As expected, Cavendish fielded a very strong team in the final of the Eastman Cup, and, equally predictably, they were a bit too strong for us.

	Richmond		Cavendish
1	Richard Bates 232	½:½	Ravi Haria 244
2	Gavin Wall 217	0:1	Jonathan Parker 240
3	Mike Healey 212	1:0	Rafe Martyn 233
4	Bob Eames 206	½:½	Mark Ferguson 231
5	Caspar Bates 192	½:½	John Cox 224
6	Andreas Wetscherek 189	0:1	Matthew Piper 220
7	Jonathan Somekh 173	0:1	Terry Chapman 211
8	Chris White 175	1:0	Kanwal Bhatia 188
9	John Bass 173	0:1	Zaki Harari 187
10	Mike Smart 164	0:1	Daire McMahon 183
		3½:6½

Not a bad performance overall, but their superior strength in depth proved decisive.

Congratulations to Mike and Chris for their excellent wins, and also to Gavin, Bob and Caspar for their draws.

Congratulations also to the Cavendish team for winning the trophy.

Mike Healey commented on Facebook:

“It was a much closer match than the score suggests. I was playing my own game, but it seemed that Mike S and John B were both better or winning at points, Gavin and Richard had good positions, Caspar brilliantly outplayed his opponent throughout, while Jonny was a piece up. As per usual our most lost position was mine!”