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Match Programme 2006-07
This was another frustrating season in many ways. Our return to the 6th floor at Belgrave Road, after its renovation, was severely delayed, with the result that many home fixtures had to be played towards the end of the season. Moreover, because of continuing security issues, we could not use the new Conference Room, which could have comfortably catered for Bronowski Trophy matches. Instead, larger matches had to be split between two floors. This was far from ideal, but the arrangements worked reasonably well.
The Sussex U175 match had to be postponed again, and a new fixture could not be arranged. The Combined Services match also had to be postponed, but was rearranged for 2nd June.
On a more upbeat note, it was nice to welcome back John Langford, after an absence of several years, to the match at Hastings. He last played, against us, for Wanstead & Woodford last season. This time he appeared to be losing, but fashioned a mating net his opponent had not seen and won. It was also nice to welcome back Jerry Dowlen, whose game against the Civil Service was his first competitive chess after a break of 30 years.
The highlight of the season was the winning of the Bronowski Trophy after a gap of two years, beating the Commercial League by the narrowest of margins, and for the first time in several years. We started with a comfortable win against United Banks by 8½-5½. The Legal League offered to default their match with us, as they could only raise half a team but, rather than accepting the default win, we agreed to rearrange the fixture. Unfortunately, Legal again could not raise a side for the new date, so we had to accept a default win. After a default in the competition last season a new rule had been introduced, as a result of which we were deemed to have won the match 8-0. Commercial had only drawn their match with United Banks, so a 7-7 draw would have been sufficient for us to regain the Trophy. Although we defaulted on Board 4 and Geoff Naldrett had to step in after half an hour on Board 3 (gaining a valuable draw), we managed to win by 7½-6½.
With better publicity, the Eastman Cup this season attracted 11 teams. We had to play in the first round, against Dulwich, and won 7-3. In the quarter-final we met Athenaeum, and lost 4½-5½, with Brian Valentine and Tony Paish winning over the board and Ian Hunnable by default.
In the friendly matches we drew 3½-3½ with Oxford University and beat Cambridge University 3½-1½. Centenary matches are due with both universities next season, so it is to be hoped that we can play them over more boards and perhaps celebrate the centenaries with after-match meals with our opponents. The 14th Roy Wagstaff Memorial Match against Wanstead & Woodford was held at 11 Belgrave Road, but our opponents were well below full strength. Consequently we won the match with the loss of only half a point. There then followed a slump in our fortunes, with losses by 4-8, 4½-11½ and 3½-7½ against Hastings, Commercial League and the Civil Service respectively. The Commercial fixture was a double-round Rapidplay match in which we won only one game in each round. Fortunately we turned the tables on them a fortnight later in the Bronowski Trophy match. Finally, in the postponed fixture against Combined Services, we won 4½-3½, an excellent way to mark Geoff Naldrett's last match in charge and our first match fixture at The Carpenters Arms.
Tony Paish won the Tooke Memorial Prize with the fine score of 6 points from 7 games, followed by Martin Page with 5½ points from 9 games.
Insurance Chess Club Annual Report, 2006
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