But come 2026 and where are these titans? Not in Solihull, that's for sure! (I'm not going to let the fact that Bruce was there spoil a good line. And we could always say he isn't one of the titans, anyway!) So it was very much a reduced and weakened Kenilworth contingent who turned up to do battle. But this could hardly be described as a vintage year for the event - numbers were down with just 24 players and Kenilworth still managed to provide seeds 2, 3 and 6 (me, Bruce and Rhys) plus Ben as number 12, after his blitz rating has been shredded by too many encounters with ferocious juniors.
But its not where you start that matters - its where you finish. And after 9 rounds of hectic competition the cup was returning home again to Kenilworth as I romped to victory (not a phrase which has been used many times) with 8.5 pts to finish 2 points clear of Jon Griffiths (Leamington) and top seed Andrew McCumiskey (Solihull). Bruce finished fourth on 6 pts and somehow qualified for a prize which was only 40p less than I got for winning. Someone will have to explain how that works to me sometime! Rhys was 6th (5.5 pts) and Ben 12th (5 pts), which meant that we all finished almost exactly in line with our starting rank.
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| A triumph for the oldies - 71 year old beats 65 year old beats 60 year old beats 60 year old! |
This is my third triumph in this event, though I suspect I had to play a lot better to win the other two times, when the entry list was undoubtedly stronger. But at my time of life I'll take whatever I can get. I am now tied with Javier as the winning most Kenilworth player, though as one of his victories was shared, I should edge first place on tie break! We'll gloss over the fact that his 3 wins have come from only 3 attempts, whereas mine have come from at least 20, with the other winning years in 2010 and 2018. So I can expect to win again in 2034 to keep the sequence going! (For those interested, the only other Kenilworth winners have been Bernard (1988) and Carl Pickering (2008)).
Before anyone asks, the quality of the games was what you might expect for Blitz between not very good players! I was under pressure from Bruce and lost the exchange, before the clock got the better of him and he allowed my heavy pieces onto his back rank to deliver mate. And against Rhys I completely missed the fact that he was threatening Qxf2 check, and it was only by luck it wasn't terminal. Fortunately I avoided Ben, as he gave me a right going over in the Club Championship last summer!
I'm not proud - I don't mind that I only won because Javier decided not to play. I know I was a substitute for another guy. Cue the music!!
