Two wins and a defeat in our three important matches this week.

Our TVB team travelled down the M4 to Maidenhead, to take on Maidenhead B in a Division 2 match. While the top two boards were evenly matched, we outrated them on boards 3-6, and duly achieved the win we were expecting.

Unusually, perhaps, the top boards finished first. Bertie rapidly traded down to a rook ending which was soon agreed drawn. Andrew had lost material in a sharp opening, and was never in the game, so we were a point behind. I outplayed my opponent positionally, but mistakenly chose to capture a pawn, which might have forfeited most of my advantage. Luckily for me, he failed to find the best reply and I won a few moves later, equalising the match and giving my my first OTB win since 2018! Alastair had two unconnected rooks against a queen, but his opponent blundered a knight, and his king was mated on the side of the board, putting us ahead. Pablo got a pawn through in the ending to secure our victory. Finally, Sampson was also trying to get a pawn through, but his king ended up in a mating net. He had to give up his bishop, but was able to capture his opponent’s remaining pawns.

On Tuesday we faced off against Streatham in the semi-final of the Eastman Cup, the London League KO competition.

A close encounter between two evenly matched teams, where we just came out ahead. Mike tells me he won on time, and we were lucky in some of the other games as well. (By the way, if anyone wants to provide reports of LL matches for the website it would be great.) Our opponents in the final later in the season will be the mighty Hammersmith.

No such luck, though, for our Fred Manning team, who lost narrowly to Wimbledon A at the Adelaide, also on Tuesday. Harry scored his first ever win in a rated game – congratulations! Peter drew his game, but David and Mike RC both lost. I’ll add the full results when they appear on the Surrey website.

Thanks to all for playing, and, as always, special thanks to the captains and drivers.