Keith Gregory sends his final report for the Wessex Some Stars teams in 4NCL Online Season 5. Many thanks from all the players for Keith’s hard work throughout the season and indeed Martin Simons and Allan Pleasants for standing in for him in round 6.
Results
At the start of the round 7 evening things looked tough, yet again, with our players out-graded on 20 boards out of 32.
Despite this unpromising start we had a fairly respectable “day at the office” and ended up with 11 wins, 7 draws and 14 losses – this translated into match terms as 2 wins for the A & E teams, 2 draws for the C & G teams and 4 losses for the B, D, F & H teams.
We ended the season with one team relegated and one team promoted.
Division 1
Wessex A team looked stronger on paper and went on to win fairly comfortably with three wins and one draw. Our draw came from Gavin who capped a superb unbeaten season on Board 1 in Division 1 with an overall season performance rating of 2415
Our A team look increasingly comfortable in Division 1 and came 2nd in their group, losing only to the winners, a very strong Blackthorne team.
Wessex B were out-graded on every board and went down 3-1, with our win coming from Richard Allis, who rounded off an excellent season, scoring 5/6 for a season rating of 2292.
As one of very few “B teams” in Division 1 we comfortably stayed up despite the last round loss.
Wessex C were heavily out-graded yet fought hard across all 4 boards to a achieve a 2-2 Draw.
Will Lovell, on board 1 beat a 2258 to cap an unbeaten season in which he scored 4.5 / 5 with a 2306 season performance. His opponent had a lot of pressure and Will defended doggedly and patiently through to an endgame in which he outplayed his high rated opponent. This game with notes on the instructive endgame is given at the end of this report.
Draws from Mike Krawczuk & Bill Adaway against higher rated opponents completed a great evening and result.
As the only “C team” in Division 1, I am delighted to report that we comfortably stayed up so will be in Division 1 again next year!
Division 2
Switching to Division 2, our Wessex D team were heavily out-graded overall and lost 0 – 4.
Jamie Chilton, facing a very experienced IM on board 1, put up a great fight before eventually succumbing.
Division 2 has proven deceptively strong (e.g., we have faced 4 players graded 2100+) so with one win and six losses we have been relegated to Division 3 which I suspect will be a more natural home at present.
Division 4
Wessex E looked to have a comfortable match and so it proved, with a routine 3-1 win, although unfortunately a no-show from their board 3 meant Graham Hillman didn’t get a game.
The E team had a great season with 4 wins, 2 draws and a single loss so have been comfortably promoted to Div 3 where they will join our D team.
Wessex F ran into a strong Jurassic Coast team and despite being out-graded on all boards came close to a result, losing narrowly 2.5 – 1.5. Our win came from Doug who capped off an excellent 4.5 / 6 for the season with an overall season rating of 1756.
We finished 4thin our group so will remain in Div 4 next season.
Wessex G, out-graded on every board, fought hard to get a 2-2 draw with our win coming from Stephen Le Fevre.
Wessex G came 3rd in their group and were not far off promotion.
Division 5
Our H team looked to have a good chance on paper. However, it was not to be and we lost narrowly 2.5 – 1.5 to end the season mid-table at 17th out of 28.
The Division 5 table is too large to include in this report but can be seen on the 4NCL website.
Looking back… and forward…
And so…. season 5 ends, with season 6 almost certain to follow later in the year
Looking back, I see that we fielded 50 (!) different players over the season to cover the 32 boards each round and I’m delighted to say we didn’t default a single board 😊 Sadly, our opponents couldn’t match this and we won 9 of our games by default ☹
Our highest scorers are listed below, led by Tim McCullagh with a remarkable 5.5 / 6
It’s been a pleasure to run such an enthusiastic and supportive squad and I’m hoping many will continue to play next season.
Keith Gregory, 4NCL Wessex Online Captain, April 21st 2022
