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).
Kings Head 1 | Richmond | ||
1 | Alex Lewis 203 | 0:1 | Iain Gourlay 225 |
2 | Colin Mackenzie 179 | ½:½ | Gavin Wall 223 |
3 | Andrew Gilfillan 186 | 0:1 | Ashley Stewart 205 |
4 | Jim Falzarano 179 | 0:1 | Mike Healey 212 |
5 | Mark Davey 188 | ½:½ | Caspar Bates 200 |
6 | Kayode Disu 171 | 0:1 | John Burke 181 |
7 | Alex Bourke 160 | 0:1 | Martin Benjamin 176 |
8 | Peter Grant-Ross 141 | 0:1 | Chris White 177 |
9 | Default | 0:1 | |
10 | Default | 0:1 | |
1:9 |
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.