Last Thursday, our junior team Hendon Barnet Knights welcomed visitors Muswell Hill 2 to the Cumberland Club, and achieved a remarkable 5–1 victory!
The team was out-rated by an average of 187 points, but you wouldn’t have known it! On-the-night captain Chris Rogal reports that Callum Hill played an excellent winning combination while down the exchange; fellow juniors Djad and Julian also won their games.
It wasn’t just the youngsters either, as Gul and David also overcame their higher-rated opponents to complete a comprehensive and rather unexpected victory – congratulations to the team!
| Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Hendon Barnet Knights Juniors | Muswell Hill 2 | Muswell Hill 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hill, Callum | 1598 | 1 - 0 | Bush, Jason | 1703 | ||
| 2 | Kapur, Gul | 1423 | 1 - 0 | Brougham, Simon B | 1673 | ||
| 3 | Lewis, David | 1373 | 1 - 0 | England, Mark C | 1619 | ||
| 4 | Ben-Eshak, Djad | 1374 | 1 - 0 | Blackham, Nicholas | 1546 | ||
| 5 | Bhaduri, Aviraj | 1240 | 0 - 1 | Staton, Jed | 1401 | ||
| 6 | Morin, Julian | 1206 | 1 - 0 | O'Brien, Mark | 1396 | ||
| 5 - 1 | |||||||
The previous day, Hendon 2 had visited Willesden & Brent. Here we were also out-rated on all boards, albeit by a smaller average margin of 94 points. Unfortunately, the team wasn’t able to overcome this: Willesden achieved a clean sweep on the top three boards.
Sundip drew with Middlesex county captain Keith Jones on Board 6, young Gautam Sriram scored another fine win on Board 5, and I managed to overcome my opponent as well, so we ran the match close, but still lost 3½–2½.
| Willesden & Brent 1 | Willesden & Brent 1 | Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fulton, Anthony R | 2043 | 1 - 0 | Shah, Meet | 1970 | ||
| 2 | Solomon, D Ajoy | 1921 | 1 - 0 | Ben-Nathan, David | 1788 | ||
| 3 | Cowan, Xavier | 1876 | 1 - 0 | Babariya, Rahil | 1768 | ||
| 4 | Giria, Sumeet | 1792 | 0 - 1 | Medworth, Andrew | 1725 | ||
| 5 | Liebesny, Simon | 1720 | 0 - 1 | Sriram, Gautam | 1665 | ||
| 6 | Jones, Keith S | 1689 | ½ - ½ | Tailor, Sundip | 1560 | ||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played last week, and to Chris Rogal for standing in as Barnet Knights captain!