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Woodbridge Captain’s report 2015-16.

A good season where all played well, but with some having bad periods and good periods. Luckily the bad results were spread over the matches and there was no matches where most of us played badly ensuring that we won almost all of our matches. It has to be said that a number of matches started off on paper looking incredibly easy but we struggled and at half time it was hard to see where the wins were coming from. But Class showed through or something approaching Class!

Generally it was a good season and we won the division unbeaten for the first time ever although we have finished in top two and gained promotion a few times. We have been the WBA of Premiership football, getting relegated and then going back up only to be relegated later.

There was echoes of two years ago when Albany were a key opponent as we played them in the penultimate match and needed to beat them to gain promotion and stop them taking that slot. This year we had finished our matches and were lying in 1st place but if Hackney 2 beat Albany we finish second. As one member of our team pointed out Albany had nothing to play for but amazingly pulled out all the stops to win this match meaning we won the division. Albany are again third in the division.

Individual performances were consistently higher than when we were in 2nd Division, not surprisingly, and although Adrian Elwin let the charge throughout John wins the performance prize with 7 points just ahead of Adrian Elwin, Richard Freeman and Trevor Carr all on 6.5 pts. Trevor came back this season after a long break to play extremely well and will have a good grade when they come out in August.

Les Crane

Woodbridge AGM

The Woodbridge AGM will be on 6th June 2016 at the Wheatsheaf Public House, 25 Rathbone Place, starting 7:00.

Promoted!

With a comprehensive win against London Deaf, Woodbridge are promoted back to the 2nd division.

Report From Les :

All,

For those who were unable to make this fixture you missed an experience!! They defaulted bd 10 so only 9 boards were needed which was lucky as there was no room at all for the extra board. In fact, if one person wanted to get up, the ones either side, had to move. Never have I experienced such cramped conditions. There actually wasn't room for Michael (our bd 10) to spectate comfortably.

Added to this involuntary noises coming from one or two of them and it was trying to say the least.

I made the usual effort to make my opponent actually do something with the white pieces after he played a very quiet English opening. Net result was I was positionally lost at one point, but after some play where I attacked and weakened both kings my opponent offered a draw.

At this point we were 1 up and Rod was comfortably winning being 2 pieces up, I couldn't see the others as couldn't move!! But almost immediately Richard got a piece trapped and John had overlooked a trap winning the exchange.

But it all came right as Richard outplayed his opponent and refused a draw and went on to win and John held the game to a draw as last to finish. Richard's opponent had turned up 40 minutes late and seemed to play much better than his grade of 68!!

Meanwhile Aidan had played magnificently to draw with a player over 190 grade and may even have been better at one stage, Colin squeezed the last drop of advantage to win what appeared to be a draw reducing his opponents pieces to inactivity.

Mustapha and Rod cruised to smooth victories. Solid draws were achieved By Adrian and Gavin.

My player of the year is Aidan who did whatever I asked of him and played consistently well against mostly stronger opposition.

Richard Manning wins Woodbridge player of the year I believe and we get Promotion!!

It has been tough having won first 7 matches only to have Imperial College and Mushrooms 2 play vastly improved sides against us alone and Neil playing on Bd 1 against Albany was a key part of our keeping our promotion alive.

Les

Metropolitan

After the last match of 2012/13 season against Metropolitan 1, the first match back in div 3 was against Metropolitan 3. This time we heavily outgraded the opposition and the score reflected this, with Woodbridge winning 3 and drawing 2 games before 8pm. Colin finished has game with a nice mating attack, while Adrian E accepted all his opponents sacrifices, repulsed his attack by giving them back and emerged 3 pawns up.

Congratulations to Colin Ramage who has now moved to the top of the all time list, equal on points with Richard M but on a higher board.

The final score on the night was 7.5-1.5 with Adrian M adjourning.

Current situation - Aug 2013

I have just taken over the website from Barry (aka Vic) Rumsey. Woodbridge and I would like to thank Barry for running it so well for the last 4 years. However, since having problems with the website provider, no additional information has been added, so most of the information on the site relates to the 2010/11 season. I will be updating this information but please bear with me as it will take time.
I also need to re-format the site as I don't have access to the same page maker software.

If any club member has something they wish to submit for the website, please email it to me, Adrian Elwin.

Bridgend

Another enjoyable Woodbridge tour is described in an excellent report from Mark Murrell.

Statistics

Statistics for the season are now fully updated. Many thanks to Mickey for doing the maths, and Richard M for checking.

Last two Matches

Results for Battersea (currently 5-4 to Battersea) and Mushrooms (7-2 to Mushrooms) have now been updated. A disappointing end to the season, leaving us close to the relegation zone.

Woodbridge a.g.m.

Our a.g.m. this year will be on Friday 10th June at 7.30 pm in the Golden Lane bar. We usually have some fun as well, don't miss out!

New Game

The brilliant game Crane-Cooley from 2003 features a sustained White offensive.

Wanstead

Our opponents badly needed a win to avoid relegation, and they just managed it against our weakened side missing the top four boards. Next up, 3rd in the table Battersea.

For a fine attacking game from this match by Colin Ramage, click here: C.Ramage - I.Hunnable

King's Head 2

Adrian Elwin had his usual win against a higher-graded player. Nevertheless, with one game to go, the match appears lost.

Adjournment v Hackney 2

Aiden won his adjourned game, so another fine result Woodbridge 5.5 Hackney 4.5. This would appear to move us up 6 places in the division, because teams in the middle are very evenly matched.

Beckenham and Charlton

A tense match led, after an outstanding result by Adrian on board one, to another Woodbridge win.

Hackney 2

After an exciting match, the result is still not decided at 4 all. Adrian Elwin, on top board, wins to take a 1.5 point lead in the best performance. Congratulations to Adrian Matthews on his first Woodbridge win.

Dulwich

We were heavily outgraded against a team just above us in the league. The were obviously determined to win, and they did. Adrian retains his half-piont lead for best performance.

Lewisham Game

Richard Manning contributes his fine win with the Black pieces against lewisham. Click here for the game M. Pitt v R. Manning.

Mushrooms 2

We outgraded Mushrooms on most boards, although not by a lot, and managed to turn this into a resounding victory with 3 white wins, 3 black wins and 3 draws. We have 25 points from 50 games this season, so we should be half-way up the table !

Rearranged Match

The match versus Mushrooms 1 has been rearranged for Wednesday 20th April

Lewisham

A closely fought and exciting match resulted in our first win of the season. This moves us out of the relegation zone (just!). See 'fixtures and results' section for more details.

Hastings

Just to confound those who think I am not playing chess, I entered the Christmas Morning at Hastings. I won my section with a grade of 185 (only four games though). Here is the last-round game.

Another hard match

We were again outgraded on all boards when playing Wimbledon. Division two is the strongest it has been for many years.

Wanstead match postponed

Tube strikes made it impossible to play the match. However, arranging a suitable alternative date is proving very difficult.

Good performance against favourites

Cavendish 2 are favourites to win the division. It was a tight match which we eventually lost.

GLCC Match

The first match of the season was keenly contested eventually ending in a draw.

New Game

The stunning game PSN Kendall - P Habershon has been added to the games page.

Special reports

There is a new section for special report. I have added Paul's report of the European Seniors in Dresden.

Fixtures for the new season have been updated 

On the fixtures page are links to venue addresses and rules including dates when adjournments are possible at Golden Lane. Please note the extended closure at Christmas due to the London Chess Classic