Club News, Update!

It's the first team first today - thanks to two terrific results, and two interesting games we have to offer.

The results first. Away against a strong Coulsdon team in the Surrey League on Monday 12th January, our first team performed a real David-slays-Goliath act. Outgraded on average by over 20 points against a team who'd won all their matches so far, we sneaked through to claim victory 4½ to 3½. Board 6 in particular witnessed a heroic effort from Martin Smith, who in beating an FM graded 25 points higher than he, delivered mate on his own (as in Martin's) back-rank! Great stuff.

Then a week and a half later our first team faced a relegation-battling Wimbledon Firsts in the London League's Division One. This time we were the favourites on paper, but the match proved a tough one and the night finished with a narrow victory to us; 6½ to 4½ with one game to finish. Here's two interesting games from the evening:

Clever Clog Points for pointing out where white might have improbably saved the second of these games toward the end. Thanks to John & Jeremy for sending these in.

Elsewhere in the London League, the news is not so good in Division Four where our third team started the new year with a 5-2 defeat to King's Head (with one adjourned.) The League Table rather suggests promotion looks unlikely, alas, this time around. A similar story in Division Three you might think, but there are signs of a late resurgence in the team's fortunes. From the 2008 match against Cavendish Thirds that was left 3-2 against to them with five adjourned, we've run out 5½ to 4½ winners: quite the turnaround. Can we expect similar from the January 19th match versus Drunken Knights 2, that stands 4½ to 3½ to them with two adjourned? We can certainly hope!

And that's it for this week. The next club update is scheduled for two weeks, which will include a report on our performance against the all-conquering Wood Green side in the London League. Wish us luck!