Emsworth B

Emsworth were particularly good in winning matches this season, as with the exception of Mike Krawczuk no-one's performance particularly shined. They used a lot of players, but the majority of matches relied on a regular six players and when a reserve was needed a C team player was drafted in, rather than one specific player. This obviously worked well, as the team won Division Two..

Mike Krawczuk had the best performance of any player in Division Two and this was not a one-off, as he performed well in the County matches and in other events. His grade should increase by a fair number of points next season. His wins included ones against Stuart Dean (twice), T.A.Wykes and D.Elliott and his performance was the main reason that Emsworth topped the table.

The problem for Emsworth B next season is that Mike also played for the A team this season, so without an influx of players the team selection will be pretty difficult as do Emsworth have the best players in one team or split the teams. In all probability if Emsworth don't split the teams then Emsworth B will return to Division Two and if they do split the teams Emsworth A will not challenge for the title. So a difficult decision has to be made by Emsworth!

Chichester B

Chichester B only finished 1 point behind Emsworth B and were the only team to beat them in the season. The make up of the team again had players from the A team, but they did not rely on them as heavily as Emsworth B, R.T.F.Williams scored the most points for Chichester B and his five wins included games against M.Buckley and D.Elliott (twice).

Also scoring well were young players A.Likhoded and A.H.McDougall. The former of these two had 6 wins and only 1 loss and his performance grade may well be better than 122. As he is ungraded and his wins included ones against players under 100 grading points this keeps his grading performance quite low. 

A.H.McDougall is the son of Chichester A's top board and is improving rapidly. His wins included one against Stuart Dean and one against Ian Cary, who although ungraded has been graded around 160 in the past. K.Davies only played 3 games, but he seems a useful addition to Chichester with his two wins and a draw,

With young improving players, Chichester B could be much stronger next year, but this will depend on if any of these players play in the A team. Nevertheless I expect that if Chichester keep hold of their current players, they will be a stronger chess club next season.

Cosham B

After last year's relegation from Division One, Cosham B were probably the favourite to get promoted this year. But the team was largely made up of players that did not play in the A team and the team finished some way behind the top two teams. 

The team's make up seemed to be five regular players and a number of players filling in the remaining place. Although no-one had a fantastic season Andrew Smith played real fighting chess and his wins were against the higher graded players he played and he losses were against the so-called weaker players.

Fareham A

Fareham A did not have the best of seasons and a number of players performed below their grades, notably T.A.Wykes. L.Springthorpe probably had the best season and his wins included one against Stuart Dean of Cosham chess club.

Fareham A are are not as strong as they used to be and probably need a couple of new players to challenge for the Division two title.

Portsmouth B

Portsmouth's main problem was defaults, as in half their matches they defaulted at least one game, which immediately puts you on the back foot. Although the average grade of the team was much lower than the other teams, this was distorted by two players with grades under 70 points who are improving players, In fact the majority of the players performed better than their grade, it's just a shame that the team gave themselves a disadvantage from the start.

Darren Radford played in every match and did much better than his games for the A team, managing to score 50%. Probably his best results were his two draws, as these were against opponents graded over 140. It's difficult to improve your grade by large numbers, so to play 25 points better than your grade is an excellent result.  

If Portsmouth can manage to hold onto F.Thadei, he will a valuable asset as he had a good season, with a win against N.Harrison and draws against R.Williams and T.A.Wykes.

Losing Mick Garrod during the season was a blow for Portsmouth chess club,  as he had started the season very well. It would have been good to see N.Tsairis playing more games. I played him this season and he had a good understanding of chess, if not the time control (he lost on time in 13 moves against me, thinking he still had quarter of an hour left!).

It will be interesting to see the make up if Portsmouth Chess next season, as they seem to be going through a period of change - lets hope they return to their old strength.

Cosham C