We are starting to wonder if teams prefer not to come to ‘Fortress Willoughby‘

The match against Surbiton B scheduled for Monday 9 May was abandoned at three days’ notice when the Surbiton captain announced that he was unable to raise a team. This raised the question of whether the match should be deferred or defaulted, and after considering both options the Kingston committee felt that accepting Surbiton’s default was the better option. We had accepted Ealing Juniors’ default in April, and, with Surbiton and Ealing Juniors locked in a relegation fight in this division, it seemed ethical to treat Surbiton in the same way. We might otherwise have been seen to be favouring our neighbouring club. A default means a 6-0 defeat, which has significant implications for board count (the chess equivalent of goal difference), and that might eventually determine who goes down to division 3. So we reluctantly accepted Surbiton’s default. Our Thames Valley division 2 campaign is truly ending with a whimper, rather than a bang, but after a long and difficult season played in the teeth of the Covid pandemic it is understandable that a degree of exhaustion is setting in. It many ways, it is a miracle that clubs have come through this transitional year intact, and one hopes that next season will be a little less testing – in every sense!

Stephen Moss, Kingston Thames Valley captain