Essex League Division 1: Brentwood I 4-4 Wanstead I At Brentwood. The final match in the 2025-26 Essex League Championship went down to the wire. At the start of play, Brentwood and Wanstead were level on Match Points, each with 19/22. However, Brentwood held a slender tie-break advantage, so Wanstead needed to win the match, having drawn with Brentwood in the Home fixture on 19 February.
With Bentwood’s array of titled players, led by IM Richard Pert, Wanstead’s best chance was to win the bottom four boards and squeeze a draw in the top order. And they came so close to achieving this recipe. Partha drew with FM Karl Bowden, but the bottom four came up half a point short, so 4-4 and Brentwood took the title by one Game Point on second tie-break.
Not just that, but Wanstead drew four matches in their last five, the others being against Barking, Brentwood (first match) and Writtle, all at home. Just another half point in any of these fixtures would have been sufficient. And the team went through the season undefeated; even Brentwood lost one match, moreover, against relegated team Upminster!
Congratulations to Brentwood on retaining the Essex League Championship.
Links: EL1 page | Aggregate stats | Essex League on ECF LMS