Last night’s London League match pitted us against one of London’s strongest clubs, Hackney.
Although we were outgraded, in some cases heavily, on almost every board we managed a narrow win. Plaudits to Mike, Mark, Caspar and Martin for their wins, and to Gavin, John Bass and Chris for their draws.
We’re now in a very good position to repeat last season’s second place in the league, with only Athenaeum (next week) and Battersea (as well as a win by default against Drunken Knights 2) to come. Battersea are still on 100%, but have only played 5 of their 11 games, and still have to meet Hackney and Cavendish, as well as Wood Green and ourselves.
| Richmond | Hackney 1 | ||
| 1 | Gavin Wall 223 | ½:½ | Richard Bates 225 |
| 2 | Mike Healey 212 | 1:0 | Richard Britton 210 |
| 3 | Mark Josse 204 | 1:0 | Dave Ledger 208 |
| 4 | Caspar Bates 200 | 1:0 | Bob Eames 206 |
| 5 | Jonathan Somekh 174 | 0:1 | Nicholas Walker 202 |
| 6 | John Burke 181 | 0:1 | John Reid 202 |
| 7 | Martin Benjamin 176 | 1:0 | Tobias Baumann 181 |
| 8 | John Bass 168 | ½:½ | Kevin Bowmer 189 |
| 9 | Chris White 177 | ½:½ | Piro Balloglu 171 |
| 10 | Andrew Waters 168 | 0:1 | John Tennyson 173 |
| 5½:4½ |
Our top 5 players are all former members of Richmond Junior Club, as, of course, is the Hackney Board 1 (and, before you ask, Richard and Caspar are not related). Furthermore, our next three players are all part of the ‘B-Squad’ who joined Richmond as teenagers or young adults in the late 70s, but were too old for RJCC. The legacy of what happened in the 1970s still lives on.