Clean Sweep by West Wickham in the Croydon League

Howard Walden reports that West Wickham [that's Beckenham and Bromley's nom de guerre in South London. Ed.] teams have won all three divisions of the Croydon League this year.  Well done to everyone who took part in the teams this year.

West Wickham A won Division 3 for the second year running which means this team have been champions three times and runners up once in the last four years!!!

COUNTY CUP FINAL: Beckenham 1 v Charlton 1

The result in the final was a 4½-1½ loss as follows:

Ian Snape ½-½ Philip Morris
Nick Briggs 0-1 Alan Hanreck
John Duggan 0-1 Tony Stebbings
Michael Prizant 0-1 Philip Gregory
Kevin Bailey 1-0 Conor Murphy
Alan Sands 0-1 Renee DuToit

However, that doesn’t reflect the full story. My game was the first to finish. I had a minute temporary advantage through control of the e file which Morris set about neutralising and the game ended in threefold repetition. Kevin played a storming game to beat Conor Murphy. Next to finish was Nick with a loss having looked uncomfortable from the opening. John was very cramped but had some hopes of drawing but it was not to be. This left us 2½-1½ down with two to play and (on account of board count) needing two wins. However, this looked more than possible as Michael was won and Alan was having an up and down game. Not much later Alan dropped a rook and it was all over. The final calamity befell Michael when he lost a won ending.

Ian

PS Thanks to Malcolm for his support.

COUNTY CUP

A 3-3 away draw against Lewisham on 23 March, including a win by Nick Briggs against William Jones, secured us a place in the Kent County Cup Final.

This will be played on 15 May at the Mick Jagger Centre, Dartford starting at 2pm. The opponents are Charlton.

Needless to say, all and any support welcome.

BECKENHAM FIDE RATED CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS

This turned out to be a remarkably tight affair and was won outright by Michael Prizant with just 3/5. The full ranking was:

1 Michael Prizant 3
2-5 Ian Snape, John Duggan, Robert Maguire and Andrew Ponting 2½
6 Kevin Bailey 2

Mike Spencer Reports on the Tom Fuller Cup

The B&B team in the Tom Fuller came top of their league in the Metropolitan division, and were then paired with Weald of Kent in the semi-final on Thursday 21st April.

Unfortunately we were knocked out with one win and a draw against two wins and a draw, in a match where the final deciding game was played right up to the last minute, ending in a drawn game and a lost match. A win on that board would have been a draw on both game points and board count, but a win to us on board 4 elimination, so it was quite an intense final game.

Arbiter was Derek Davis of Chislehurst club to whom we express our thanks.

Team members throughout the season were Justin Brown, Alan Fraser, James Kinsella, Jason Kevan, Richard Putman, Laurie Roberts,Raunak Rao and Mike Spencer.

COUNTY CUP: Charlton v Beckenham 1

All things come to an end. Events started badly last night when Charlton defaulted board 4 and Nick had a wasted journey.

Robert and I played badly and lost. Alan drew; although how I am not sure. This left the score at 2½-1½ to Charlton with us needing at least 1½ points from the last 2 games – John Duggan who was much better against Alan Hanreck and Michael Prizant who was level against Gregory. Michael played on trying to win his drawn game and came close but in the end it was a half point. This left John, who was still much better, needing to win. However, he was well down on the clock. Valiantly, for the sake of the team, he turned down a draw, converted to R+3P v R+2P but soon thereafter his flag fell just as he blundered on the board. An undeserved loss and a final 4-2 team loss.

Detailed results were:

Ian Snape 0-1 Philip Morris
John Duggan 0-1 Alan Hanreck
Michael Prizant ½=½ Philip Gregory
Nick Briggs 1-0 Default
Robert Maguire 0-1 Conor Murphy
Alan Sands ½-½ Du Toit