We stretch ourselves by entering so many teams. Although it allows members to play a lot it also relies a lot on members being willing to turn out for teams other than their own and often at short notice. Thankfully we have many members who happily help out other teams and they are greatly appreciated by our captains who have a lot of juggling to do during the season.

Two of our teams finished in the top two places in their divisions, two finished in the bottom two places and 3 finished in mid table.

Our 2nd team, having been relegated last spring, had a completely new line up this season in division 2, with a new captain in Felipe (promoted from the 3rd team) who was supported by Vinod, in his first full season for us, and rising star Nikolai. The 4th place was filled by substitutes, mainly Onos, and Florian & Drag also played a few times.

The team started well and never looked back, ending up in 2nd place, one point behind winners Nomads 1. Vinod scored an amazing 7 points from his 8 games and Nikolai scored an equally amazing 12 points from his 14 games.

The surprise package was our 7th team who, after years of lower half finishes in division 5, won the division, thanks largely to great leadership by Marshall in his first season as a captain. After 6 matches the team was mid table but then embarked on a tremendous run of 8 consecutive wins to storm to the top of the table. All the regulars scored at least 50%, and there has to be a special mention for two new members who had not played rated OTB chess before: Ben, who was in our 6th team, won all 6 games he played for the 7th team, and Joe, who joined us in February, got 3.5 points from his 4 games.

Our 1st team had a disappointing season in division 1, finishing in the lower half. It was the first time since the 2013-14 season that they lost more matches than they won. Only Mike B managed more than 50%, scoring 77%, mainly on board 2, while Florian scored 4 points from his 8 games.
The final three matches summed up the season, picking up just one point against 3 teams they heavily out graded.

Newly promoted Gambit 3 were one of the favourites to struggle in division 2 but, excellently led by captain Paul (promoted from the 5th team), exceeded all expectations by finishing in 4th place, and were never in trouble. The highlight was beating the 2nd team in November thanks to Paul beating Felipe in the battle of the captains. Drag scored 7 points from 13 games and Paul got 4.5 from 9.

In division 3 our 5th team somehow managed to stay up in spite of having to use 15 players. It was a real test, passed with honours, for captain Marian. Having lost John Tassi early on, new member Tom H, after scoring 3 out of 4, dropped out due to his studies, and Keith was only able to play at home. Marian had to find two players apart from himself and the only other regular, Tom P, for half of the matches. Tom P scored 7 from 12 games and Marian managed 5 from his 12 games on board 1, with an impressive TPR of 1750. Paul helped out with 3.5 points from his 4 games.

Our 6th team should have been relegated from division 4 last season, having finished 7th, but were kept up because 4 new teams entered the league in division 5. This season was always going to be difficult. The team was miles adrift at Christmas but 9 points from 6 matches gave them a chance of surviving. Unfortunately they lost their final match while their relegation rivals Nomads 3, fielding a strong team, got the point they needed away to champions Central 1 who fielded a very weak team. Leo scored 7 points from 13 games and Ben scored 6 from 13. Paul helped out in the 2nd half of the season and scored 4 points from his 6 games.

Leaving the worst till last, our 4th team finished 7th, one point off 6th place. The two defeats to our 4th team didn’t help. With two matches left, they had a good chance of staying up. However, their fate was sealed with a final day loss at champions Ashfield 3 (who we out graded) after an almighty mess up in the penultimate match, at home to Nomads 2, when Steve was placed on board 3 even though being more than 150 points higher than captain Graham on board 2. Although the match was drawn, this mistake resulted in a 3-1 defeat for the team.

There were some very good individual efforts.

Nikolai scored 20 points from an amazing 30 games, by far the most games by any player in the league this season. New member Ben was a great addition for the club, scoring 14 points from 23 games; a very good first season for hm. Marshall also played 23 games, scoring 13 points. 7 members played at least 20 times.

The best wins were:

Paul 1628 v Antony J Wright 1898 (270 higher).
Dennis 1303 v Robert Lacey 1561 (258 higher).
Marshall 1499 v Neil Marais 1736 (237 higher).
Paul 1620 v Felipe 1845 (225 higher).
Drag 1850 v Benjamin Humphreys 2039 (189 higher).
Marian 1649 v Yi-Lynn Teh 1832 (183 higher).
Marshall 1511 v Arjen Palaj 1672 (161 higher).
Leo 1422 v Mark Lilley-Tams 1582 (160 higher).
Mike S 1687 v Chris Hill 1844 (157 higher).
Ronnie 1501 v Marcin Miotk 1648 (147 higher).
Leo 1454 v Malcolm Jackson 1598 (144 higher).
Ken 1130 v Eamonn Kershaw 1272 (142 higher).
Ronnie 1477 v Paul Rees 1619 (142 higher).
Ben 1508 v Jake Hughes 1649 (141 higher).

The best draws were:

Nikolai 1797 v Jason M Dilley 2113 (316 higher).
Drag 1841 v Alexandr Klimchik 2125 (284 higher).
Paul 1640 v Antony J Wright 1898 (258 higher).
Ben 1508 v Neil Marais 1736 (228 higher).
Leo 1421 v David Griffiths 1631 (210 higher).
Graham 1565 v Philip Tarrant-Edwards 1743 (178 higher).
Nikolai 1825 v Frank Richmond 1997 (172 higher).
Onos 1857 v Julian Cast 2021 (164 higher).
Paul 1620 v Amanthika Anbalagan 1777 (157 higher).
Alastair 1351 v Wayne McAneaney 1506 (155 higher).
Ken 1119 v Lewis Brailsford-Widdowson 1273 (154 higher).
Leo 1484 v Robert H Willoughby 1637 (153 higher).
Onos 1852 v Chris S Cantrill 2005 (153 higher).
Marshall 1547 v Neil Graham 1700 (153 higher).

The worst losses were….. you didn’t think I’d go there did you?