Once again the finals were split between London & the Midlands, with Brian Smith organising venue & refreshments at Golden Lane Community Centre in London, and Syston & District Social Club organised by the Chief Controller.
Wanstead & Woodford retained the Major Championship, but not without a valiant fight from Maidstone. It appeared early on as if Wanstead were cruising to victory as their team was stronger than Maidstone on 4 of the 5 boards. But a win on board 3 by Maidstone suddenly turned the tide, if Maidstone could win on board 2 they would win the match on board count. Maidstone started to get a slight positional edge, but Oliver Gill ran very short on time and had to settle for a draw – giving the match win to Wanstead
The Major Plate saw Metropolitan overcome fellow London Leaguers Athenaeum, without losing a game. This feat was emulated by Bedford, who denied Snodland a second successive winning trip to the capital in the Intermediate Championship.
The Intermediate Plate was in contrast a much closer affair, only settled in favour of Hackney on board count. The Hackney win was remarkable because their average grading of 118 was significantly lower than the 144 of opponents Bushbury. But for the grading of the Hackney top board, the team would have been eligible for the Minor section.
The Minor Championship final has been a cause of much consternation, with Chipping Campden only able to raise 3 players from their small club, too many players having booked their holidays – perhaps lacking confidence in the team reaching the finals? Already down a board from the start, the Cotswold side could only muster a draw, leaving Hastings & St Leonard’s comfortable winners. As the current rules fail to address this situation, there is currently much deliberation over rule amendments to clarify matters for next season.
Forest of Dean out-graded their opponents in the Minor plate, but were quickly a board down to Bushbury when their board 3 overlooked the fact that Queen could be pinned to King. They failed to recover from this early shock, with Bushbury winning 3-1 without losing a board & thus gaining compensation for their narrow loss in the Intermediate.
My thanks to Brian Smith for organizing the Southern venue; and to Cyril Johnson for acting as arbiter and assistant sandwich maker. Thanks are also due to Guy Greenland & Mike McNaughton as section controllers in the Intermediate & Minor sections respectively.
Julie Johnson
If you’d like to download a PDF of the final results, click here
