Match report by Hendon 3 captain Andrew Medworth
Last night Hendon 3 were defeated by Willesden & Brent 1 by a 5-3 scoreline.
| Hendon 3 | Hendon 3 | Willesden 1 | Willesden 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Karas, Eugenia | 143 | ½ - ½ | Fulton, Anthony R | 172 | ||
| 2 | Eedle, Eric F | 140 | ½ - ½ | Solomon, D Ajoy | 167 | ||
| 3 | WALKOVER | 1 - 0 | DEFAULT | ||||
| 4 | Medworth, Andrew | 147 | ½ - ½ | Jones, Keith S | 141 | ||
| 5 | Pepe, Salvatore | 145 | 0 - 1 | Liebesny, Simon | 128 | ||
| 6 | Vecht, Gideon | 141 | ½ - ½ | Beachley, Evan | 127 | ||
| 7 | Kender, Robert J | 139 | 0 - 1 | Share, Stan RS | 115 | ||
| 8 | Meligonis, George | 115 | 0 - 1 | Silverman, Cliff S | 104 | ||
| 3 - 5 | |||||||
Even given the fact that we lost Mehdi Kosari to illness shortly beforehand (get well soon!), this match should have been winnable for us, and I still can’t quite believe we lost.
Our team had an unusual grading distribution, with only 10 ECF spread between our top 7 players. This meant we were outgraded on the top three boards, but had a big advantage on the bottom four.
On the advice of Rob Willmoth, I put Eugenia and Eric on the top two boards, as they have both been playing well above their grades this season. They both did us proud, achieving good draws against higher-graded opposition. We were also boosted by our opponents defaulting on board 3. So on the top boards that looked tough, we actually scored +1.
However, that was the end of the good news. On the bottom four boards, where we had almost 15 ECF average advantage, we scored -3. My game was the last to finish, and I was behind on the clock in a worse position, but we’d already lost the match, so my opponent offered me a draw.
We’ll be stronger for the next match, with Mehdi and David Amior hopefully both returning, but our opponents, Metropolitan, will likely be stronger than Willesden as well. So we’ll have to hope for some luck there in order to get the points we need to stay in Division 2.
Many thanks to those who played last night, and thanks to Oxana for being there to accompany Eugenia. Special thanks to Eric for helping me put the equipment out beforehand - this really helped a lot!
Also, thank you to George Meligonis for stepping into the team at the last moment to replace Mehdi, and to Faye Ainscow for also offering to do so (an hour or so after I’d already given the place to George).