Hendon 2 v Enfield 1 - 25 February 2010
| Bd | Hendon 2 | Grade | Result | Enfield 1 | Grade |
| 1 | Bennett, Michael K | 170 | 0 - 1 | Thethi, Pritpal S | 180 |
| 2 | Iwi, David | 162 | 1 - 0 | Kyriacou, Kyriacos | 145 |
| 3 | Pepe, Salvatore | 159 | 1 - 0 | Efthymiou, Demetris | 142 |
| 4 | Jones, Chris S | 151 | 0 - 1 | McNish, David | 136 |
| 5 | Limonov, Petr | 144 | 1 - 0 | Dover, Robert | 132 |
| 6 | Jones, David | 144 | ½ - ½ | Clarke, Anthony J | 121 |
| 7 | Rogal, Chris | 143 | 1 - 0 | Nicholas, Paul | 121 |
| 8 | Lennard, Graeme | 120 | 1 - 0 | Banks, Stephen | 113 |
| 5½-2½ | |||||
Mini-Report by Adam Raoof
So: going into this match Mike and Chris had done the maths and knew we needed a draw to guarantee promotion back into the second division. Enfield, however, can field a pretty strong team on a good day with the wind behind them. It was a relief therefore when Captain Steve sailed in and announced “we’ve got a weak team tonight”!
In practice it was not so easy. Chris J, celebrating his 50th birthday that day, lost a hard game against a Golders Green veteran. Then we had a solid draw from David Jones, and Chris R squeezed a win to level the match – good one, Captain!
Opinions were divided on the state of the match at that point. I thought it was gradually going our way, but I was mindful of the clock situation on Petr’s board (as usual: dire) and David Iwi’s board (level ending, refused a draw offer, heading into a time scramble). Mike was doing a magnificent job of disguising his material deficit in an endgame but it looked like his 180 (ex 190+) opponent was determined to try to win. In fact all the games were going the full distance!
Petr snapped up a loose piece. Salvatore too, with a neat tactic. David won an assured rook and pawn ending. Graeme ended all resistance with a crushing breakthrough in a Dutch Stonewall blocked position. The match was ours!
Now we need to get together a third team for next season!
Division 3 Standings
1. Hendon 2 – 5.5/6 (31.5)
2. Harrow 1 – 5/6 (30.5+U)
3. Enfield 1 – 2.5/7 (27)
4. West London 2 – 2/6 (20.5+U)
5. Metropolitan 2 – 0/5 (9.5)
Note: U = adjournment