A bad week for us this week after a good win against Beckenham at the end of January.

I had been suffering a flu virus during February so I decided to drop out and let the others have crack against Lewisham and what is a tight league. All teams are dropping points and 1 ½ points separate the top team Lewisham from us propping up the bottom. Lewisham turned up with 3 players but we still went down 3 -1.

The top 2 boards where of a high standard and Lee (board 2) did well to keep fighting to move 28 where he made a blunder and allowed Bob Hewitt to capitalise and take his Bishop. He kept on fighting though and managed to get back into the game, but time run out on him in the end.

Ken Smith playing on board one was up against a player who has a rating of 131 against 117 so he was always going to be up against it. Being on board 1 can be a bit demoralising as you always seem to come up against the good and higher graded players. I do not think Ken has played a player lower than 131 this year for us. Playing Black, Ken was always playing to get even from a Kings Gambit declined opening and White was able to get a good position. However, by move 17, he was a rook exchange up for a knight.

I had hoped that Chris Cheeseman would get my revenge over Delroy Bennet playing on board 3 for me as I lost to a blunder in the away match, but unfortunately he got into a losing endgame and lost.

Our fourth player was Mark Lenette who turned up to play and was without a game, giving us our 1 point.

Keith Thompson