On Saturday, Middlesex won the English County Championship for the 29th time. Here's Streatham club member Andrew Stone posing with the Lowenthal Trophy.
A behemoth of a structure. And a trophy.
Worryingly, that's not his hand on the adjacent beer. That belongs to Nevil Chan, who was forced to sit on the floor after losing his individual game. Fortunately, it was irrelevant to the match score.
But yet I wasn't there for this momentous occasion. In May I briefly elaborated on how I was streamlining my chess playing and, on this occasion, I did indeed choose Middlesex League cricket over playing the final in Leicester.
Like Andrew, nurdling my way to (the) point.
However, that's not why I didn't play.
At about 9:20am one sunny Thursday morning, I got on a bus at Baker Street station. Within half an hour it was no longer a bus. Seven years later, I still wouldn't have been in the right frame of mind to play in such an important match.
Remember the date. Remember the 52.
2 comments:
Holy moly.
Three days later, on Sunday 10th July 2005, I was the arbiter at the London leg of the National Club Finals at Golden Lane, which went ahead as scheduled.
Cyril Johnson, then ECF Director of Home Chess, concluded the proceedings with a memorable phrase which has stuck in my mind:
"Up yours, Al-Qaeda"
I've often wondered whether anyone I know in the chess world had been caught up in those events.
Now I have the answer.
Thank you for sharing.
David Sedgwick
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