Silverware!

Well, this is a sight for sore eyes. 6 of the 7 trophies won by KCC teams and individuals during the 2022-23 Leamington League and Coventry League seasons. The missing trophy is the Division 3 shield, which is still sitting on someone's mantelpiece in Banbury, the 2021-22 winners having regrettably failed to return it for engraving and prizegiving.

Back row (l-r): Coventry League Div 1 and Leamington League Div 1 trophies
Front row (l-r): (All Leamington League) Individual Blitz (Javier); U-1600 Cup; Stanley Gibbins Trophy (me!) and Open KO Cup

All these successes have been well documented on this Blog, except for the Stanley Gibbins trophy (presented by, and named in honour of, the League (and the original Kenilworth Chess and Draughts Club!) founder), which is awarded annually to the individual making the highest percentage score in the Leamington League. In winning this, with a score of 11.5/13 (88.5%) I became the third Kenilworth player to hold the trophy, following in the footsteps of Joshua Pink (2014 - 13/14 (92.9%)) and Andrew Paterson (2022 - 9/10 (90%)) - though as the figures show, I am clearly the least deserving of the three! Coming second this year was former KCC stalwart Mike Johnson, who scored 9.5/12 (79.2%) in Division 4 playing for Coventry. Luckily for me, none of the League's 100 per centers played enough games (10, I think) to be eligible!

The distribution of trophies to their various guardians for the next 12 months has already begun, and at least one of them has been celebrated in style!

Keatan and the U-1600 Cup!