On Thursday, we had a very pleasing pair of home wins in the Middlesex League, with Hendon 1 narrowly beating newly promoted Albany, and Hendon 3 defeating Harrow’s new second junior team!
In the Division 1 clash, we scored first blood when David won on Board 6, and Eric put us in a great position when he did the same on Board 5. However, we lost on Board 4, and things looked tight at the top of the match, despite having a fairly substantial rating advantage.
In the end, all three games ended in draws, resulting in a narrow 3½–2½ win. I wouldn’t have predicted beforehand that we’d draw on Boards 1–3 and pick up the points below, but the win is all that matters!
| Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | Albany 1 | Albany 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Richardson, John | 2315 | ½ - ½ | Dunn, Maxim W | 2059 | ||
| 2 | Willmoth, Rob | 2206 | ½ - ½ | Sagues, Vincent | 2086 | ||
| 3 | Senior, Gary | 2133 | ½ - ½ | Stern, Robert C | 1985 | ||
| 4 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1971 | 0 - 1 | Faulks, Nick W | 1943 | ||
| 5 | Eedle, Eric | 1947 | 1 - 0 | Todd, Chris J | 1914 | ||
| 6 | Amior, David | 1894 | 1 - 0 | Okosieme, Iozeph | 1885 | ||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
In the Division 3 match which took place next door, we started inauspiciously with a loss on bottom board, but wins for Benjamin, Rohan and Stanley and draws on the remaining two boards saw us get home with a 4–2.
| Hendon 3 | Hendon 3 | Harrow Juniors 2 | Harrow Juniors 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Alshehabi, Shehab | 1624 | ½ - ½ | Horwood, Alexander | 1461 | ||
| 2 | Horspool, Benjamin | 1568 | 1 - 0 | Laza, Andrei | 1287 | ||
| 3 | Tailor, Sundip | 1470 | ½ - ½ | Benhamou, Nathan | |||
| 4 | Barbier-Ramaiah, Rohan | 1437 | 1 - 0 | Chaudhary, Aryan | 1348 | ||
| 5 | Jacobs, Stanley Geoffrey | 1410 | 1 - 0 | Anderson, Ashley K | 1017 | ||
| 6 | Artman, Tony | 1320 | 0 - 1 | Ramesh, Niranjan R | |||
| 4 - 2 | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played in these matches – especially those who helped set up the room beforehand and clear away afterwards!