I have been very lax in not posting on the progress of the 4th team as the season progresses. Our 4 - 0 thrashing of our luckless Eastbourne opponents last night has spurred me into action.
The season opener intra-club match had Roger's 5th team hold us to a draw. We then had a long break till past mid-November when we hosted East Grinstead Bookshop 2 (but following problems fielding teams, now their only team in the League) and we notched up our first win, by the margin of 3 - 1.
The away match against Brighton & Hove 3 in early December was a low point for us, finding ourselves on the wrong end of a whitewash. However, things could not have been more different when we went on to meet Hastings & St Leonards 3 on their home turf. Whilst only securing a draw, we remain the only team so far that they haven't beaten. We returned to winning ways in early February, fielding one of our stronger teams, including Paul Kington marking his return to the League for the first time this season, and beating visitors Worthing 2 by 3.5 - 0.5.
Bringing us up to date was our whitewash of Eastbourne 4 last night. Despite being the home team, Eastbourne fielded a rather weaker team than we might have expected. Bob Lanzer headed up our team who, whilst having previously played twice for the 2nd team, remained eligible for the 4th. After quite a tight game, Bob checked with a knight to reveal an X-rayed attack on a rook and his opponent promptly resigned. Ian Edgson on 2nd board seemed to have a rather clogged position around his castled king, but broke out from this and caught his opponent in a rook / queen fork with a knight. With plenty of material remaining on the board it still took a lot of tactical play to turn this into a very nice winning sequence. Oliver Martin brought up the rear. After winning the exchange he managed to blunder it back, but persevered to achieve a convincing win in a rook and pawn end game. Regarding my game on board 3, probably the least said the better to spare the blushes of my opponent. As another team member commented, it almost certainly qualifies as the shortest game in the entire League this season.
With 4 matches left to play we are in 5th place, out of 11. It remains mathematically possible for us to come top of the division, but realistically it is difficult to see anyone toppling Hastings & St Leonards 3 from being Division winners and Brighton & Hove 3 look like favourites to take the second slot. Ending up 3rd or 4th would seem readily achievable for us. Our victims from last night remain one place ahead of us, on game points, but have played 3 more matches. Haywards Heath 2 are currently in 2nd place and 2 MP ahead of us, but we have 2 games in hand compared to them.