The final weekend of the 4NCL season saw CSC/Kingston 1 survive in the first division, while the second team were pipped for promotion from Div 3 and the third team finished a creditable sixth in Div 4

The final weekend of the 4NCL season, on the bank holiday weekend of 3-5 May, saw all three CSC/Kingston teams in action, though at different locations – the first and second teams in Daventry, the third team in Coventry. As ever, squad manager Kate Cooke handled the logistical complications with calm efficiency.

The first team survived their debut season in the very tough division 1 and live to fight another day. At the beginning of the season, I put our chances of survival at 50-50, or perhaps in my more pessimistic moments 60-40 against. Clearly we were identified by the rest of the league as likely relegation contenders – one rival captain told me that explicitly. Our first weekend did not go well, with defeats to eventual title winners Manx Liberty and to the very experienced Blackthorne. But we got stronger and the incredible victory against Sharks 1 on Weekend 4 paved the way for survival.

On the Saturday of the final weekend, we played the strong Cheddleton team – just the three GMs! We had brought in young Turkish IM Eray Kilic as a wildcard as a hedge against possible relegation – we were still not mathematically safe, though by now we were fairly confident of surviving. Eray, who played superbly all weekend, defeated GM Keith Arkell on board 1 to set up a drawn match in which Polish WIM Liwia Jarocka also scored a fine win against Nina Pert (the first of Liwia’s three victories across the weekend).

The crunch match came on Sunday against Barbican, who needed to beat us to have a chance of avoiding relegation. It was an extremely tense encounter, with victories for IM Vladyslav Larkin and Supratit Banerjee (newly confirmed as an FM at the age of just 11) offset by losses for IM Malcolm Pein and CM Peter Finn. It all came down to the board 5 game between David Maycock (pictured above) and IM John Pigott. The Barbican player held the advantage in a minor-piece endgame, but David would not relent, time started to worry his opponent and the IM blundered and eventually lost on time. We were finally safe. On Monday we defeated Sharks 2, who were already doomed to relegation, to secure seventh place in the table – a terrific result after our travails in the early part of the season.

Div 1 – Round 9

Div 1 – Round 10

Div 1 – Round 11

Div 1 – final table

We had hoped that the second team would win promotion from Div 3 (Knights) into division 2. It would certainly have been team planning easier as the top two divisions always play alongside each other at the same venue. But it was not to be. The team won well on the Saturday, but lost to a strong Brown Jack team on Sunday and went down to the excellent To Be Decided in the promotion decider on Monday.

We needed to beat To be Decided 5-1 to win promotion, but in truth that never looked likely. To Be Decided ran out 4-2 winners and go up with Sussex Martlets 1, who had a perfect season – 11 wins in 11 matches – to win the division. Many congratulations to both the promoted sides. CSC/Kingston 2 finished in fourth place, tied on match points with the Rookies. In the end a slight disappointment when we had been vying for the second promotion spot all season.

Div 3 (Knights) – Round 9

Div 3 (Knights) – Round 10

Div 3 (Knights) – Round 11

Div 3 (Knights) – final table

In division 4, CSC/KIngston 3 have enjoyed an extremely successful season and finished sixth in the 32-team league. This division is structured as a Swiss rather than an all-play-all, and sixth spot was a good deal higher than we have been in previous seasons. The drawn match on Sunday against Div 4 title winners Barnet Knights C was particularly notable, as was Petr Vachtfeidl’s performance in winning all three of his games (two of them against 2000-strength players) across the weekend. Chris Rice, too, had a tremendous weekend, scoring 2.5/3.

Div 4 – Round 9

Div 4 – Round 10

Div 4 – Round 11

Div 4 – final table

Well done to everyone who played for the CSC/Kingston teams through the season, and thank you all for trekking to motorway hotels across the Midlands in all sorts of weather (who can forget the biblical downpour at Daventry last November?) to keep the flag flying. Despite stumbling in Div 3 in the final two matches, it has been an amazingly successful season, and the way we have competed with GM-packed teams in division 1 has been remarkable. Thanks above all to Kate and Charlie Cooke, who have made all this possible. Now at last Kate can get some rest after seven months spent juggling three teams and a squad of 40 players at three different venues. A truly fantastic effort.

Stephen Moss, Kingston club captain