Richmond v Hackney 1 27-03-19

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.