game was more of a rollercoaster, and David felt he had let winning chances slip. “I was clearly winning after Paul played some inferior moves and I won a pawn,” David said afterwards, “but in time trouble I got confused and was glad to get a draw when I only had about 10 seconds left.”
That made it 3.5-1.5 and we couldn’t lose the match – always reassuring. But could we win it? We thought initially that it was in the bag, but Peter Roche (back in league chess after a five-year absence) was short of time and running out of good moves on board 6, and, while Alicia Mason (pictured above) was better against South Norwood stalwart Ken Chamberlain on board 7, she was also in a time scramble. The possibility of a drawn match flickered across our collective consciousness.
Peter Roche’s game was a tragedy of sorts. He was completely level after 50 moves and in other circumstances his opponent, Ibrahim Abouchakra, would have been tempted to take a draw. But given the match situation he had to play on and, with Peter very short of time and playing a little too passively (perhaps deeming the draw inevitable), White was able to manoeuvre his king into an active position and forced the blunder which cost Peter the game. A defining moment came on Black’s 51st move, where Peter makes a slight error which allows the White king to penetrate, From there, things rapidly went downhill.
That made it 3.5-2.5, and now it was all down to Alicia Mason, making her Kingston debut with White on board 7. She did not let us down, securing the win with both players running short of time. After the game, Alicia said she felt her opponent’s key error came in the position shown below.
A very satisfying start to the season in this tough division where the Kingston second team will be up against three first teams – South Norwood, Surbiton and Wimbledon – as well as a strong Guildford second team. We will need to perform as we did here in every match to ensure survival in this battlefield.
Kingston v South Norwood, Lauder Trophy first-round match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 7 October 2024
This was in the end surprisingly easy. South Norwood are canny operators in the Lauder Trophy, a knockout competition played over six boards with a maximum collective ECF rating of 10,500. That rating ceiling levels the playing field – you can’t play six highly rated players; you have to slice and dice – and South Norwood have made good use of their relatively limited resources to win it four times in the trophy’s quarter-century history. But on this occasion, their team was unusually weak, they defaulted a board and Kingston ran out emphatic 5.5-0.5 winners.
With board six already in the bag by default – a (sort of) debut victory for new Kingston junior Anqi Yang – our top two boards went to work to build on the lead. Mike Healey had White against Ron Harris, who as usual blitzed out his moves. But Mike is too strong a player to be intimidated as we lesser mortals are when faced by a very fast player who is always looking to grab the initiative. Ron made the somewhat rash decision to castle queenside in the position below, and Mike launched a ferocious attack that ended in victory after 30 moves.
David Rowson was playing South Norwood stalwart Simon Lea with Black on board 2, and the latter stumbled into a piece-losing tactic as early as the 11th move, in the position shown below.
South Norwood captain Ken Chamberlain held Jon Eckert to a draw on board 4 to save his side from being bagelled 6-0, but that result was enough to take Kingston over the line and confirm the victory. Joe Inch, another promising junior making his debut for the club, then scored an excellent win over the veteran Gengadharan Somupillai with White on board 5, playing confidently in a rook endgame.
Julian Way, with White on board 3 against the resourceful Ibrahim Abouchakra, played the longest and most complicated game of the night. Abouchakra played the Dragon Variation of the Sicilian Defence and was always looking to attack, but Julian kept control of the situation. In the position below he is well on top, but is a little concerned about the exposed position of his king, which might give Black hopes of mate or a perpetual. Julian finds a pragmatic way to win, winning a piece and diverting the Black queen to a defensive role. The engine, which never sees ghosts, opts for something flashier.
Julian’s win, on the stroke of 10.30pm and after a three-hour battle, made it 5.5-0.5, and South Norwood had to face a long and forlorn drive back to south London. The match would have been a different story if they had been at home, where they tend to be much stronger, but that’s the luck of the draw. We now face Wallington in the semi-final, and this time we have to travel to that distant location. An advance party will be setting off immediately.
Dorking 2 v Kingston 4, Surrey division 5 match played at Crossways Community Baptist Church, Dorking on 3 October 2024
Kingston has a new third- and fourth-team captain in the Surrey League – one of the most demanding roles at the club – and Edward “Ed” Mospan started his tenure with an excellent 3.5-2.5 win at Dorking in a closely fought match. The future, as we always knew it would be, is safe in Ed’s hands.
Just getting to Dorking from Kingston is a battle, especially in a week when the Great Dorking Sinkhole had made entering the town by road almost impossible. But Ed’s team managed it and proceeded to play with great aplomb.
David Shalom (pictured above, right, in action at a recent blitz tournament at All Saints church in Kingston) had a terrific success on board 1 against Pablo Telford. The game was very sharp, with David proving that the more mild-mannered a person is the more aggressive they are likely to be at the chessboard. His aggression paid dividends when his opponent went horribly wrong in the position below.
David Bickerstaff also enjoyed an excellent win with Black on board 2, finding a neat tactic in the position below which as good as sealed the deal.
Aziz Sannie was the third Kingston winner on the night, with White on board 5, and Mark Sheridan got a crucial draw with Black on board 6 to ensure that Kingston went home (avoiding the sinkhole of course) with the points.
Rob Taylor lost on board 3 – we accidentally played him out of board order, but Surrey tournament controller Graham Alcock kindly forgave us the early-season slip and told us to sharpen up our act – and Captain Ed lost with Black on board 4, despite having both a time advantage and what he believed was a winning position. “If helpmate was an actual competition,” he remarked on the club’s WhatsApp group, “I would be a grandmaster.” Don’t fret about it Ed. As a person and a captain, you are already at super-GM level!
Streatham v Kingston, Alexander Cup first-round match played at St Thomas’s Church, Streatham, on 1 October 2024
In one sense this was groundhog day. We had played Streatham at exactly this time of the year last season at the same venue and come out on top by 7-3. But there were also significant differences: this was a revamped (and we hope renewed) Kingston team, with no fewer than four debutants – Peter Large, Sam Walker, Ash Stewart and Peter Hasson. We had been working through the summer to reinvigorate the squad – a team that stands still is doomed to fail – and this would be the acid test: would we be Man City, recruiting wisely, or Man United, living on past reputation?
We like to believe it is the former, though the home team fought hard to expose us as the latter. We outrated Streatham on every board and ran out 6.5-3.5 winners, but it was a tense evening nonetheless, and there were some anxious faces in the Kingston support group as 10pm approached and we started to enter time scramble territory.
The first game to finish was Julian Way’s on board 8. He was playing White against promising junior Qixuan Han, and in the following position Julian believed his opponent could have struck a critical blow. The move Julian feared was 20…c5, because of the threat from the Black queen to the pawn on g3 – the f2 pawn is pinned. The engine concurs that Black is better, but it takes a fair amount of manoeuvring to prove the advantage. As it was, Han chose a quieter line and a draw was agreed a few moves later. White has a slight advantage in the final position, but Julian was 20 minutes down on the clock and admitted his mind was still dwelling on the potential for Black of 20…c5.
Kingston’s first win came courtesy of club president John Foley on board 10. His opponent had fallen into a trap in the opening, leading to the loss of a vital pawn, and looked singularly dejected for the rest of the game. This is the game, with comments from John:
There was more good news soon after when David Maycock defeated Streatham veteran Graham Keane’s Pirc Defence on board 2, a tremendous win which showed that David has superb positional sense as well as sharp command of tactics. He has annotated his success in the Games section.
David Maycock (left) enjoyed an impressive win on board 2 against Streatham stalwart Graham Keane
That made it to 2.5-0.5 to Kingston, and things became even better shortly afterwards when Sam Walker – one of Kingston’s new recruits and playing off a handy ECF rating of 2272 – won with Black on board 3. White had had a slight edge for most of the game after playing the English Opening, but the game swung suddenly when Sam landed a neat tactical blow in the position below. Watch how the apparently strong knight on d6 suddenly becomes a key target.
We were now 3.5-0.5 up and surely it was plain sailing. But not so fast: the team’s non-playing captain Alan Scrimgour thought we stood worse on boards 1 and 5, and Peter Andrews was under pressure on board 9. This was by no means over yet.
Sam Walker (left), flanked by Peter Lalić, recorded a vital win on board 3 on his Kingston debut
The next game to finish was on board 6, where another Kingston debutant, Peter Hasson, drew with Antony Hall. This was the key position in which Peter opted for a drawing line:
“I misplayed the opening and ended up in a slightly worse position but kept it in balance,” Peter explained afterwards. “At the end I wanted to stop Black posting a knight on c4, which is a bit awkward so used the exchanging combination starting with 24. Nxa7. If he plays 24… Bxb4, I have Nc6. I was probably slightly better at the end [a draw was a agreed a few moves later], but given the state of the match at the time I felt it simplest to secure the half-point which was close to taking us over the line.”
Peter Andrews, left, does battle with Streatham captain Martin Smith in a pivotal encounter on board 9
A good choice as it turned out, but there were wobbles on the way. On board 5, Ash Stewart was behind on time and, playing on the 10-second increment (the control was 75 minutes per player plus 10 seconds added on every move), went down fighting in a scramble. That made it 4-2. With Peter Large having the worst of it on board 1, the board 9 clash between Peter Andrews and Streatham captain Martin Smith now became crucial.
The Streatham player opted for an interesting line in the Catalan, with 7. Ne5, but Peter played accurately and established a small advantage out of the opening. Then a thunderbolt in the position below:
Fine indeed. Critical in fact, because just as Peter A took a draw another of our four (!) Peters, IM Peter Large, was losing to Phil Makepeace, who had played a impressively forceful game, on board 1. Had both Peters lost, it would have been 4-4 – such are the fine margins in team chess. As it was, we were still ahead by 4.5-3.5, so another point would do it (having lost on board 1, which counts for 10 points in the event of a tie, the higher maths of board count in the event of the match ending 5-5 did not appeal).
We were now confident David Rowson was winning on board 7, though he said later he was nervous of blundering away his advantage in a long-drawn-out endgame. But as so often it was Peter Lalić who took us over the line. His game on board 4 against Matthew Tillett was closely contested, but, with time and the pressure of the match situation no doubt taking their toll, his opponent blundered in the position below in which Black’s bishop on d4 is directing affairs.
That made it a match-winning 5.5-3.5 to Kingston, and David Rowson on board 7 duly added the point that made the win look a little more comfortable than it really was. David’s victory came courtesy of the “nervy endgame” he described, but the game had really been decided by the middlegame sequence shown below.
We got back to Kingston close to midnight, but it was worth it. A potential banana skin – Streatham are a very well-run club with a powerful squad of players – had been sidestepped, and the pursuit of our fourth successive Alexander Cup was successfully launched. Next up, probably in the New Year, dangerous wannabes Epsom. Even now, Epsom President Marcus Gosling – the Ernst Stavro Blofeld of Surrey chess – will be plotting our downfall from his heavily fortified lair somewhere on the North Downs.
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
A trio of victories concludes the Thames Valley Div X season in style
What a finish to the season by Kingston C in Thames Valley division X. They won their final three matches to finish second in the table to a strong Maidenhead C side. Kingston C actually ended with a sequence of six wins in a row – testimony to the way in which new players found their feet in the course of the season.
These three games were played over the course of eight days in the final week of the season – away to Hounslow C on 13 May, home to Ealing D on 20 May and away to Richmond E on 21 May – and on each occasion the match was won by 2.5-1.5.
Leon Mellor-Sewell (pictured standing above, in a match played earlier in the season) and David Bickerstaff, both crucial additions to the club this season, starred with wins at Hounslow. Robin Kerremans, another new member, and Colin Lyle enjoyed wins against Ealing, with Jaden Mistry securing an important draw. And Greg Heath got the crucial point in a tight match against Richmond, though Leon again deserves special praise for his draw with the very capable Alex Shard.
A tremendous late run by the Div X team, expertly captained by Stephen Daines, to whom mighty congratulations are due. Stephen is now stepping down from captaincy duties, and will be a very hard act to follow.
An extraordinary and stressful final 4NCL weekend of the season saw CSC/Kingston 1 win promotion to division 1 and CSC/Kingston 2 go down to division 4, leaving tricky questions for the squad for next season.
What drama there was in Daventry and Telford at the denouement of the 2023/24 4NCL season. At Daventry, CSC/Kingston 1 played superbly to win all three of their matches and secure second place in the final table and promotion to division 1 of the league, where teams with clusters of GMs await. Anyone fancy playing Alexei Shirov next season? Actually all our leading players will fancy it – and will give a very good account of themselves.
IM Vladyslav Larkin, who made a brilliant debut for CSC/Kingston 1, beating GM and three-times British champion Jonathan Mestel and scoring 2.5/3, would certainly be up for the challenge. As would CM David Maycock (pictured above), who scored 3/3 over the final weekend to complete a tremendous 4NCL season in which he scored 9.5/11 and racked up a rating over the 11-round competition of 2550-plus. It was more than enough for a nailed-on IM norm, except that one of the opposing teams at the final weekend managed not to give him the titled player he needed to satisfy that requirement. Very disappointing for David, and indeed infuriating for the entire team. That we did not let our fury destabilise us and kept our eye on the promotion prize made the success all the more admirable.
At Telford, valiantly though CSC/Kingston 2 battled, all the results went against us and we were relegated from division 3 (knights) to division 4. Having such a gulf between the two teams makes squad management difficult, and it is imperative that we work hard to get a team back into division 3 next year. Division 3 is perfect for players rated 2000-plus – highly competitive, with good games guaranteed in every round. Division 4 can be more hit and miss, with a big gap between the strong teams and the rest.
A word for CSC/Kingston 3, who performed creditably all season in division 4 and ended in the top half of the 27-team table (might there be scope for making 4NCL a five-division league?). Jon Eckert should be mentioned in dispatches: he played every round and drove thousands of miles to ensure that he and his team-mates were at the venues in good time. On a given Saturday or Sunday, especially when the team was playing in Telford, he would spend five hours playing and more than that driving up from London and back. Utterly exhausting and truly selfless. It is not just the first team that has heroes.
The three teams were as always excellently managed by team captains Kate and Charlie Cooke, who handled the logistics of getting 20 players per round to distant motorway hotel locations with aplomb. How they do it I have no idea. It requires the motivational powers of Alex Ferguson and the operational nous of a food distribution company. Well done to them and well done to the players who got CSC/Kingston 1 to the top of the mountain. Now, how do we set about establishing a serious foothold there?
All the results from the weekend’s three rounds are shown below, as well as the final tables.
