This match had looked for some months likely to be critical in our effort to regain the league title. A draw or win for Kingston would seal the deal. A loss would mean that Guildford would have the chance to catch us on match points when they visited Coulsdon in Easter week, although they would have to win both matches by large margins to catch us on game points.

This was an immensely impressive win by Kingston 3 against a very experienced Guildford team. The hero of the hour was Kingston newbie Seth Warren, who defeated Guildford veteran Trevor Jones in a ding-dong game that saw each player carefully watching results on other boards to see if they should push for a win.

Perhaps this was a match too far for Kingston 2 in the Surrey League. We were safe from relegation in division 2, had little but pride to play for and were up against a strong team still vying with Wimbledon 1 for promotion to the top flight. We were outrated but, in truth, we should have done better than losing 5-2. We did well to draw on boards 1 to 3, and on 7, but were outgunned in the middle order.

Kingston fielded an all-junior team in the final TVX match of the season and were rewarded with a 2-2 draw against a more experienced Surbiton team.

The Thorp Trophy – a four-board team rapidplay played on a single afternoon – hasn’t been held for 20 years, but this season the Surrey Association enterprisingly revived it, and last weekend 16 teams from across Surrey gathered at the Parochial Hall in Cheam to do battle for the trophy.