We had two Middlesex League matches this week. On Tuesday, Hendon 3 lost 3½–2½ away against Hammersmith 4, but on Thursday, Hendon 2 completed the double over Willesden & Brent, demolishing them 5–1!
I’m grateful to Alex Funk for acting as on-the-night captain for the match at Hammersmith. He led the line admirably, winning his Board 1 game, and Harvey also defeated a higher-rated opponent on Board 3.
Unfortunately, results elsewhere did not go our way: Nick, David and Tony all lost, meaning we suffered a narrow defeat. On another day, this could have gone our way, but it wasn’t to be on this occasion.
| Hammersmith 4 | Hammersmith 4 | Hendon 3 | Hendon 3 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Stones, Jake AKE | 1739 | 0 - 1 | Funk, Alexander | 1897 | ||
| 2 | Croasdale, Mark | 1644 | 1 - 0 | Murphy, Nick | 1743 | ||
| 3 | Lotfi, Bijan | 1599 | 0 - 1 | Garfield, Harvey | 1494 | ||
| 4 | Chandrasekaran, Rahulan | 1573 | 1 - 0 | Lewis, David | 1435 | ||
| 5 | Kwabiah, C Kenneth | 1476 | ½ - ½ | Clarke, Antoine | 1406 | ||
| 6 | Wilkie, Kieran | 1 - 0 | Artman, Tony | 1321 | |||
| 3½ - 2½ | |||||||
I was intending to supervise Thursday’s home match myself, but had to pull out at fairly short notice due to illness in my family, so I’m very grateful to Jonathan Rubeck for taking the captain’s role, and to the other players (special mention to Mark Hutchinson) for helping to put out and clear away the equipment. It’s a great relief to know there are others who have my back in situations like this!
We’d defeated the same opponents 4½–1½ away just three weeks earlier, and we had another strong team out on this occasion, so I had high hopes going into the match. Indeed, the team delivered, conceding just a couple of draws on the top two boards while racking up four wins on Board 3–6.
Hendon 2 have now won three matches in a row, and this takes them to a net positive score for the season to date. Hopefully we can keep this momentum going!
| Hendon 2 | Hendon 2 | Willesden & Brent 1 | Willesden & Brent 1 | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Robinson, James | 1914 | ½ - ½ | Solomon, D Ajoy | 1944 | ||
| 2 | Eedle, Eric | 1907 | ½ - ½ | Jones, Keith S | 1751 | ||
| 3 | Rubeck, Jonathan | 1904 | 1 - 0 | Liebesny, Simon | 1703 | ||
| 4 | Funk, Alexander | 1897 | 1 - 0 | Moreno, Pol | 2012 | ||
| 5 | Amior, David | 1886 | 1 - 0 | Miraghaie, John | 1442 | ||
| 6 | Hutchinson, Mark | 1815 | 1 - 0 | Liu, Erik | 1599 | ||
| 5 - 1 | |||||||
Many thanks to everyone who played and helped!