It’s been a long time since the last post.
The London League team have been very busy, with three recent matches, all against evenly matched opposition, who, like us, will expect to finish mid-division. Our match against Streatham resulted in a draw, helped by our opponents being a player short. Gavin Wall was the only winner, with draws for Iain Gourlay, Mike Healey, Caspar Bates, Julien Shepley, Martin Benjamin and Chris Baker. Our next match, against King’s Head, ended up with our opponents winning by one point. Our winners were Ashley Stewart, Blair Connell and John Burke, while Gavin Wall, Martin Benjamin and Chris White all shared the spoils. Finally, we managed to beat local rivals Wimbledon in a match played over 9 boards. Ameet Ghasi, Gavin Wall, Ashley Stewart and John Burke were the victors, with half points for Jonathan Somekh, Chris Baker and Chris White.
Our TVA match against Kingston on 12 February was postponed at about three hours notice due to a power cut at their venue. It will be rearranged for later in the season. Our next match was against the mighty Surbiton, who outgraded us by over 30 points a board. Remarkably, we managed to win the match, with Julien, Ian, Eamon and myself winning their games, along with a draw from John Burke.
The TVB team should have played two matches since my last report, but Maidenhead B failed to turn up at Richmond. I’m assuming at the moment we’re going to claim a 6-0 win. We then visited Hounslow B where we gained revenge for our earlier defeat with a comprehensive 5-1 victory. Ian, Stuart, Sampson and Omar won their games, while Bertie and Eamon drew.
Our C team lost both their February matches. They suffered a heavy defeat against a strong Kingston B team, with just a draw from Alex on top board. Our match against Harrow B was closer, helped by a win by default on bottom board. A win for Dan and a draw for Laurie saw us losing by the odd point.
The TVD team’s only February match was against strong opposition from Surbiton C. We went down 4-2,with wins from Henry Shard (Alex’s son) and Sampson.
Richmond E played two matches in February, losing 2½-1½ against Surbiton D, with a win for Barry and a draw for Dan. The match against Hounslow C was also a narrow defeat. Both teams defaulted board 2, while Dan this time scored the full point.