End of Season Report

Well, it's not quite the end of my season but for the team I captain, Daventry "A", it is the end of our adventure in Division One.

As you'll no doubt recall (because you probably print out ALL of these blogs and have them framed) we survived our promotion season in Division One having recruited Candidate Master Chris Ross into the side after losing our first four matches.

Being in the team for our fifth match, Chris won on board one but the rest of us failed to deliver. Chris' mission was to help us avoid the wooden spoon but we had a small mountain (or large hill, whatever's your poison) to climb, even with such a strong player representing us.

Once again, this season has presented difficulties and we were not always able to field our strongest side. Those that bravely stepped in also deserve a mention. Andy J, Alan and Abbie played 7 games between them out of the 64 games that were played (16 matches over 4 boards).

We did not default any games and as captain, I can honestly say that we did our very best, often being out rated by our opponents.

I think it's fair to say that Chris deserves a mention not only for putting up with being chauffeured around in my car (which only included one breakdown where we had to be rescued!) but also for a near perfect record. To score 10.5 out of 12 against such strong opposition demonstrates Chris' standing as a CM and also his committment to the cause. Without Chris, I think it is fair to say that our season would have turned out quite differently.

However, I am personally nominating Andy Foulds as my "player of the season". As you will see, Andy scored 4 out of 13 points - a 30% record. But, looking at his rating performance (only -1) it is clear to see that he has been out ranked more than the rest of us.

Kevin had the white pieces in all 16 of his games (this was a tactical decision by the captain!) and in the end, he has made a good recovery and hopefully is establishing his white "repertoire".

Captain "slouch" (that's the nickname that Chris has endearingly bestowed up on me) actually had a reasonable performance as well. Plus 10 points on rating performance and 9/16 scored. All games played with the black pieces. I was disappointed to lose three games as I should have won one of them and at least drawn the other two. I did also salvage a draw from one hopelessly lost position and perhaps two or three of the draws I had could have been converted to wins. So, although it's a plus for me, I am as ever, hyper critical of myself and can only say that this felt like a 6.5/10 performance.

We are now guaranteed to finish 4th in the league and next season we can push for an even higher finish all being well. I am hoping to have at least one more strong player on board.

Here are the overall performances of all the team members:

The full league table can be found here: http://www.oxfordfusion.com/oca/GenerateTable.cfm?LeagueID=94&Org=2

I'd like to thank everyone who competed this season. You have all done your best and there are no sides left in this division that think we are a walkover. Can we go on to win Division One? I know this is achieveable and would love to see us crowned league champions within the next three years. Our aim for next season has to be consolidation and to finish with a plus record (more wins than losses and a positive "goal difference"). If we do any better than that and end up making a serious challenge, so much the better. Don't count us out!