Apologies for the delay, but I was awaiting news from other clubs.

On Tuesday 6 December, our TVKO team lost heavily to a formidable Kingston team.

1. David Maycock (2335) 1:0 Mike Healey (2251)
2. Peter Lalic (2313) 1:0 Gavin Wall (2310)
3. Vladimir Li (2098) 1:0 Maks Gajowniczek (1805)
4. Will Taylor (2068) 1:0 Jon Eckert (1854)
5. David Rowson (2065) ½:½ Bertie Barlow (1934)
6. Peter Andrews (2004) 1:0 Andrii Boiechko (1815)

The good news is that we’ve avoided an away match against Maidenhead in the next round. Well done to Bertie for preventing a whitewash.

You can read Kingston’s report here.

On Thursday 8 December we had two matches, and, with many players unavailable for various reasons, we were struggling to fill the teams. However, it all worked out well in the end, as we were successful in both matches.

Our London League team continued their perfect start to the season with a win against Battersea, who fielded a team which had much less strength in depth than we might have expected.

We’re still waiting to discover the identity of two of the Battersea players. I’ll update once they’ve provided the information.

1. Iain Gourlay (2353) ½:½ Midhun Unnikrishnan (2275)
2. David Maycock (2336) 1:0 Blair Connell (2241)
3. Gavin Wall (2311) ½:½ AN Other
4. Mike Healey (2250) 0:1 Meet Shah (1868)
5. Mark Josse (2164) 1:0 Tung Nguyen (1768)
6. Caspar Bates (2133) 1:0 Domenico Amabile (-)
7. Sampson Low (1827) ½:½ Greg Taylor (-)
8. Maks Gajowniczek (1800) 1:0 AN Other

Congratulations to David, Mark, Caspar and Maks on their victories.

You’ll note that there were five former RJCC members in our team: boards 3 to 7, and also that Kingston’s top two boards on Tuesday were both playing for us on Thursday.

On the same evening our Surrey Centenary Trophy team made the long journey to South Norwood. Only three of the regular squad were able to play, so, unfortunately for our opponents, we had to make up the team with stronger players on the top boards, and I was reluctantly persuaded to come out of retirement to ensure we had a full team.

1. Ron Harris (1845) 0:1 Peter Lalic (2324)
2. Mohammad Sameer-Had (1880) 0:1 Maxim Dunn (1984)
3. Mukasa Kaddu (1678) ½:½ Richard James (1938)
4. Ken Chamberlain (1572) 0:1 Roger Scowen (1710)
5. John Ganev (1523) 1:0 Mike Robinson-Chui (1447)
6. Barry Miles (1545) 1:0 Ron Bilkhu (1349)

We had no problem winning the top two boards, and likewise our boards 5 and 6 lost material to their higher rated opponents. The other two games were unfinished when time was called. Roger had broken through on the black side of a Stonewall Dutch to win some pawns, and his opponent resigned rather than troubling the adjudicator. I played the opening badly and then miscalculated the tactics, leaving me a piece down. Luckily for me and the team, my opponent made a mistake, enabling me to regain the piece and reach a theoretically drawn rook ending a pawn down. The result was swiftly agreed via text message.

Thanks to all who played in these matches.