Cambridge City Chess Club - Bury League

2007-2008 Captains' Report

Part 1 - December 2007

Academicals: The Academicals started the season started with a bang, and an excellent victory over the Examiners. But despite being quickest out-of the-blocks, we've now been overtaken by just about everybody! Our collection of draws and close defeats have left us missing out on the vital bonus points that a match-victory brings. We've had some good individual performances, and our ambition is to win at least twice before the season is over!

Bollards: The Bollards have had a solid start, remaining in the mid-table pack for all the first half of the season - exemplified by drawing 5 matches out of 8. Hans Richter has been the star, scoring an impressive 5.5 from 7 on top board.

Choristers: The season for the Choristers has been a case of missed opportunities. Winning 2, losing 2 but drawing 4 matches all of which we had a good chances to win. The outstanding individual performance goes to Chris Davison scoring 6/8 including a win against a player graded 45pts above his own. With the exception of the runaway leaders, Linton, we have everything to play for in the second half of the season. We just need to take our chances!

Dons: The Dons got off to a flying start in Division 2 (aided by Linton Whites withdrawing!) by holding on to a 100% record for the longest out of all the teams in the league. At least that's what the Bury Free Press reported at the end of October, and the Dons have no reason to doubt them. We've managed a very respectable 5 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, and we've high hopes for our remaining 10 matches. Thanks go to the regulars and to Ole, Ashley and Tim for each making a guest appearance.

Examiners: At the halfway stage the Examiners are yet to field the same team twice, but a couple of big wins against the Bury teams leaves us joint-second in Division 1 going into the second half. Our star performer has been the unbeaten Ashley Stewart, who has won five games in a row against higher-rated opposition.

Oddfellows: The Oddfellows have had a good season with 2 wins, 5 draws and only 1 loss, and we're now in 4th place. On board 1, Simon Doherty has done extremely well and is undefeated, while David Cattermole has achieved a very creditable +2 score on board 2. On board 4 Richard Newman has played very solidly and only lost once. On two occasions, our team has profited from having Chris Davison as a substitute player, which resulted in two important victories. Only the team captain has disappointed with a minus two score, including a couple of horribly short defeats. I'll spend the break licking my wounds!

Part 2 - May 2008

The local chess leagues have reached their climax and the club's Captains have produced a brief summary of how each team has done. When you see just how much chess activity there is within the club, I think we can all thank the Captains for their hard work in organising it all.

The Bury League Div 1 title went to Linton again. The real competition was between our five teams, Bury Cannons and Ely.

Academicals: The Academicals managed a respectable mid-table finish and avoided relegation comfortably. With Ben Morgan and Melford John unavailable for a large part of the season, we must thank the guest players who helped us, especially to Hans Richter for scoring 3 / 4 on board 1. Of the regular Academicals squad, Philip Fallon scored the highest percentage, 8 / 11, closely followed by Ben Morgan and Stephen Pride who both scored over 50%. My thanks to Dan Jackson for being the 'most reliable' player, missing only two games all season and for helping provide transport.

Bollards: The Bollards finished exactly mid-table aided by being the drawn match champions with 8 drawn matches. Our star player was very much Hans Richter who scored 10 / 14. A mention should also go to Richard Newman who filled-in for 3 matches and got 3 good draws.

Choristers: The Cambridge Choristers built on their solid start to the season to challenge for a high finish. In the end, we had to settle for third place losing out on second by just half-a-point in the final round of matches. The whole team can be proud of their performance. Without doubt the star performance came from the Bury League Division 1 Player of the Season, Chris Davison scoring 11½ / 16 for the Choristers.

Dons: Cambridge Dons, the only second division team, put in a valiant performance this season with some close matches and games lasting until the last few seconds. Congratulations go to Jan and Ian whose performances should see their grades improve by about 20 points each.

Examiners: Four wins against the two Bury teams helped to keep the Examiners in the hunt for second place until near the end of the season, but with only two wins in our other 12 matches we had to settle for fourth. Ashley Stewart played every game, scoring an excellent 12 / 16. Also worthy of mention was David Jarvis, whose 7½ / 12 was achieved despite playing black almost every week due to the vagaries of player availability.

Oddfellows: With five Cambridge teams in the first division and two teams destined for relegation, it was not a question of whether a Cambridge team would get relegated, but which one! After a good first half, the Oddfellows were in 4th place mid-season. Unfortunately a disappointing second half with only 1 win saw us drop to 8th place and into the relegation places with Ely. We all fought hard till the very last match, when a win over Ely (instead of a narrow defeat) would have sufficed to keep the team up.