A busy start to the new season!

In the few weeks since the start of the season, there has been a lot going on at Snodland.

A team composed of Ben Spink, Matt Bunn, David Nicholls and David Lettington took on some very strong competetion in the National Handicap Rapidplay competiton. Despite being heavily outgraded by some of the teams participating, the team placed as runners up, with an excellent set of results by Ben being particularly encouraging for the coming season.

The first match of the season for the club itself was the Len Hammond Memorial Shield. This friendly match will be held annually between Snodland and Maidstone in the future as a memorial for a greatly missed member of both clubs. Snodland were beaten 5-2, however the match was played in great spirit with fine chess across the boards.

In the two league matches played so far this season, Snodland have given a good account of themselves. A 2.5 - 3.5 defeat in the first Stevenson Cup game played by Snodland, at home to Folkestone, was a fine result by a heavily outgunned Snodland. Wins by Pete Hickey and Ben Spink put the game in the balance, but after some very long and hard fought games on boards two to five, only David Myles was able to hold on for the draw. In the Harvey Cup, Snodland finished 3-3 against Thanet, in a mirror image of the fixture last season! At one win apiece, Tyrone Jeffries wove through a tricky middlegame to reach an excellent ending, however a very neat stalemate resource prevented Snodland from taking the match.