Southern Water A

Southern Water only played 8 matches, defaulting one and winning another by default. They used the same five players for all matches, which I think always helps a team have continuity. The reason that Southern Water is back in Division One is probably the fact that Bruce Jenks playing all the games this season, rather than the four he played in season 2000/2001 and that the team was quite a bit stronger than the other teams.

Bruce Jenks has the best performance this season and his wins included one against M.Clancy of Ringwood and the double against Chris Barber of Ordnance Survey, It was only Stuart Knox of Andover that could stop him, which is where Bruce dropped his one and a half points. Apart from R.Short the other players actually performed worse than their grades, but this was still enough for Southern Water to get the promotion spot.

Eastleigh BR A

Where as Southern Water only used five players in the season, Eastleigh BR used nine players, as not everyone was available on match nights. That said, Southern Water were giving a real run for their money this year and Eastleigh BR performed really well, especially when they had their strongest team available.

Eastleigh BR's strongest player J.Nevalainen is Finnish and is only available when he is in the country. This was only for two matches this year, but he did win both of them. Apart from him David Balfour, I.Willis and Nick Burton had good seasons. Nick Burton was a real asset for the team, but unfortunately only played the three matches.

I am sure that Eastleigh BR A were pleased with their season, but there is uncertainty over next season, as they will not have all of their players available. 

Andover

Andover always seem to be a team that play within themselves. It seems to me that they are quite happy being in Division Two as some of their players would struggle in Division One. This may be unfair and it is only my opinion, but they don't always get their strongest team out for the important matches. 

I would say that Andover are a true chess club though, as they have made radical decisions in the past. One of these is that only players that come along to the club on normal club nights play in the league matches (at least this was the rule a couple of years ago). When this rule was introduced, a number of the strong players that were playing for Andover, were no longer able to play. Not many clubs are willing to make this sort of sacrifice.

Stuart Knox had his normal strong season, he is certainly a difficult player to beat and his victims included M.Clancy of Ringwood and Bruce Jenks of Southern Water.

University A

University asked to be relegated from Division One last season, as they were losing a lot of players. The option to request this this has now been inserted into the Southampton League Rules. As University finished 4th in Division Two, this seems a sensible decision, as they would have been in real trouble in Division One, which would not have allowed their players a lot of fun.

This said, a number of players had a good season and all graded players performed above their grade. J.Foster stands out as having the best result, as his victims included Richard Short of Southern Water and Brian Gale of Ordnance Survey. He also drew against two other strong players, Bernhard Knight of Southern Water and Nick Burton of Eastleigh BR.

The University team does depend on the influx of pupils, so it is difficult to predict how they are going to do next year, but if they keep the nucleus of the team together and gain one or two players I would not be surprised to see an improvement on this year's final position. 

Ordnance Survey A

Ordnance Survey had a problem with their room this year, as it was not available. For this reason quite a few of their matches had to be re-arranged. D.Rogers had a good season and his wins included one against Nigel Dicker, who is graded 30 points higher.  Chris Barber continued to play board one, which always a difficult task and his season would have been a bit better if he did not have to play Bruce Jenks and David Balfour (as this was four of his five losses). 

Ordnance Survey have lost the services of J.Vickers this season, which is a shame, as he seemed to be a good asset to the team last season. 

Ringwood

I mentioned in last year's Division Three's Analysis that it would be interesting to see how Ringwood would do in Division Two and although they have gone straight back down, they have done better than I thought they would. In all their matches this season they only had one player graded over 110 and this does mean that they were going to struggle on the middle boards, as they were heavily outgraded in most matches..

But they fought to the end and it was only in the last match of the season, which they defaulted that they were actually relegated. On an individual level, Martin Clancy did not do as well as last year (when he scored 8 out of 8) but he showed real fighting spirit in not drawing any of his games. He also performed slightly better than his grade and he defeated strong players like Chris Barber, David Balfour and Terry Gray.

Of all Ringwood players I would say that R.Davenport had the best season, performing over 30 points better than his grade and defeating K.Gadd, I.Willis and and Ron Compton in his wins (all players graded in the 130's).  Graham Head was another excellent addition to the team and played very solidly on board four. T.A.Wykes only played the one game, at the end of the season, but he has played in the Portsmouth League recently and getting a player of his strength will help Ringwood tremendously next season.

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