Ashtead 1 v Kingston 2, Surrey League division 2 match played at the Peace Memorial Hall, Ashtead on 7 April 2026

The Surrey League Division 2 (Beaumont Cup) table showed in advance of this match that if Kingston 2 were defeated, Guildford 2, with two outstanding matches, could still catch us on match points. We had 12.5 more game points, so a defeat by no worse than 2-5 would ensure that even two 7-0 wins for Guildford would be insufficient to overhaul us.

I was confident that was within our scope, but with several regulars away for holiday or work reasons, David Rowson falling ill the day before the match, and Ashtead having several strong players who occasionally turn out for them, it was by no means a done deal. Those concerns were reinforced before the start. The familiar figure of Peter Lalić was hovering in the background, and he certainly wasn’t eligible to play for us. And of course, this being Division 2, I lost the toss, giving us four Blacks out of seven.

Quick draws for Jasper Tambini on board 2 against Phil Brooks and John Foley on board 3 against Dan Rosen, in both cases outrated by over 100 points, soon settled the nerves. Tom Mayers on board 6 took only slightly longer to draw with Bertie Barlow. Tom had had an edge from the opening, but the position soon became blocked and roughly equal, and he wisely took no risks.

My game with Peter Lalić was also fairly short but rather more exciting, in a bad way. In a similar line to our clash in the Thames Valley match between Kingston A and B early in the season, Peter had thrown his kingside pawns up the board, sacrificing one of them. The sacrifice was not strictly sound, but tempted me to try to hold the material rather than get castled, and in a difficult but in principle equal position I missed a game-ending shot.

At about the same time, Alan Scrimgour won on board 4 against Ian McLeod. This was one of those rare games where one player is able to build a winning advantage by positional means without an obvious major error on the other side. Such a smooth performance deserves coverage in the games department, so only the denouement is featured here.

Stephen Moss, who had kindly stepped up to play board 7 when David Rowson fell ill, had a much longer and more dramatic game with Adrian Waldock. An aggressive line against the English had given him a space advantage. White had countered on the kingside which had opened up, potentially embarrassing both kings, but by the time we join the action (and this was about the time spectators were moving over from the other games) it was clear that it was White’s king which was in trouble.

That left us 3.5-2.5 ahead, and, with at least one match point in the bag, fine calculations around game points became academic. As it turned out, Martyn Jones on board 5 was able to seal the win in an entertaining though unrecorded finish against Tom Barton.

Martyn, playing Black, had won a pawn and also had the better bishop by the early stages of the endgame, and seemed at one point to have a winning chance in hand-to-hand fighting between the central pawns. But the position became blocked, and White penetrated with a rook. Towards the end there seemed to be a risk that Martyn’s king would get mated mid-board, hemmed in by pawns.  With both players down to a minute or less, Martyn played Be8, defending all the threats but leaving the bishop en prise to a rook on e6. As he did so, he offered a draw. His opponent was equally unaware that he had just been presented with a game that he had been fighting to save for most of the evening, and accepted the draw, giving us a 4-3 win.

So we won the match and with it the Surrey League division 2 championship, only four seasons after Kingston 1 had won the same division. Whereas that was a logical stepping stone en route to contesting the summit of Surrey chess, this has been much more of a surprise (until this season we have regarded staying in the division as our objective) and therefore arguably a greater achievement by the players involved.

We were outrated in five of our 10 matches, according to the one-month-lagged ratings used by Surrey, and we lost the toss in eight of those 10 matches – significant when that means 4 Blacks and 3 Whites. In all the close finishes, of which there were many (two drawn matches, a 4-3 win, three 4.5-2.5 wins), someone seemed to pull out a result when it was needed.

Eighteen different people played during the season. Of the regulars, Alan Scrimgour (6/8) and David Rowson (5/7) had the best results. But the strength of this team was in depth, with for example Homayoon Froogh (4.5/5) and Martyn Jones (3.5/5) scoring heavily on the lower boards, increasing their ratings and moving up the order as the season went on, and Stephen Moss scoring 3 out of 4 in addition to his tireless driving.

Over the next few weeks I intend to consult the player pool as to whether we wish to have a crack at division 1 or whether, if we have the choice, we might be able to remain in what is already a highly challenging division. But for the moment Kingston 2 should enjoy their unexpected success in winning one of the few trophies which eluded the club in 2024-25.  

Peter Andrews is Kingston 2 captain in Surrey League division 2