Cambridge City Chess Club - Bury League

2006-2007 Captains' Report

Academicals: We knew that they were never likely to win the league. Thankfully, we also did enough to avoid relegation again this season - which was good. Nobody excelled this year - except maybe for Ed Kernohan when we borrowed him from the Bollards! Volker played every game on top board which is not easy! Philip started the season well on board 2 but then faded, while Simon & Melford chipped-in with some valuable points along the way. Many thanks to all the substitutes, reserves & guest players who helped the team survive and avoid any defaults.

Bollards: In the first half of the season, the Bollards were mostly in one of the relegation places but by the end we were grasping at the halfway position in the league but just failed to make it by only drawing the final match. Our star performer was Ed Kernohan with 8.5 from 13.

Choristers: We finished a respectable 4th in the league, the highest of all the Cambridge teams in Division 1. We never really threatened to challenge for the title but neither were we involved in the relegation battle. The result was built on a solid performance from all members of the team with everyone scoring around 50% for the season.

Dons: The battle for Division 2 was fought out between the two Cambridge teams. After beating the Examiners (comfortably!) at the start of the season, the Dons matched their team strength to that of their opponents and were content to finish the season in second place to the Examiners. The Dons finished way ahead of all their other rivals and qualified for promotion, which we will have to graciously refuse, as otherwise the first division would need to relocate to Cambridge.

Examiners: We started badly, beaten narrowly by the Dons, but this turned out to be our only loss during the season. We won Division 2 by a comfortable margin. Ashley Stewart won the division's Player of the Year trophy, taking it over from Chris Davison, who also performed well.

Oddfellows: As a new team in the Bury League, we didn't do badly. Despite the early departure of Joe Hurd for Oxford, and the substitution of other strong players for reasons of transport, we managed to come 5th with a total score of 33, just ahead of the Bollards and the Academicals. Fortunately, whenever the need arose, as it often did, we managed to borrow players from other teams, and Simon Doherty and Richard Newman both contributed considerably towards our good result. We drew only one match, and had we not lost ten matches (more than any other Cambridge team) we might have come first!