The 2016/17 league season has now finished with Sidcup’s four teams finishing no lower than 2nd= in their leagues.

In the Stevenson Cup, which this season we entered for the first time for many years, we hoped for no more than a respectable mid-table position. However we came a clear 2nd, qualifying for the all-Kent semi-finals of the competition (the top two in the metropolitan area qualify), where we played Tunbridge Wells. In that match we raced into a 2.5 - 0.5 lead with wins from Rob Pezet and Dave Helps and a draw from Gary Sharp. Unfortunately we lost the other three games and so lost 2.5 - 3.5.

The En Passant Cup side finished 2nd= on match points and game points and failed to progress to the semi-finals having lost our match during the season with the team that we tied with.

The Harvey Cup side also finished 2nd= on match points and game points with a team that we had drawn our match during the season with, but failed to progress to the semi-final on the next tie-break of which boards in the drawn match were won: we won on board 4, but they won on board 3.

The Intro Cup side finished equal top on match points, but were placed second having fewer game points than Petts Wood. In the semi-final we overcame Tunbridge Wells, when a tie-break finally went our way. Don Chapman won and Chris Cheeseman and Gary Sharp drew in a drawn match, where we went through to the final as we had won on board 3 and they had won on board 4. In the final we played Maidstone. Rob Pezet had a smooth win on board 1 while Nigel Threadgold could not quite recover from a poor opening and eventually lost. David Dallakyan found himself in a difficult position, but managed to liquidate down to just three king’s side pawns each and accepted a draw offer. Janis Elton had a very exciting game watched by lots of spectators; when the dust settled there were just pawns left and neither side could make any progress. So it finished 2 - 2, and as we had won on board 1 and lost on board 3 we were champions on tie-break.”

Congratulations to Janis on winning the Intro Cup and Lee Brockwell on his organizational help.

Ian McAllan