Hendon 1 are safe in Division 1 of the Middlesex League after a narrow 3½–2½ home victory against Hackney. Hendon 2 defeated Harrow 2 at home 5½–½ to remain within touching distance of the Division 2 title!
Meanwhile, Hendon 3 lost 5–1 away to Harrow’s first team.
The first team was weakened by a late withdrawal, and Eric asked me to step in on Board 6: it’s never good news when I have to turn out for Hendon 1! We seemed to be up against it, with narrow rating advantages on Boards 4 and 5 and a manageable disadvantage on Board 3, but we were significantly out-rated on the other three boards.
The match started decently enough, as Avinash won, Jonathan Rubeck drew beside me, and David Amior held a worse rook ending. I also managed to hold a draw as White against my stronger opponent without ever being in any real danger.
However, on the top two boards the situation was very tense, with both games going to the wire. Eric seemed to be in some trouble on Board 1, and Elliott looked better on Board 2 but had less than a minute on his clock and was basically playing on the increments.
In a heart-in-mouth finish, both games somehow managed to finish drawn, despite missed chances in the time scramble. That meant all games were drawn except for Avinash’s win!
Congratulations to Eric and the team on this excellent result! This means Hendon 1 can no longer finish in the Division 1 relegation places, and should finish mid-table.
| Hendon 1 | Hendon 1 | Hackney 1 | Hackney 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Eedle, Eric F | 2128 | ½ - ½ | Bates, Richard A | 2285 | ||
| 2 | Macneil, Elliott CM | 2021 | ½ - ½ | Eames, Robert S | 2217 | ||
| 3 | Amior, David | 1984 | ½ - ½ | Chin, Francis CW | 2050 | ||
| 4 | Reddy, Avinash | 1961 | 1 - 0 | Tennyson, John | 1917 | ||
| 5 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1926 | ½ - ½ | Cullen, Ben | 1918 | ||
| 6 | Medworth, Andrew | 1717 | ½ - ½ | Livesey, Michael | 1903 | ||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
At the same time, Hendon 2 faced a visiting Harrow 2 team. The match started well for us when the Harrow Board 6 didn’t turn up, and we also won on boards 3–5 where we had a significant rating advantage.
Harrow had a narrow rating advantage on the top two boards, but even there, Armaan scored an excellent win, and Saniru drew, to ensure we only conceded a single half-point in the match. Congratulations to the players!
Hendon 2 are now just one match away from the Division 2 title. Unfortunately, our away fixture against Kings Head 2 was impacted by the Tube driver strike on 23rd April, but I am hoping to reschedule that for Wednesday 3rd June. If we win, then we are champions!
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Harrow 2 | Harrow 2 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Atulugamage, Saniru Lohan | 1949 | ½ - ½ | Patel, Rishi | 1967 | ||
| 2 | Nilim, Armaan | 1904 | 1 - 0 | Puiu, Claudiu | 1961 | ||
| 3 | Funk, Alexander | 1824 | 1 - 0 | Midha, Amit | 1697 | ||
| 4 | Bhaduri, Aviraj | 1792 | 1 - 0 | Horwood, Alexander | 1678 | ||
| 5 | Bohnacker, Andreas | 1783 | 1 - 0 | Dhemrait, Surjit S | 1561 | ||
| 6 | Ben-Nathan, David | 1761 | 1 - 0 | DEFAULT | |||
| 5½ - ½ | |||||||
On the same night, Hendon 3 faced a tough task playing away against Harrow 1. We defaulted a board and were heavily out-rated on the top three boards. Unsurprisingly, we went down hard, though Yoni scored an excellent win on Board 4.
Many thanks to Chris Rogal for captaining the team on the night!
Hendon 3 are not quite mathematically safe in Division 2 yet, though I do think they have a good chance of staying up. If they did get relegated, it would mean we have no Division 2 teams next season!
| Harrow 1 | Harrow 1 | Hendon 3 | Hendon 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sharp, Thomas M | 1962 | 1 - 0 | Kollias, Vasileios | 1713 | ||
| 2 | Dhemrait, Jagdeep | 1958 | 1 - 0 | Rogal, Chris S | 1689 | ||
| 3 | Mandnikar, Atreya | 1820 | 1 - 0 | Bansal, Rineesh | 1613 | ||
| 4 | Clenshaw, John | 1596 | 0 - 1 | Shiran, Yoni | 1574 | ||
| 5 | O'Neill, Richard | 1540 | 1 - 0 | DEFAULT | |||
| 6 | McKenna, Phil | 1443 | 1 - 0 | Upreti, Arjun | |||
| 5 - 1 | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played this week! The League season is almost over now, with just one more home match night on Thursday plus the rescheduled Kings Head 2 fixture.