Kenilworth D completed their League program last night with a convincing 3.5 - 0.5 victory away to Solihull B. While we rightly celebrate the fact that our A and B teams are first and second in Division 1, and that the C team is vying for promotion from Division 2, it would have seemed fanciful not so long ago that we could also have a D team that is so strong.
Yet we were right up there with the Division 2 pacesetters until quite recently, and are ending the season comfortably in mid-table, with a Cup final to look forward to. As well as Solihull B, we've also triumphed against Banbury B and Olton B and have drawn one of the two matches against every other team in the Division (including Leamington A) - with only Kenilworth C doing the double over us (with a little help from our star player following Keatan's promotion.)
Dhairya has topped scored for the D team with 5/8 and secures my captain's award, as our team's player of the season as a result. Without doubt, Dhairya has a very bright future ahead of him.
We've used ten players in all, nine of whom got on the scoreboard. In terms of the other 6 who played more than one game - Keatan's help on Board 1 in the first half of the season was terrific, and he thoroughly deserved his subsequent promotion to the C team. We were very fortunate that we subsequently picked Michal up out of nowhere, and he proved to be an excellent replacement on Board 1 in the final stages of the season. Bernard Rogers, Phil and Solomon all played a decent number of games to good effect. I played the most of all (10 of the 12) and if far from spectacular was pretty solid. Hopefully I have something to build on after a steadier season than the previous one.
So how did we beat Solihull having lost to them 0.5 - 3.5 at home a matter of weeks ago? Well, the short answer is very quickly. Dhairya was stuck in traffic so we kicked off a player down, with Dhairya arriving at 7.45, prior to the single most eventful 15 minutes of the season.
Bernard was playing Paul Silverman and Paul walked headlong into an awful trap, with multiple pieces including his queen under attack. It was just horrible for him straight out of the gate. I settled down to think about my move against Shivakumar Akshath, when I heard an end of game conversation breaking out, and the sound of pieces being tidied away. I assumed Paul had decided to call it a night, but to my amazement saw that Matthew Allen had resigned his game against Dhairya, after ten minutes of playing time. Dhairya literally hadn't even taken off his coat! Again, Matthew had walked into a trap and couldn't face playing on. So Dhairya was able to head for home barely before he had arrived, having put us in a great position.
There is no better player when he is ahead than Bernard. In hindsight, Paul probably wished that he had followed Matthew's example and resigned earlier... With a glint in his eye and a ruthless level of efficiency on the board, Bernard spent the next 45 minutes or so brutally demolishing his opponent. It was a joy to watch and we were 2 - 0. It wasn't even 8.30!
I had a slight edge against Shivakumar and I thought Michal also looked better, so I offered the draw that would secure us the two points, and wasn't that surprised when it was accepted. The team had achieved a famous scalp!
I actually headed home at this point so I could enjoy the end of Chelsea - Man Utd. (I am a Man Utd fan, so I didn't, but that's another story...) But Michal's subsequent text to tell me he had won against Julian Summerfield was welcome news indeed!
Hopefully the U8750 team can repeat this triumph when we return to Solihull to play Olton on the 8th May. It really has been a very good season. While the D team won't grab the headlines, all involved should be really proud of their efforts.
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