Summary

Another close season and another league winner. Passed Pawn A narrowly won the league by one point from Eastleigh Railway A (Stoneham). It was always going to be close title race this season, with the league only having the five teams. The matches that won it for Passed Pawn were their two matches against Eastleigh Railway A, which resulted in one win and one draw. These proved decisive and their loss against last year's champions Southampton A did not matter in the end.

Next season sees the return to six teams with University A coming up from Division Two, this is a welcome change, as the split of five and seven teams between the two divisions was not the best situation. Winchester A and Southampton B fought a close battle for the fourth and fifth place and Southampton B narrowly won this contest by scoring more game points. This was down to the excellent play from the top two Southampton boards, who both performed well in excess of their grades.

Final Table

Average Grade of Teams

On paper Passed Pawn A were the third strongest team, so winning the title was an excellent achievement.

Passed Pawn A

To win the league all players will normally have to play very well, this was certainly the case with Passed Pawn A. A core of six players were used who all played to, or in excess of their grade. The best performing players were Martin Buckley and Mike Krawczuk, who both score 75%, Martin's only loss being when he played on board one against Southampton A.

Having a player of the calibre of Dominic Tunks on board one in always going to be an asset, but I think the key to Passed Pawn A winning the league was probably Brian Grant. Brian played five games on board five, drawing four and losing one. Crucially though, he drew both his games against higher graded players in the key matches against Eastleigh Railway A. Sometimes the performances on the lower boards are overlooked, but without Brian I think the title would have ended up somewhere else this season.

Eastleigh Railway A

Eastleigh Railway A only lost 4 games all season, but finished one match point behind Passed Pawn A. As can be seen from the analysis no-one had a particularly bad season, but the majority of players played to just under their grade. S.Crokhart was only going to be available for part of the season, and even though he only played three games, he was missed when he left. Matthew Ludbrook also played well, remaining undefeated in his 8 games.

Southampton A

After winning the league last season, Southampton A were probably disappointed with their season, finishing a distance third. They made up for this by winning the Robertson Cup though. Last season, the loss of David Bell to the team was made up with the return of Stephen Deall and Tom Remington, These players, along with David Bell were missing this season, which obviously affected Southampton A's chances. 

Tom Kazmierski did well to score 50%, and Martin Buckmaster had his normal solid season on board two. In my opinion, I think swapping these two players around would have benefited Southampton A, as Martin is extremely hard to beat and Tom may have scored more heavily on board two - but that's only my opinion.

Southampton B

Southampton B certainly suffered on the bottom two boards only scoring 2 points from 16 games! This put a big strain on the top boards who responded admirably! Tom Anderson and Richard Perrin had storming seasons, only losing one game between them, with Richard doing especially well, only losing one game on board one, even though he was outgraded in every game!

Les Allen had a very solid season on board two and will be very pleased to only have lost the one game. Depending on the make up of Southampton teams' next season, if these three players remain in the B team, Southampton B should do well. To progress they probably need to have bit more strength in depth though.

Winchester A

Winchester A had a tough start to the season, not scoring their first match point until January 2004. This was followed by a win against Southampton B and in the end they only finished 5th on game points from Southampton B.

Khaled Esmat performed less well than in other competitions and will be disappointed to score under 50% The best performer for Winchester A was Bob Cleave who remained unbeaten in his four games, which included a win against Stuart Dean (145) and draws against two players graded in the 140's.