It’s always sad to see a club which seems to be struggling, especially a club like Kings Head, which has been at the forefront of London chess for more than three decades. A club  which, like Drunken Knights, has been noted for its sociability and friendliness as well as its chess.

As in their previous encounter, against Wimbledon, they defaulted two boards, although they’ve fielded strong teams in some of their other matches. Only one of their ten nominated first team players took part. It’s a similar story in the Middlesex League. I’m not sure what’s happening internally, but we can only sympathise and hope they’re able to resolve these issues in time for next season.

You can only beat what they put in front of you, though, and that’s precisely what we did. Congratulations to the whole team (and commiserations to those who didn’t get a game).

A score of 6/7 gives us an excellent chance of repeating last season’s second place. We note that Battersea are on 4/4, but with Wood Green, Hackney and Cavendish, as well as ourselves, to come.