Season's End: Derby A Sign Off with a 4-0 Flourish — but the Title Just Slips Away
Derby A wrapped up a successful season in style with a 4-0 home win against Burton & Lichfield on Tuesday (28/04/26).
We finished level on points at the top of Division One with title holders Belper A - some feat given the difference in average rating - but the title was already in their hands due to their hugely superior 'goal difference'.
The only match defeat to our name all season was at the hands of our B team, which ironically earned them a key two points that saw them avoid relegation. It's easy to point to that game back in early January as the match that cost us the league - but, in truth, we needed just that extra bit of luck or bite in the run-in.
Three successive away draws at Breadsall, Burton & Lichfield, and Chesterfield were very credible on paper but not enough to keep the league title in our hands - which it was following our stunning 2.5-1.5 home win against Belper in mid-February. We also came close when Breadsall were 2-0 up against Belper in the run-in but they couldn't close out a match win that would have given us a chance to win the league with three wins from our final three games, which we later did manage to achieve.
One league we did finish first in, however, was the individual performance table - I held on to top spot by finishing the league season with 12 points from 14 and a 2288 performance rating (according to the ECF LMS site...!) on board one. George was seventh with a 2041 performance from 7.5/11 and appears to be the league's top performer relative to season-starting rating.
In our final match, George finished first after grinding down John Hoddy on board three in a bishop versus knight endgame after the latter failed to prevent George's king march to his queenside pawns.
Leonid was struggling against David Pickering on board four and the writing appeared to be on the wall when he lost a piece - but, once again, he never gives up and, out of nowhere, his opponent blundered terribly to swing the result completely.
Kevin wrapped up the match, making it 3-0 by defeating Adam Routledge when his initiative via the Morra Gambit paid dividends.
I brought the curtain down with victory against Mircea-Marius Mesesan. In a rook, knight and pawns endgame, there was some tension due to my clock situation but I managed to find a mating net just before my rival's passed pawn could have turned the tables.
| Derby A | 4 - 0 | Burton & Lichfield A | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tompson, John C | 2136 | 1 - 0 | Mesesan, Mircea-Marius | 2000 |
| 2 | Dalley, Kevin J | 1829 | 1 - 0 | Routledge, Adam | 1901 |
| 3 | Burdell, George | 1860 | 1 - 0 | Hoddy, John D | 1826 |
| 4 | Siedielnikov, Leonid | 1864 | 1 - 0 | Pickering, David J | 1730 |
(Match played on Tue 28 Apr 26)
John Tompson 30/04/26
The games from the match are available here: