In the main league competitions it proved to be a good season for Sandwich, even if the trophies remained tantalising out of reach. In the Walker Shield, we finished strongly by beating this year’s champions Folkestone at home in our final match, holding them to 14 points and boosting our total to 10. Nevertheless, Sandwich did finish a lowly 5th out of 6 in the final standings, albeit 9 points ahead of Sheldwich. In the Steele Cup, where Woodnesborough/Sandwich were defending champions, a similar last-ditch win over Folkestone in our rescheduled home fixture boosted us to 2nd place overall, just one point shy of eventual winners Bridge. But arguably our greatest success was in the Millar Cup in the club’s first attempt at this level, where our 6-1 win over Broadstairs earlier in the season proved sufficient to snatch 3rd place from them on game points in the final standings. Sandwich finished on 6 points, with Folkestone 2nd on 11, and Bridge top of the heap on 15. Robert Starley’s unbeaten sequence on Board 1 was broken only by Bridge’s Richard Eales, and between them it was honours even across their two Millar Cup encounters. We expect to enter the Millar Cup and Steele Cup again next year, but even with the rating limit raised to 1550 it seems doubtful that the Walker Shield will suit us very well.
However, it was in the one-off league competitions that Sandwich excelled this year - even if it wasn’t quite the “Grand Slam” I proudly proclaimed after the Jamboree. (I conveniently forgot about Bridge’s win in the Team Buzzer in May…) First, in December, our team of Robert Starley, Harry Sharples, John Thorley and Mark Towlson won the Team Quickplay, beating nearest rivals Bridge A 3-1 in their direct encounter (though Bridge B valiantly held them to a draw in the final round). Then, at Sheldwich Primary School in March, Robert Starley shared the honours in the Individual Buzzer with host Patrick Burns. Sandwich players took the top two places in June’s Individual Quickplay, with Robert Starley taking top spot on 5 points out of 5, and Mark Towlson finishing 2nd out on his own on 4 points - with a rating performance of 1783! Finally, in the end-of-season Jamboree at Margate, a fine victory by Ethan Latymer on Board 6 and a crucial draw on Board 1 in the ongoing Starley-Eales debate saw the Sandwich team (consisting of Robert Starley, Harry Sharples, Jon Hunt, Mark Towlson, Adrian Tottenham and Ethan Latymer) singlehandedly hold Bridge to a score draw on 4½ points each to share the shield.
The club is finishing the year by throwing its doors open for the Sandwich Summer Rapid, and we have already announced that, as well as a club all-play-all tournament, there will be a new, rapidplay rated, open competition for the 2022-23 season, the Sandwich “Black-and-White”, which will run as a 5-round Swiss approximately once a month from October to March, with each round consisting of back-to-back games (45 minutes on clocks) against the same opponent, one with Black and one with White. Entry will be free to members of Sandwich Chess Club, and £10 to non-members. We are incredibly lucky to have landed on our feet with our new venue, and the officers of St Clement’s Church continue to be very kind to us - they have recently allowed us to take over what may now be referred to as “the chess cupboard”. Our sponsors, Chaos Cards, have also shown us great generosity this year, endowing our Kent Megafinal in May with extra prizes for the section winners. The latest news - and I know this will matter much more to some people than any of the above - it that there will now be, at least on special occasions, biscuits with the tea and coffee. This is the mark of a top-drawer club, and a sign that we have really “made it”.
As always, please keep sending in your games for publication here on the website - even over the summer, if you’re playing online or at a congress and have a game you’d like to share. Quick links to all the 2021-22 League results and standings are as always available on the Results page.
