Oh Yes! - Joshua Has Left us as Well

Its not only Bernard Charnley who has headed off for pastures new in the last few weeks, as we've also suffered a second blow by losing club legend Joshua, who has gone in the completely opposite direction to Somerset-bound Bernard and headed off to Manchester. Which reminds me of a song!

Of course, this is the second time that Josh has done exactly this, though he returned fairly quickly the first time and we've got to hope that history repeats itself. Though one thing which didn't get repeated was a farewell dinner in his honour. Maybe that's because he didn't so much leave as disappear into thin air, with only a couple of people entrusted with the news of his departure. Typical. As our B team captain, Webmaster, loyal and committed player, Thursday night regular(-ish) and all round interesting and entertaining guy he was a linchpin of the club. He remains as our (remote) Webmaster but his absence does leave a large void in the club. Like Bernard, he was very much his own man and its sad to say goodbye to two such independent personalities in such quick succession. That almost his last act as B team captain was to play his team in an illegal board order against Shirley A and transform a 3.5-0.5 win into a 0-4 loss was an unfortunate way to say goodbye, but we'll forgive him one administrative cock-up after his great contribution to the club over many years. (Though, of course, we'll never let him forget it!)

His first appearance for KCC was in Division 2 for the B team in December 2012, since which time he has made 123 competitive appearances for the club, chalking up some terrific performances along the way - and taking nearly 2 years to lose his first game! The complete record looks like this:-

2012-13 P3 W3 D0 L0

2013-14 P16 W13 D3 L0  (Player of the Year! - and Stanley Gibbins Trophy winner!)

2014-15 P16 W9 D3 L4

2015-16 P10 W7 D1 L2

2018-19 P16 W13 D3 L0 (Player of the Year again!)

2019-20 P13 W9 D3 L1

2021-22 P13 W7 D3 L3

2022-23 P15 W9 D3 L3

2023-24 P17 W8 D3 L6

2024-25 P4 W4 D0 L0

To have gone undefeated through 2 full seasons (plus two more partial seasons) is one hell of an achievement - and he didn't do it by playing stodgy chess, as the win percentages show only too clearly. Indeed, playing for a draw was absolute anathema to him, as was playing long lines of theory. On Boards 3 or 4 in the A team he was basically a points machine. The two times he won the club Player of the Year trophy he scored a fantastic 90+%, and he was top scorer in the whole Leamington League in 2013-14, winning the Stanley Gibbins Trophy. And he'd made rather a good start to the current season, too!

Joshua had a wide range of idiosyncratic offbeat openings that seemed to serve him rather well in practice (1 Nc3 anyone?), however dubious they may be in theory. I recall with great clarity our match away against Banbury B in 2014 when we needed a draw to clinch our first Division One title for 26 years and he turned down a draw offer that would have secured the championship! I was apoplectic, but thankfully the night had a happy ending as we eventually won 3-5-0.5 anyway, though Josh was himself unable to annex the full point, try as he might.

Of course, we can't overlook his split loyalties, as he played for Coventry in the Coventry League and never worried too much about turning out against us, even playing - and beating! - Javier in the final match of the 2022-23 season when we needed a draw or win to secure our first ever title. Luckily for future good relations with Joshua, Jude and Mike won that night to win us the title anyway!

With me saying all these nice things about him, this is looking far too much like an obituary for my taste, so lets finish by bringing a touch of harsh reality to proceedings. I have played Joshua hundreds of times at club nights and online, while in standard play over the board games we have had 8 encounters, of which 2 were Kenilworth v Coventry encounters (2-0 to me and KCC!!). Surprisingly, the majority of our meetings were in Coventry A v Coventry B matches (from that long gone age when we didn't have a Coventry League team) and I remember one of them especially fondly as for once it saw a total massacre of one of his typically dodgy openings. If this were an obituary I would have had to include a nice Pink victory, but as we have established its not, I don't feel at all embarrassed about sharing this crushing win. Or in mentioning that our overall score stands at 6.5-1.5 to me (5 wins and 3 draws).

Now, if I knew any songs by Pink I woujld include one here, but as I don't it will have to be another random choice by me to mark the end of KCC's second Pink period. At least I can be very confident that Josh - as a confirmed Grobster in his approach to the chess battle - would totally subscribe to the sentiment of the title. You cannot win, if you do not play!

Thanks to Joshua for everything he has done for the club over the last decade plus and hopefully he will be reunited with KCC in the not too distant future. In the meantime, best wishes to him for his latest northern interlude!