Surrey League division 4 match played at the Willoughby Arms, Kingston on 20 March 2023

After a comprehensive defeat to South Norwood 2 in the away match, this was a much better showing. South Norwood had a strong team out and Ron Harris, who remains an excellent attacking player if you give him the initiative, scored a quick win against Charlie Cooke on board 1. But Kingston’s junior duo of Shaurya Handu and Jaden Mistry quickly counterpunched.

Shaurya, with Black, defeated the experienced Barry Miles on board 5, underlining his great potential, and Jaden scored his first win for the club against Les Denford on board 6. That made it 2-1 to Kingston and it was looking good when I had a comfortable draw against my rival captain, Ken Chamberlain, on board 4. But South Norwood had strong players on two and three and won both games in good style to run out 3.5-2.5 victors in the match.

Kingston’s Sean Tay had chances on board 3, but an eleventh-hour piece sacrifice did not come off, and he was mated as his opponent launched a counter-attack. This division has been tough for Kingston 3, but our juniors and new players are heading in the right direction and we will be stronger next season .

Stephen Daines, Kingston third-team captain