Mark Murrell draws together the details of an active and successful summer:
Synopsis
- Lawrance Cup retained (on tie break)
- Summer League Champions (after a play-off)
- Essex Knockout Champions (regained from Wanstead 2!)
- Finchley Cup runners up (Barking had to win something !)
- Ashley Freeman leads the John Philpott Trophy (NCCL Cups & Rapid Championship to come)
- 47 members in action (including 13 juniors) in 446 appearances !!
The summer of 2022 was one of the most keenly contested rapid seasons since the club’s involvement with the North Circular League. The additions of Barking and Ilford to perennial regulars Chingford and Enfield with a desire to play over as many boards as possible (instead of the minimum of 4) lead to hard fought matches and many more opportunities to secure match points towards the John Philpott rapid chess performance trophy.
Barking ran Wanstead close throughout the summer, winning the individual head to head in the summer league only to come unstuck against Chingford. Most summers, there has been little appetite for a play-off final but there was this, with a 11 board encounter. Barking were the opposition in all of the cup finals too and were unlucky to only come away with only the Finchley Cup. Three strong performances from our first team in three very different finals played over 4, 11 and 5 boards.
The second and third teams also had strong finishes in the summer league, though clubs other than Barking fielded weaker teams to make those fixtures competitive, adding to the festival feel of this year’s Baum Trophy as did our Wanstead Warriors junior contingent often appearing for Wanstead 3. In the Knockout plate competition, teams B and C were knocked out in the first round of the plate; close matches all the same.
Links: JPT at 30 Sep 2022 | Summer league | Knockout | Lawrance | Finchley